THENESS - A SURVEY

Definite Markers and Articles, Pre and Post, and Related Demonstrative Forms

OTHER LANGUAGES

in East and South East Asia, the Pacific, Australasia, and the Americas.

South & East Asia

TAI or Daic

Thai has a demonstrative used after nouns this nih that is non but nan in closely related Lao. Another text gave the following as the demonstrative forms:

Nî or ní this here, nân that there, nán that / the, nô:n that over there, nû:n that over there remote and colloquial, nó:n that more remote, nú:n that remote and colloquial.

Another more phonetic transliteration gives that as nahn and this as nee in Thai and Lao “that” nan as na:n and Lao “this” as a:n or ni.

AUSTRIC also called Austroasiatic includes Khmer and Viet

Khmer this – nih that – nuh

Vietnamese like Japanese and Korean has been heavily influenced by continual exposure to various Chinese dialects. There is a separate vocabulary of “classical” literary forms assimilated to varying degrees of usage into ordinary colloquial speech often as “polite” forms with high status?

Viet uses demos after nouns and adjectives.

This here now = Đây and the same word pronounced with a different tone Đãy means there that place be there.

Ây that nearby Kia that farther over there yonder and kìa that fartherest distant.

N- forms are này – this constrasting with that nọ, and also nâỳ, this one which constarts with ây that one.

Add more elaborate table?

Note the K D (<*T )and N pattern.

SINOTIBETAN

Burmese

this – di that – hou *t and *k?

Tibetan

? this ‘di dil that de te

The one over there pha gi up there ya gi down there ma gi

Could the gi < *k?

Classical Chinese

Shì = this / that is Cĭ = this here and Bĭ that over there

Or this / that one this that here near that there far

Ci and shi ci bi

Change to modern forms of nà, zhè or zhèi this now.

Inscriptions on Oracle Bones and Bronze Drums and early texts of the Book of Songs – Shijing use zī as a demonstrative and sī instead of cĭ is used in the Lunyu.

Modern Mandarin or Putonghua has zhei ge this and nei ge that

Hokkkien this tsit’e or chit’e that and here also hit’e that as a locative.

Modern Chinese has retroflex fricatives so there seems no immediate obvious connection to the K- T pattern but Archaic Chinese had initials of ds, ts, and ks and the initial hs in Hokkien may reflect a change from an earlier k initial.

In SinoJapanese, a literary dialect that reflects older pronounciations of Chinese, shi is ZE, Bi is Hi (hia or hit in Hokkien), and a third person pronoun called Qi in modern Chinese Pin-yin, is KI and its ideograph used to represent an demonstrative.

Cantonese

this ni-go that go-go

AUSTRONESIAN

Several Austronesian languages have definite markers. This may be due to the influence of IE Indian merchants who introduced Hinduism and Buddhism to SE Asia in the case of Malay and Balinese. Other languages in Polynesia and the Philippines have markers that seem to follow a K T N pattern. Given similar forms in some Sinitic and Austric languages there are two or three possibilities. First there is the possibility of an areal typological transfer perhaps in the Neolithic before the Proto-Austronesians moved into the Pacific. Second there could have been a pattern predating Nostratic of KTN that became KT in IE and AA but KN or KTN or DN in other languages. Note also if *kw changed to *ku and then to*ki that *ki often changes to *shi. Third and final is a possiblity that we have somehow become “hardwired” to develop definitive and demonstrative markers. Grammar creates further diversity of structure?

BAHASA MALAY (Indonesian is almost identical)

This – ini This book – buku ini

That Itu that country negeri itu

Both used after nouns

Another example

Harimau itu binatang liar literally tiger “the” animal (is) wild

NB Construction Lari itu sehat Running (is) healthy

Like Greek Article +Infinite becomes noun )

The construction of personal pronoun or noun = nya corresponds to our “the” in translation and to Balinese – ne

JAVANESE

Iki = this (is) = e = the and of Itu = that Ini = this

BASA BALI, Balinese, is a language related to modern Bahasa Malay and Indonesian which has many Sanskrit loan words. It marks the / his / her/ and its and the posessive by a final marker of (n)e or nya . Bungan padma is lotus flower BUT BanganE padma is THE lotus flower. E is added if the word is consonant final and - ne if vowel final so meme mother becomes Memene - The mother but this can also be written I meme. Another construction is to add i before a word dealing with a PERSON. Ibapa is The father Iguru the teacher. There is also a final –k plus vowel l topic marker that could be related to the - k markers in Hindi and Bengali?

This – ene and that – ento? Check book )

Warung is a stall or any stall but warunge is the stall

Bunga is a flower but bungane padma is the lotus flower or the flower of the lotus

The det. Also marks the possessive and links as well as focuses.

Tagalog

This ito nito sadito That iyon niyon sadiyon with subject marker ang and ng object markers? The Indirect object marker is – kay (Again the N- a possible “distant cousin” link to N markers in IE?)

Cebuano?

Visayan – Binisayaq

TETUM?

FIJIAN

Def. Art Na before a noun or na I but O for proper names

O viti Fiji

Na = this before a noun nb pattern of na NOUN oqo for this

Na + noun + oqo

Na + noun + oqori or ko ya

And that na NOUN oqori if near and if far NOUN + ko + ya

TONGAN

Def Art e or he / ha (from *k?) This + ko + e or eni for this and that + ko + ena

E tangata the man

SAMOAN

Definite Article O (from earlier *ko) plus the subject marker le.

O le fale the house.

This lenei sometimes la nei. That lea or lenaa. Indefinite – se

TAHITIAN

te dual na that tera this teie

MAORI

the – te has a plural nga. “This” is tenei with plural enei and “that” taua or teenaa with plural ena that near you with “that far” being tera with plural form era.

HAWAIIAN

The ka ke This keia That keelaa

Nb T + N ?

TOLAI

an Austronesian language from the Melanesian area spoken on the island of New Britain has an A article. A tutuna – the man.

N>B> the predominance of N forms –

Areal feature or a survival from a SE Asian proto language?

Others?

MOTU A Creole spoken in the Port Moresby area of Papua New Guinea, which fuses Papauan and Austronesian forms, has a NA article.

The Papuan languages, which are part of the larger Indo-pacific family. usually has no articles but the KEWA language has this article áá, áá-mé the man. ?

AMERIND languages

Cheyenne – Algonquian makes an animate inanimate distinction.

This these person tes’tohe

This these things he’tohe

Quiche Mayan seems to have a k- marker k ki ko a prefix?

More to be added in the next upgrade including a section on Australian Aborigine languages.

Please email me any suggestions or information. Thank You