THENESS - A SURVEY
Definite Markers and Articles, Pre and Post, and Related Demonstrative Forms
Basque Burshashki Uralic Altaic Siberian and that East Asian group of odd semi-isolates Japanese Korean and Ainu
The BASQUE Isolate known as Euskara to its native speakers marks the Definite with + a, and its Definite Plural with + g/k (subject markers used with transitive verbs), so that in the absolute or simple unmarked form, Cat is Katu, THE Cat katua, and THE Cats - katuak.
Demonstratives are this – au and that –ori.
Another Isolate is Burushaski which has khiine – this and iine that.
CAUCASIAN
* this /I that * ?a
Kartvelian
Georgian
Direct Object Markers 1. m gv-, 2. g g –t
URALIC
Uralic languages tend towards having ergative constructions that use a object marker for focus with a function that includes what we think of as definite marking while leaving the subject unmarked.
Ruhlen cites a hypothesis of *T plus vowle a/o as the radical for demonstratives in Uralic and Ku – Ta for Altaic. He place Japanese Korean and Ainu in one group closely related to Altaic and cites ku and to as the radicals. He also
FINNIC
Finnish or Suomi
The Nominative Case equals and includes a Definite function and the Partitive includes the Indefinite function as part of its semantic field.
Vesi
juoksee The water is running Vetta juoksee There is water running
Juon Vetta I drink water Juon
veden I will drink the water
That yonder = tuu This = tama (tämä)
Estonian Eesti
This = Sin or selle or seda That = see or at
Saami (Lapp) dat da
UGRIC
Hungarian or Magyar the best known language of this group has an article a with an alternate form of az before vowels.
The Indefinite article is egy. There is an object suffix of –t.
There is also an indefinite and definite verb conjugation. The Definite conjugation is used with definite objects that have transitive verbs.
Olvas-om a level-et I read the letter Olvas-ok egy level-et I read a letter.
Az also = that and this = ez.
Mordvin has Indefinite and Definite singular and a Definite Plural suffixes.
Indefinite Singlular adds –so. Kudo-so = in a house
Definite Singular adds –so and –nt. Kudo-so-nt - in THE house.
The Definite Plural adds –t –ne and –sa. Kudo-t-ne-sa in THE houseS.
Other Eastern Uralic languages have a marker that indicates definiteness and the 2nd/3rd person possessive.
Nenets – tiky = that .
ALTAIC
Turkic
Ottoman Turkish has no subject marker or definite article but does mark the definite object with a suffix - (y) V4. Gece night is the unmarked subject form. The object is marked as geceyi. Ev is house Evi the house as object.
The word for one – bir – is used as the indefinite marker.
Buyuk bir kiz. The big girl. Bir elma An Apple.
The demonstratives are trinary Bu O and Şu
Bu – this these bu kiz this girl O he she it that those Near and Şu – that those FAR.
They take the plural – lar marker.
When these words are used with definite objects they change form to bunu, sunu, and onu and use – lari as a plural marker.
I have frequently seen the statement that if you know Turkish you can make yourself understood in most of the related Central Asian Turkic languages and dialects – comment on if this is just a cliché or folk myth including information about variant forms is invited! Is this just a cliché or not?
Mongolian and Manchu have a demo = that – tere
Tungus has that – tari
A note on Japanese and Korean please also see notes on KTN pattern.
Japanese may be part of the K t pattern or possibly an older KTN or KSN pattern?
To me it seems to be a fusion of Austronesian or some proto austronesian language with some kind of Altaic language that preceded both Japanese and Korean and to complicate things further there is a a superstratum of Sinic influence.
Some linguists group Japanese with Korean and Ainu as a group within Eurasiatic or Altaic. See Ruhlen 1994 and Oppenheimer.
It has a trinary distinction of here there and “Yonder” with demonstrative pronouns and adjectives that can be translated as this or that into English.
Here This That near you That Farther away
KO - SO - A –
Pronoun KORE SORE ARE
This one that one that
Adjective KONO SONO ANO
This that or the that
Borrowings from Chinese are kanji that are read as SHI or KI or ZE
Korean is also classified by some as an Altaic language. It has a variety of k- forms.
Ku can be translated as the or that one , this is an adjective ka-si this now is I or I-got, sometimes transliterated from Hangul as ikut
That go or ku depending on the transliteration system used. Ku is the demonstrative adjective and kugot or chogot is the pronoun along with an adverb kurok’e.
I and Ku all combine to other sounds to indicate place and manner with iyo = this one but iki is place . Ibun is this person. There is a third distinction of distance ce / co / ko ?
Ainu
If you have information or insights on these or any related languages please email them to me so I can add them to the next upgrade. Thank YOU!