TheNess Survey-IndoEuropean Languages

INDIC

Also known as Indo-Aryan

SANSKRIT

Sanskrit has these demonstratives, masculine and feminine sa sá and neuter tad that, but no emphatic or definite marker however many modern Indic languages have a direct object marker with demonstrative or definite force. Other demonstratives were esah corresponding to this

HINDI

Hindu referred to in some older texts as Hidustani has a postpositional marker + ko, with a definite function used mainly with indirect objects but also to mark direct objects.
Raat ko At Night. Raam ko. To Ram. Voh gaarii ko. Mujhko maaluum hai. Literally To me knowing have = I have that knowledge or I know.
The difference inusage is that Ko is used with a direct object when marking a person, animal, or thing, that is particular, specific, and individual. Bacce ko mat chuu Do not touch that child! Is kitaab ko parhie. Read this book!
The demonstratives are this yah. Yah kamra this room. That is vah. Both of these are also used as third person pronouns.
Demonstratives of place are yaham - here and vaham - there. The demonstratives have three cases direct oblique and object.
Closely related Urdu has ye(h) near, and woh or voh or we far, depending on which transliteration is used, the same direct object marker of + ko and the same words for here and there but with no final m instead a long final vowel? The sociolinguistic relationship of Hindi and Urdu has parallels to that of Serbian and Croatian. Both languages have a common origin but each uses a different script and due to to religious and cultural differences has vocabulary differences. Urdu has more loan words from Farsi, Turkish, and Arabic, than Hindu does.

	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Direct	yah	ye	vah	ve
Oblique	is	in	us	un
Object	ise	inhem	use	unhem

Other Indic languages follow a similar pattern.

PANJABI or PUNJABI

This northern Indian language takes its name from the "Five Rivers" Region of India and Pakistan. The book from which I took these notes stated that there are 11 dialects of Panjabi and that its text was based on Majhi. The demos are this and that, ih and uh, near and far, with ih also being the third person marker. Ih kee hai This what is. Is kar ke That is why. Is vaaree this time. There seems to be no direct object marker however any noun in the oblique case takes a postposition.

MARATHI

Demos This he with plural or hee or he. That tve with plural tve tveee or tvyaa. From Skr tva?

BENGALI

Bengali has a + ke postposition, The Demonstrative pronoun is this or that person e, or o plus i in certain contexts. Ei kormaOcari - this employee. Okaj - that job. O thala - that plate. Ei / oi - lamba chele - this / that tall boy. There is a - ra plural for persons nad - gulo for things.

SINDHI

also has a postpositional marker +khe.

ORIYA

has + ku.

NEPALI

has a demonstrative postposition + ke.

SINHALA

has definite and indefinite forms of nouns, and demonstratives: that eeko, this mee.

KHOWARI

is spoken in Northern Pakistan. Its demostratives are this heye with plural hamit and that hes with plural het.

SHINA

is another language of northern Pakistan with three or more dialects, Gilgit, Kohistani, Astori. Brok-pa or Brokskal. Demonstrative this is ānū That is ānī.

KALASHAMUN

The language of the Kalash has these demos. This īa with plural emī that se with plural elī .

We invite submissions of data on other Indic languages or more detail and those mentioned.

HELLENIC

GREEK Ancient and Modern

The usage of the Article in Ancient and Homeric Greek was far more diverse than in Modern Greek or English. I have transliterated words into Roman script for the benefit of readers whose browsers might have trouble with Unicode. Here is a link to a table comparing the two scripts.

In Homeric Greek the Article is a pronoun. The Definite Article in its three gender forms was pronounced Masculine /hoo/, Feminine /hee/ and Neuter /to/ and written in Greek characters as ό ή τ ο . The modern equivalents in Demotic are pronounced /o/, /i/, and /to/ but still written with the original characters as ο η τ ο . These forms originally also had demonstrative and relative functions and could function as third person pronouns, he, she, it, they. This quote from Homer illustrates that usage.
Teen d egoo ou lusoo. Literal Word Order - Her (that woman) but I will not free. But I will not free her.
Note that the absence of an article however did not mark a noun as indefinite in early Greek.

The Indefinite and Secondary forms of the Articles in the Neuter Gender probably developed from I.E. *T. The Feminine and Masculine forms, however, seem to reflect a change from K to H. (See Hebrew in the AA section) There is a possibly related final emphatic particle, + de, as in / hode / ho + de = this. It is probable that it is a cognate of the + dem, and + dam, morphs also present in certain Latin pronouns, such as idem and quidam, and these forms derive from a *do ( from *to ) neuter form.

Herodotus who wrote in the Ionic dialect, closely related to Attic, often used an article in place of a relative pronoun. Allos ornis hiros tooi ounoma phoenix. Another bird sacred to the name phoenix. Another sacred bird which has the name Phoenix.

Attic Uses of Definite Articles

With Nouns to denote whole classes.

Where we would say Horses are used for riding, a Greek living in Periclean Athens would say THE Horses are used for riding. Instead of saying Mankind or Humanity he or she would have used the Noun Phrase Hoo anthroopos, The Human. Ai gunaikes, the women, can indicate women as a class as well as the nominative feminine plural of the word woman. Oi gerontes are Seniors, elders and also the elders.

Ideas and Places. Abstract Nouns like, hee aretee, Proper Names, ho sookratees, and Geography, Names of Countries, hee hellas not just Hellas, and Cities.
Article plus Adjective or Adverb or Infinitive making a Nominal
The Article in its Neuter form / to / can be used with the Infinitive (i.e. marking it as a Verbal Noun or Gerund) to create abstracts like to eidenai or to pheugein. The Combination of The Definite Article plus the Infinitive Verb changes to know to knowing or knowledge. Likewise The + to flee or take flight becomes the flight
(N.B. Flight as in escape, not flying, as p^heugoo means flee from pursuit.)

With Participles to create a Nominal or where English might have a Relative Clause.
Timoomen tous stratiootas tous huper tees poleoos tethneekotas.
We honour (subjunctive form of verb) the soldiers the (= those or who) for their city died (Perf. Part.Verb form)
Hoi ou boulomenoi Those who did not wish.

Or as the subject of a sentence with an infinitive.
Touto esti to adikein. This is injustice.

When the article starts a clause it can come before the conjunction, ho men, oi de

Allos Note that ho allos means the rest (of) not the other, so a phrase like hee allee polis means the rest of the state but allee polis without the article means another state. Polus plus an article refers to a majority or greater part.

Another usage is that of the Article added to the Infinitive and Accusative to change a sentence to an indirect statement.
Dia to eioothenai tous pollous diatasthai

On account of the fact that the majority were accustomed to live

N. B. These are samples of what happens when the Article is in combination with Possessives referring to individuals. You may also see Articles used instead of possessives.

Ho emos doulos should be translated as My slave not the or that slave of mine.
But N.b. Ho sos koinoonos. = Your partner.

Hee mesee agora is the central market but mesee hee agora is the center of the market. Pasa polis is every state but pasa hee polis is THE (entire) state.

Autos ho aneer is the man himself but Ho autos aneer is the same man.

Article plus autos = the same idem.

The Demonstrative and article can be used together. Outos ho aneer. This ( the ) man.

However Demonstratives and Articles are not used together with names or if the demonstrative is of place, here and there.

When the Article is used with Reflexives note that Ho emautou pateer = My own father. The Article reinforces the reflexive. But pais heautou = a child of his own.

Articles are also used with Numerals if a) the numeral is part of a number, 2 of 5, b) a round or approximate number in a phrase like about 30 days, c) with abstract numbers.

A special usage particular to Attic Greek is the word Basileus without an article denoting the Persian king instead of meaning a king of any nation.

Articles are not used in time phrases. Nuktos by night, hama heooi at daybreak, not at the dawn, hama eeri at spring, not in the spring, and note en agora means in the market place not in a marketplace. It is also not used, though can be added in translation, in phrases like kata geen, by land, kat agron in the country, and kata thalassa, by sea, or ek dexias, from ( the ) right.

The standard Attic declension of the Definite Article is given here in a transliterated form without the accents. Double ee equals Eta and double o the Omega vowel. As the iota subscript marker developed in later Greek using it on the same level as the other letters is actually closer to the older forms of writing and epigraphic forms. In Greek grammar books the Article is called To Arthron from the verb arariskoo. It is the joint or the part that fits other parts together. Definite articles are horistikon and Indefinite aoriston. These terms derive from the verb horisdoo ?divde limit define determine.

I have transliterated the Greek into Roman ABC for the purposes of emphasing the h and t stems and the actual sound for those unfamiliar with Greek, and showing how the pronounciation has changed over the centuries from Attic to Demotic.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plurals
Nominative	ho	hee	too	hoi hai ta
Accusative	ton	teen	to	tous tas ta
Genitive	tou	tees	tou	twn for all genders
Dative	tooi	teei	tooi	tois tais tois

There was also two rare dual forms in usage, Nominative and Accusative too, Genitive and Dative toin, along with a rare feminine dual taa and tain.

The Epic and Doric dialects have nominative plurals of toi and tai.

Other dialect forms are toio toiin taaoon toisi and teeisi.

The DEMOTIC forms of the article,(to arthro) do not include Dative.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plurals
Nominative	o	i	to	i for M. and F. ta for neuter
Accusative	to	ti	to	tous tis ta
Genitive	tou	tis	tou	toon for all genders

The long vowel Eta of the anicent language has changed to an I sound in modern speech. The modern Accusative Feminine Plural had a transitional Byzantine form of tes.

Like the ancient language Demotika uses Articles with Names of people, cities and countries. O Nikos Nikos To Nauplio Nafplio I Anglia England.

Demotic has those strange hybrids called articulated prepositions in which prepositions have merged with the article. This form is also found in the Romance language group ?see French and Italian and occurs when case suffixes have been replaced by prepositions plus articles.

The Preposition (prothesis) Eis = in functions as a literary form in Modern Greek with a colloquial equivalent of se which means at among within a time period and combines with the article to form in the. You will read and hear sto Navplio ?s(e) plus to, stis Marias, stin ekklisia, sti mia, sta kala.

The ancient Greeks used forms of the pronoun Tis (who in its unaccented enclitic form) as indefinite markers (this word can be translated as a, certain, or some) In Demotic Greek the Indefinite Article is One in three genders, masculine, feminine, and neuter, enas, mia, and ena, and the accusative, ena, mia, ena, and genitive cases, enos, mias, and enos. Its usage is far more limited than one or an / an in English.

The ancient demonstrative forms reflect the K ?T pattern with a change of K to H.

This Outos from an older form of owo/etos and Hode That and Ekeeinos.

Ode this, hode, heede, tode, combines the definite article forms with de

Tauta men elexe edrase tade This thing he said did but this thing.

Attic has a feature called crasis which combines the article with autos.

Tautoo = tou autou. Tautooi = tooi autooi. Tauteei = teei auteei if it has a circumflex accent ^ but the same word with a different accent / over the u comes from outos not autos.

SLAVIC

Definite markers are extremely rare and postpositional where they do occur. Many Slavic languages have definite forms for adjectives rather than nouns such as dobra-ja meaning the good.

Old Church Slavonic

onu = that

BULGARIAN

Bulgarian uses a suffix, +at, or +a, with a Plural +te marker.
One pecularity of Bulgarian is that, while definite markers usually follow the noun as a bound morph, if the noun takes an adjective, the definite marker changes postion, and is placed between the adjective and the noun, so that Noun + DET becomes ADJ + DET + NOUN.
Visok muzh a tall man becomes visok + IYAT muzh THE tall man. + IYAT marks a subject. Other nouns in the sentence take - IYA as a suffix. If the adjecitve ends in - SKI. - YAT or - YA is added.
Note also this example. Woman - zhena, THE Woman Zhenata, Women zheni, THE Women Zhenite.
Grad city, Grad + AT, THE city, Cities grad + OVE , THE Cities Grad + OVE + TE.
There is no indefinite. If a certain single item needs to be empahsized the numeral one - edin is used.

The demonstrative form is Masculine tozi, Feminine tazi, and Neuter tova.
Plural is these - tezi.
There is also an possessive form with definte qualities.
Nouns, Adjectives, Possessive adjectives, and pronouns take definite markers.

Macedonian

Kniga + TA = the book, Kniga + VA this book here.

SERBO-CROAT Srpsko-hrvatski

These two closely related dialects of South Slavic (or langauges for the PC) along with Bosnian - Bosanko have no definite article equivalent but do share one T form demonstrative, with three genders, Masculine taj, Feminine ta, Neuter to. One book described it as corresponding to this yet another defined it as corresponding to that and gave this as ove. A third dictionary stated that the Croat form of this was M. ovaj, F. ova, N. ovo, and that was onaj, ona, ono, and gave other forms as koji, koja, koje.

CROATIAN - HRVATSKI

This - ovo . That - ono.
Here is ovde and there tamo.

BOSNIAN - BOSANKO

This / that is onaj ona and ono, also that has forms of da za and dabi.

SLOVENE or Slovenian - SLOVENSKI

To = this / that this ta and to. That tisti and tisto

POLISH - Polsku

The That and This M. ten F. ta N. to. The Declension of the demostrative adjective includes Six Cases, Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Instrumental, and Locative, and the Masculine Accusative has two distinct forms for animate and inanimate.

The full declension is given in this table.

CZECH čech or češi

There is no definite marker and the demonstrative follows the ten ta to pattern,(M.ten studen, F. ta kniha, N. to mesto), common to many Slavic languages.
There is however an emphatic marker whihc strengthens definiteness, which has two forms. A suffix of +hle is used in speech and spelt +te in text, added to demonstratives.
Ten+hle časopis je velmi dobri. This (specific) magazine is very good.
For further emphasis tam can be added as a prefix.

RUSSIAN

That tot ta to This stot sta sto

UKRANIAN

toi ta te that = ykiy chto, this tsey tsya tse

Comments from native speakers who understands Slavic and English grammar are definitely needed in this section? HELP!

GERMANIC

There are two common patterns.
Noun plus Definite Suffix or Article plus Adjective plus Noun.
A Noun without an adjective uses a suffix or a postpositional marker.
A Noun with an adjective uses a Definite Article before the Noun

Definite markers seem to have evolved from the demonstrative throughout the Germanic languages group as the oldest written texts available for Gothic and Old Norse have a variety of deictic forms but no definite articles.

Gothic

an extinct form of Germanic had demonstratives in sa so and thata (þata).

Old High German

had der (from * des), diu, daz, and demonstratives deser, desiu, diz.

Old Frisian

had the forms thi thiu thet. Demonstratives this thius or this and thit

Middle Low German

and

Middle Dutch

had de * die and dat.

Low German

and

Dutch

follow a de dat pattern.

DUTCH has common and neuter genders.
Common DE with words like vrouw, stad, and stael. Neuter HET with huis land kind meisje.
The genitive and dative forms are van de. Demos this deze dit and that die dat

GERMAN - Deutsch

Modern German has Der Bestimmte Artikel. The Cases are called Fall a translation of Latin casus from which case derives. German grammar books call genitive der zweite Fall and regard Accusative as der vierte Fall, the fourth case. This is reflected in the table.

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plurals
Nominative	Der	Die	Das	Die
Genitive	Des	Der	Des	Der
Dative	Dem	Der	Dem	Den
Accusative	Den	Die	Das	Die

In German these prepositions have fused forms.
An + das, ans. An + dem, am. Auf + dem, aufs. Bei + dem, beim. Durch + das, durchs. für + das, fürs. In + das, ins. In + dem, im. Dem not DER! Im Himmel but not In der hÕlle. Um + das, ums. Von + dem, vom. Zu + der, zur. Zu + dem, zum.

Am Anfang schuf Gott dem Himmel und die Erde.

There are also fused forms of the article with the prepositions hinter, über, unter, and vor, but these are rarer. With den, hintern, ?ern, untern. With das, hinters, übers, unters, vors. Also dem, Ausserm, dem + ausser, besides, hinterm, überm, unterm, vorm.

There are other colloquial fused forms as well used in dialects and casual conversations such as an ' n for an den, or nach ' m for nach dem.

The definite article is used with abstract nouns, Die Zeit arbeitiet f? uns. Time is on our side, and sometimes UNLIKE ENGLISH with concrete nouns when referring to a class, Der Mensch ist sterblich. Man is mortal. It depends on context. Er braucht Schlaf. He needs sleep is indefinite rather than general hence no need for the article.It is used with names of days,Um Montag, months, im juni, seasons, im herbst, and of countries, die schweiz, streets and other geographical features, However town names, like Wien, and any name preceded by an adjective, are neuter.
Der kleine Kurt geht schon in die Schule.
Little Kurt goes to school already.
German also uses the construction of the definite article replacing a possessive personal pronoun. You can say " He has broken the arm " instead of " He has broken his arm " , " Er hat sich den Arm gebrochen " . Infinitives and other verbal nouns or nouns ending in ?ung can take the definite article. A particularity of German is that the definite article must always be used before the word Meist (=most).

Forms of One Ein are used for the Indefinite. The stem is ein = one and use the same endings as for the Article. German also uses man = one, someone. The indefinite is omitted before nouns denoting professions, religion, and nationality. Paul ist Lehrer not Paul is A teacher. It is also omitted after as, als, as a child I often did that Als Kind habe ich das oft getan.

Demonstratives in German include DER as a pronoun or adjective meaning he, she, it, that one, the one, dieser can mean this or that, the latter, and jener, that yonder former. Dieser ist fleissig, jener ist faul. The latter is diligent, the former is lazy.

N.B. Many demonstrative adjectives and pronouns have forms that are very similar or identical in declension to definite and relative forms.

ENGLISH

Modern English has THE, as the definite article, with THIS and THAT, as demonstratives. Note that also functions as a relative and a conjunction and when it does has an initial position in a clause. This man gave that book that I wanted to that other student. If you can change that for which it is relative!

For an article on the usage of THE in Modern English follow this link to separate article on this website

Documents written in Old English, Englisc , and the closely related dialect called Old Saxon have the oldest known forms of English. The Old Saxon forms were se thie thiu that and for this these thius or thesu and thit.

Old English

demonstrative forms equaling modern the and that, masculine se, feminine seo, and a neuter singular thaet, which is ancestral to the modern form that. There was a separate pronoun thes which became modern this. Adjectives had a definite and indefinite declension.

Quirk and Wren (Old English Grammar Second Edition 1957) describe se as being specifying and particular and thes as a deictic that singles out part of a series.

Se - the - that.
Please note that æ represents one vowel sound, and the y in thy was similar to the u sound in French words like Lune. If this table is showing gibberish instead of a macron over long ae and long y my apologies - I do not know if the problem is the browser or the Unicode - I have tried to debug it.

	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Plural
Nominative	se	thæt	s ē ō	thā
Accusative	thone	thæt	thā	thā
Genitive	thæs	thæs	thǣre	thāra
Dative	thǣm	thǣm	thǣre	thǣm
Instrumental	thȳ	thȳ	thǣre	thǣm

Seo the feminine nominative probably ended with a long vowel, and also the feminine accusative tha, the ae in the genitive feminine, and the vowels in the dative forms.

The plural form tha became tha and tho in Middle English and thae in Scots and Northern forms of English. Some scholars define Scots or Lallans as a dialect of English and others as a separate Germanic language closely related. Note that Lallan Scots is not the same thing as Scots or Highland English, which is more an accent though both variants of English have Gaelic loanwords. Scots has or had in some areas had the following variant forms, these = that thir or ther, the one = ta tane, that plural = thae tha or thai. Note also the use of the day = standard today and the form ae yae = one particular day.

THIS - " thes " was a deictic with the following declension. My apologies if you get gibberish in the Feminine Nominative cell of this table. Again I have tried to debug the Unicode repeatedly and don't know if the problem is my coding or the browser? It should read seo with macrons over the e and o

	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter	Plural
Nominative	thes	th ē ō s	this	thās
Accusative	thisne	this	thās	thās
Genitive	thisses	thisse	thisses	thissa
Dative	thissum	thisse	thissum	thissum
Instrumental	th ȳ s	thisse	th ȳ s	thissum

These markers were originally primarily emphatic and deictic. The change and expansion or reduction to a definite function seems to have occurred sometime before the eleventh century A.D., since in the 12th century a scholar called Alexander Neckham commented on the particularity of the English, French, Greek, and Hebrew languages having articles whereas Latin did not. Other Romance and Germanic texts also show a shifting towards a definite function from earlier demonstratives about this time.

Modern English uses an which is derived from anig and an, the adverb and word for one. Old English rarely uses AN as an indefinite. The indefinite was usually indicated by compounds of the hwa: pronoun like gehwā, gehwylc, and hwylc.

North Germanic also called Scandic or Nordic

Old Norse

had demonstratives of sá , sú , and þat. Also this thesse thesis and theta. Compare these to Icelandic below. There was some odd runic forms that seem to be compounds with se or si, an old and rare form of the demonstrative (see Celtic and Baltic forms) These are sasi, susi, and thatsi.

Icelandic - Istenzka

This / that Thessi neuter thetta. That sa (masc.) su (fem.) or thadh the other
Masculine Sa thann theim thess
Feminine Su tha theirri theirrar
Neuter Thadh thadh thui thess

A thessum stadh in this place Ordhin I thessu kuoedhi the words of this poem

The = Hinn Hin and Hidh.

After nouns the suffixes are ?(i)nn, (i)n, (i)dh

That meaning the other one is hinn hin hitt.

Here is the horse Her er hesturinn. The strong horse Hinn sterki hestur.

The deep river. Hin djupa a
The rich land Hidh rika land.

But Sol sun Solin the sun. Drengur inn The boy.

Hnif ?knife Hnifinn = the knife.

The complete declension is

	N	A	D	G
Singular
M	Hinn	Hinn	Hinnum	Hins
F	Hin	Hina	Hinni	Hinnar
N	Hidh	Hidh	Hinu	Hins
Plural
M	Hinir	Hina	Hinum	Hinna
F	Hinar	Hinar	Hinum	Hinna
N	Hin	Hin	Hinum	Hinna

The dh in hindh is a fricative.

Old Norse

sa so that.
Modern languages in this group nearly all follow a similar pattern.
Indefinite is Free and Pre, Definite forms are Bound and Post.

NORWEGIAN - Modern Bokmal

(does any reader know of different usages in Nynorsk?)

Norwegian has M. F. and N. genders

Indef en by en or ei elv et land pl. + er pl def +ene

Def Masculine + en Feminine + en or + a byen elva or elven and N. + et landet

En Time An Hour TimEN THE Hour

Et Land A country LandEN The country LandENE The CountrieS

Den lykkelige tid the happy hour. Det store hap the big hope. De lange ar the long years

Demos denne byen er norsk, dette landet et stort, pl disse hussene er moderne.

Norwegian marks nouns without Adjectives with a Definite Suffix.

EN bil = A car but BilEN is THE Car.

There is also a Noun Phrase pattern used with Adjectives + Adjective + Noun + Suffix

DEN Store BilEN is The big car.

Definite markers are also used to mark Titles Idioms and Superlatives.

DE gode tider = the good times whereas in English we would usually just say good times.

Another example Den rette tro the true facts.

Indefinite Definite

Masculine En +en En Bil A car BilEN THE Car

Feminine Ei or EN +a Ei Ku A cow KuA THE Cow

Neuter Et +et Et hus A House HusEt THE House

N.B. The plural ending is +ene or +ne.

En ting = A Thing but Ting = things. Tinge is the THE Thing. Tingene = THE things.

With Adjectives

DEN store bilen is the big car. Cow is feminine so Den store kua is the big cow.

DET store huset is a big house and the Plural would be DE store bilene kuene or husene.

N.B. The is not used with the Adjectives for Half or Whole or in Prepositional Phrases.

DANISH

very similar if not identical to Norwegian.

(e)n or (e)t with plural (e)ne?as suffixes and for adjective + noun the demonstrative forms det, dem, and de become definite articles.

SWEDISH

Indefinite is marked by en or ett as a free article and Definite is marked by a BOUND Morph +en or +et.En Hast = A Horse BUT Hasten is THE Horse Likewise En Katt and Katten is a cat and the cat. A Table is Ett bord and THE Table Bordet. The Definite ending is used with Abstract Nouns Time Flies Tiden gar Tid = Time.

Another example is Konsten ar lang, livet ar kort.

Art konst is long, life liv is short. (This saying comes from a poem by Horace!)

Swedish also uses a Definite marker where English would use a Possessive.

He put his hand in his pocket. Hand stoppade handen i fickan.

Something else noteworthy is that the Definite Article is always used after the verbs vara to be, and bli to become, never the Indefinite Article.

Latin and Romance Languages

Latin used a demonstrative, illa, ille that later evolved into definite articles in the Romance languages: la / le. Romance marks gender as well. As in the Germanic group of languages, the Indefinite Article derives from the same word used for the numeral ONE, with the ancestral Latin forms being UNUS UNA UNUM.

LATIN

While Latin has no equivalent to the Definite Article its Demonstrative Pronouns are ancestral to later evolutions of Demonstrative and Personal Pronouns and Adverbs along with Definite Articles within the Romance language group.
There is an excellent Romance languages site at orbilat.com

To reduce file size I have removed the tables showing the full declensions of each demonstrative pronoun. I have however included a link to this separate file Latin Demos with tables and full notes for each Latin word that can be translated as a demonstrative or definitive function.

The pronouns are as follows: IS ISTE ILLE HIC. Is is probably from an S or T stem and Iste is Is plus a T stem? Ille is the source of the definitive articles in Romance languages. The L probably represents a change of T to L as occurs in Arabic. The H series is probably a K stem changed to H, as in Greek with ce added at the end. Note the distinctive stem doubling pattern. Hic itself is probably hi+ce contracted to hic. There was an archaic latin dative form of hooice. Ce is a demonstrative particle that attaches itself to many Latin demonstrative adverbs and pronouns. Ratehr than functioning as an object marker as in the Indic languages - the k postposition seems to have undergone a semantic shift to a focus marker with an emphatic function. This usage may have been supported by the metrical and prose rhythm patterns of formal verse and oratory. Cicero used hisce as well and it is found in the comedies of Plautus and Terence. Ce may also be the origin of the final c in words like nunc now?

The personal pronoun IS translates as " that person or thing, he, she, or it " . ( Remember Neuter comes from ne utrum meaning not one or another ).

Notes:
Add as a suffix ?dem and you have a noun phrase translatable into English as having a definite function. Eadem usually translates as the same woman.
Add the suffix ?ipse ?self and the pronoun becomes reflexive.
This pronoun set can be used to refer to someone or thing already mentioned.

HIC THIS Near Me the Speaker Last mentioned First person
Notes:
There is a similar demonstrative adverb of place Here hic and hinc hence. Huc with a long vowel 𰅫 means hither. Note also these words meaning there, Ibi, Istīc and Illīc. Inde is thence and Eō also means thither.

ISTE That near you of yours Second Person

Notes:
The use of Iste can imply contempt. Cur ista quaeris Why do you ask that?
His and iste oppose each other when used in legal speeches with hic implying the reference is to my client but iste referring by contrast to the defendant or opponent.
Iste had an archaic form of istae and late dative singular form of istō When Istud combines with ce it becomes istuc and the d drops out.

ILLE follows the bonus pattern in its declension.
Notes:

Archaic spelling was * ollo - Nominative ollus Dative olli etc
Illud can be used to introduce quotes " Notum illud Catonis The well known saying of Cato " and for references to remote and distant times, " illis temporibus " in those days (long ago implied) or " antiquitas illa the far off past. "
Usage of Ille can also imply fame Cato ille ?THAT Cato!. It functions here as an emphatic reference to someone well known or even notorious.

Ille is used in opposition to hic. If both are used in one statement Hic means the nearer or latter and Ille the further or former.

SPANISH

The Definite Article in Spanish has two Genders , Masculine and Feminine, and no neuter. As a general rule Feminine nouns end in a d ion or z and Masculines in o or al or ador

Masculine		Feminine
Singular	El hombre		La mujer
Plural	Los hombres		Las mujeres

The Indefinite Article

Masculine		Feminine
Singular	Un hombre		Una mujer
Plural	Unos hombres		Unas mujeres

Demonstratives - these are Este, Ese, and Aquel, this, that near, and that far. They have neuter forms used to refer to ideas, phrases, and statements. Esto no es posible. This (thing)is not possible.

Singular
Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
este	esta	esto	this
ese	esa	eso	that (near you)
aquel	aquella	aquello	that (yonder)
Plural
estos	estas	estos	these
esos	esas	esos	those (near you)
aquellos	aquellas		those (yonder)

Some quotes en una noche oscura, en la noche dichosa, sino laque el corazon ardia, a la luz del media, los ojos deseados, los valles solitarios nemorodos, las insulas extranas.

Esta mañana this morning.

Este libro y aquel This book and that one over there.

Aquel libro that book. En aquellos dias in those days (past / former times)

Spanish requires the Article to be used.

The dog is useful to man. El perro es utile los hombre.

Dogs are useful to men. Los perros son utiles a los hombres.

Here = Aqui There = Aquel

There is a related personal pronoun form similar to the Definite Article. Third Person He or It Él with a Feminine Form Ella

PORTUGESE Portuguesa

Masculine O Feminine A with Plurals Os and As. Indefinite Um and Uma.
Fused forms
WITH EM
Em + o becomes no. Em + os becomes nos. Em + a changes to na and Em + as to nas.
N.B. Em = in but na = on / in the.
Em + um becomes num and Em + uma - numa.
WITH A
De + A is Da = behind the. De + uma is duma = under a.
A = To A + O becomes ao likewise a + os - aos.
A + a changes à likewise A + as becomes às.
WITH PER
PER = through Per plus O becomes Pelo and per + os - pelos.
Likewise per + a to pela and per + as to pelas.

Demonstratives This near M. Este F. Esta. That far M. Aqele F. Aquela.
All forms take an s plural Estes estas aqueles aqelas.
Here = Aqui or Cáand there is Lá or Ali. Hà = there is.

Galician

Catalan

Old French

Singular Plural

Nominative él ella ellos ellas

Dative le les

Accusative le or lo, la los las

Masculine Feminine

Singular Nominative Li Accusative Lo Le La

Plural Li Les

Add quote from Old French poetry? N.B. Archaic Fused forms es = en + les, (nel = nes = ?)

FRENCH Le Français Langue d'oil.

N.B. C before e, i, or y = /s/ but before a,o,or u = k. The s sound developed from an earlier k - probably Latin -ce. Ce by itself means that or it and is neuter.

	Masculine	Feminine	Before a Vowel or h H is usaully silent in modern French	Plural for both Genders
	LE	LA	L '	LES
PARTITIVE	DU	DE LA	DE L '	DES
To/At the	AU	à LA	>à L '	AUX

Masculine: Le taureau,l' homme, le garcon, du film, au jardin,the bull, the boy, the man, of the film, to the garden.
Feminine: La vache, la fillette, de la femme, a la soeur, the cow, the girl, from the woman, to the sister.

Notes La = the but Là = there
Also use L ?before vowels or h except for these two words La Haine and Le Houx.
The article can be used to change the meaning of a word. < br/> LE critique is the critic but LA critique is the criticism.
LE tour is a tour but LA tour is a tower!
LE Hymne is a lyric poem but LA Hymne is a church hymn!

The Indefinite article is M. Un , Fem. Une,A An, and the plural is DEs - some , any.

The article is also used to denote a whole class.
Les homes sont mortels. Men are mortal.

The demonstrative pronouns are ceci this, and cela that. ça; is a contraction of cela.
There is a demonstrative adjective corresponding to this and that:
ce(t) cette and plural ces.

N.B. French has a demonstrative pronoun form corresponding to the English phrase the (specific) one of Masculine Celui and ceux and Feminine celle and celles.

Demonstrative pronouns plus nouns plus Ci = here

Demo pronouns + nouns + Là = there

CE-lui-ci = this one here. Celle-là = that one.

Ceci ? this Cela - that

The article is also used with the names of countries and islands: L ?Asie, La France.

French uses the Definite Article where English would use a possessive.
I rub my foot becomes Je me frotte le pied in French.

Provencal

Provencal whose modern form is known as Occitan has these article forms :
le lo la and Plurals li, los, las.

ITALIAN

Italian has a wide variety of related forms many of which derive from Latin ILLE.The Masculine forms are Il before a consonant, L ' before a vowel, Lo before s + Consonant, and z. Masculine Plural of I before consonants and Gli, sometimes gl? before vowels, s+Consonant and z.
l signore Lo zio L ' anno I signori Gli zii Gli anni Gl ' italiano
The Feminine forms are La before consonants, L ?before vowels, Plural Le
La signora L ' italiana L ' erbe Le signori Le italiane Le erbe

N.B. gli though spelt with a g actually indicates a palatized l - the lambda symbol of IPA

Note that ALL nouns take L ?before a Vowel.

The Indefinite forms are Masculine Un and Uno and Feminine Una and Un.

Fused Forms: See table
Italian like French and Greek has fused forms. In Italian a, su, di, do, and in combine with the article to form these words. See the table.

There is a rarer usage of Con which is:
Con Col Coi Collo Coll ' Colla Cogli Colle with Col and Coi being a little more common. This final form is changing in popular usage to con il conl ?etc.

Gli fuses with the personal pronouns also to form + la gliela, + li or + le glii.

Per has fused forms of pel and pei but these are now RARE.

Di plus the definite article has a partitive function and changes the meaning to some or any

In Italian the Articles are not used with Ordinal Numbers. Instead of saying or writing Henry THE Eighth the usage is Enrico ottavo.
The Article is used with superlatives.
Il migliore il peggiore il maggiore il minore.
The Definite Article is used before nouns used in a general or abstract sense.
Il tabacco e pericolo. Tobacco is dangerous. Gli assegni utili checks are useful.
La vita è breve. Life is short. La Pazienza è una virtu. Patience is a virtue.

Use the Definite article with the names and titles of people
" Il Conte Rossi, Il signor Bianchi ", unless you are speaking directly to the person, and also use it with the names of countries, or regions:
Il Veneto, Il Lazio, La Sicila L 'italia.
You do not have to use an indefinite article though in sentences like
"He is an Italian È italiano" or "John is a doctor Giovanni È dottore" .

La means she or the feminine but Là means there.

There are some masculine forms ending with a or ista borrowed from Greek: Il poeta and Il pianista.

Some words ending in - e can be feminine or masculine. Arte is feminine.

Note the irregular plural Le mani the hands of singular La mano ?the hand.

Definite Articles are used with possessive pronouns:

Il mio la mia I miei le mie il tua la tua I tuoi le tue

Italian has 3rd person subject forms, he lui, she lei, and they - loro.
These have literary forms of M. lui, egli, esso, and F. lei, ella, essa, with plurals of loro, essi, andand esse. Italian also has Direct and Indirect Object Pronouns:

Direct Objects
Masculine Singular	lo	Feminine Singular	la
Masculine Plural	li	Feminine Plural	le
Indirect Objects
Masculine Singular	gli	Feminine Singular	Le
Masculine and Feminine have the same plural	loro	Feminine Plural	le

The Demonstratives (pronomi dimostrativi) are Questo this the latter, Questo questa questi queste quest?#060;/p>

Quello, that, the former, is shortened to quell before nouns and adjectives starting with consonants.

Quello e il cane but quell cane. With pronouns its quello quella quelli quelle. Quello also means the one of

Cio that. Ci there here and cioe is that is. Costi and costa = there and li and la if accented.

Two rarely seen but once common forms of the demonstrative are cotesto and codesto used to refer to an object near the person addressed: Cotesti libri

ROMANIAN

Romanian unusually uses a postpositional marker probably due to the influence of neighbouring Slavic languages which developed from Latin ille.

A son is un fiu but the son is fiu+l. Tata+l is the father, Romanu+l the Romanian, Ciine+le the dog, plural ii, also feminines sticla the bottle, sticle+le the bottles.

Indefinite Masculine is Un??and the Feminine is O

Nb cel form my/ours can be translated as the when used as cel - noun ?def. Stefan cel mare Stefan the great.

Demonstratives are used before the noun. Acest this, Acest prieten this friend. Acel that, acel prieten that friend.

CELTIC

OLD IRISH

Old Irish has in and inna
In ben gel the bright woman plural inna mna gela.
The high mountain is a sliab n-ard with plural inna slebe arda.
The demonstratives are isiu - this and isin that, used after a noun, with the article used before the noun.
The full declension includes Singular Dual and Plural forms and Nominative, Accusative, Genitive and Dative cases.

IRISH GAELIC

Both forms of Gaelic are very similar and may be regarded as dialects split off from Old Irish. Both the Irish and Scots dialects of Gaelic uses these forms, an, a? a n + ,for the neuter (sample!) and an t+ for the masculine, so father ?athair becomes the father an tathair. The Old Irish form was +in. Possibly this may be cognate with the +en suffix used in Germanic and Nordic IE languages and reflects an older K - T - N pattern preceding teh binary K - T pattern of IE languages?

Note that an and a have several meanings and usages in the Gaelic languages. For example an is also a genitive plural meaning their and a is also a relative pronoun meaning who or that and the third person pronoun his her.

SCOTS GAELIC

The Definite Article due to the notorious pecularities of Gaelic (ie Lenition changes form and pronunciation depending preceding and following prepositions, adjectives, and nouns, and their initial sounds.

Words also lenite after AON one a an unless the word starts with d s or t.

Scots Gaelic An cu the dog An deasc the desk An duine the man but am mac the son

AN is the usual form but this becomes AM before b f m p or masculine nouns however the word Am with an accent equals time not the.

An t before a vowel. Athair father becomes an tathair the father, likewise eilean island becomes an teilean the island

The Feminine form is usually an but before b c g m p changes to a?+ lenition

Before s + l, n, r, or s + vowel lenition occurs.

Mathair mother changes to a?mhathair the mother and that mh is not an m but does indicate a nasalized sound - Mhaire - Marie sounds like Vaaree to a English speaker.

It?s not exactly a v either but English speakers best stick to the v.

More examples : Sron nose an t-sron the nose, firinn truth an fhirinn the truth, nighean girl an nighean the girl

A brief note on lenition. Bh = / v / Fh = / h / or no sound. Ph = / F / Ch equals the ch sound in loch if before the vowels a o u and the ch in hue before e and i. Gh and dh plus e or i is a y or j sound and th is h or no sound.
This spelling system is allegedly very logical to Gaelic speakers however many a person, even if of partly Scots and Irish descent, such as this scholar has been known to speculate if official Gaelic orthography is some sort of elaborate revenge for the Highland Clearances and certain other historic events? One does wonder about certain bureacrats. I also have my doubts about the strange way some one thought of using x and q and z to representative retroflex affricatives in Pin-yin? There are alternatives that are more phonetic!

The Plural form for both genders is na with genitive nan and nam. Na + H but if before a Vowel becomes na = h , Na huighean ?the eggs.

Gaelic has fused forms with certain prepositions. Do + n becomes Don or dhan = to the, and also chun has the same meaning. De + an changes to den or dhen, of the. Ro + An becomes ron, meaning before the. Tro + an becomes tron, through the. Fo + an changes to fon, under the, and Bho + an becomes von which is spelt bhon, from the. Note that An can mean " in the " as well as " the " from anns + an, but san also = anns + an!

Note that te = one female and I = she. The sound and word A can equal a vocative, a third person pronoun, and a relative form meaning to a person or place and the preposition out of !

Demonstratives.

This (here) is So or seo in Irish and Scots Gaelic. Seo = /shoe/

That is Sin or siud in Irish and Scots Gaelic.

A full table of Gaelic Demonstratives will be added in the next version if requests are made for one?

WELSH

In Modern Welsh the forms of the article are yr before a vowel or h
yr afon the river yr heol the wood yr wyl the festival.
Feminine singular forms mutate when used after yr and y and un - one.
Gardd becomes yr ardd and tre a town becomes y dre. A cat, Cath, becomes y gath.
Before a consonant the form is Y
Y pentre the village Y teule the family
If the article is used AFTER a vowel it is shortened to ?r. mae ' r teulu.
Note that mae is a verb = is or there is.
In Welsh the definite article is used, where English would have a possessive, in phrases like Mae ' r gwr - the husband to refer to one's spouse

The letters w and y represent vowel sounds in welsh.
W is the sound in book and y can equal u or i.
I however can represent y in yes or the vowel in pit or peat.
U tends to become i in Southern Wales.
A parallel in another European language would be the change of upsilon to Ipsilon from Ancient Greek to Demotic.

The Demonstratives are h initial. This - hwn hon honna, that - hwnna.
Also dyna and yna (there) which contract to ?na. Dynafe. That's it!
Dyma and yma - here. Dymale! What a place!
Dyma and dyna are contractions from these noun phrases.
Gwel di yma (like French voici) and Gwel di yna (like voila)
This is reallly the object here yr ... 'ma, y pentre 'ma nawr - this village = the village here now.
There are also plural contracted forms. Rhain - these, from y rhai hyn. Rheina from y rhai yna.
There are also literary forms, hyn, and hynny which are demonstrative adjectives.
Y llyfrau hyn. These books. Yr enwau hynny. Those names.

Breton Cornish Manx? Similar? Yes?

Demo hen in Breton and Cornish.

Masculine	Feminine	Plural
ky	kjo	ke
kete	kote	keto
keti(j)	kesaj	ketyne
kesi(j)	keso	kesish or kesosh

THENESS SURVEY

IndoEuropean Languages

Definite Markers and Articles and Related Demonstrative Forms

Table of Contents

FARSI (Modern Persian)

PASHTO

WAKHI

KURDISH

BALUCHI

SANSKRIT

HINDI

PANJABI or PUNJABI

MARATHI

BENGALI

SINDHI

ORIYA

NEPALI

SINHALA

KHOWARI

SHINA

KALASHAMUN

TAMIL (tamiz)

Telugu

Kannada

Malayam

Brahui

LITHUANIAN

LATVIAN

Old Church Slavonic

BULGARIAN

Macedonian

SERBO-CROAT Srpsko-hrvatski

CROATIAN - HRVATSKI

BOSNIAN - BOSANKO

SLOVENE or Slovenian - SLOVENSKI

POLISH - Polsku

CZECH čech or češi

RUSSIAN

UKRANIAN

Gothic

Old High German

Old Frisian

Middle Low German

Middle Dutch

Low German

Dutch

DUTCH has common and neuter genders. Common DE with words like vrouw, stad, and stael. Neuter HET with huis land kind meisje. The genitive and dative forms are van de. Demos this deze dit and that die dat

GERMAN - Deutsch

ENGLISH

Old English

North Germanic also called Scandic or Nordic

Old Norse

Icelandic - Istenzka

Old Norse

NORWEGIAN - Modern Bokmal

DANISH

SWEDISH

LATIN

SPANISH

PORTUGESE Portuguesa

Galician

Catalan

Old French

FRENCH Le Français Langue d'oil.

Provencal

ITALIAN

ROMANIAN

OLD IRISH

IRISH GAELIC

SCOTS GAELIC

WELSH

DUTCH has common and neuter genders.
Common DE with words like vrouw, stad, and stael. Neuter HET with huis land kind meisje.
The genitive and dative forms are van de. Demos this deze dit and that die dat