On Wed, 22 Jun 2005 03:59, John W. Kennedy wrote: > Greg Neumann wrote: > > Kazunari Hirano wrote: > >> Hi Charles, Greg and Ian, > >> Thank you very much. > >> > >> :) > >> > >> Japanese language doesn't have the articles you have. > >> I knew the official name of the US: > >> The United States of America. > >> But I didn't know the official name of the UK: > >> The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. > >> It's long ;) > >> > >> Ian-san, I think you explain it better than any linguist. > >> > >>> "the" appears first to show its a single entity > >> > >> I see now. I see why "the" is called "definite article." > >> "the" defines something. It points to a specific thing. It makes the > >> thing very clear. > >> Thank you again. > >> khirano > > > > Japanese has no definate article? > > Neither does Latin. The ancient Greeks and Romans used to sneer at each > other over the issue.
Nor does Russian, Polish, Finnish, etc. > > > Wow. Languages are very interesting. I > > mentioned this to my daughter's friend who, is an exchange student from > > Sweden about this. She said Swedish doesn't have a definate article > > either, but that the word ending changes. > > The more usual explanation is that the ending /is/ the definite article. From what little I know of Icelandic and Old Norse, the definite article is _postposed_ - tacked onto the end - instead of floating free at the front as it is in English, Maori, Hawai'ian and Greek, just to mention a few other languages that use a definite article. The definite article in Arabic and Hebrew is tacked onto the word's beginning. > > Also, independent definite articles are used before adjectives modifying > nouns. > > det svénska fólket -- the Swedish people > > The "det" and the final "-et" are /both/ necessary to translate the > English "the". Wesley Parish -- Clinersterton beademung, with all of love - RIP James Blish ----- Mau e ki, he aha te mea nui? You ask, what is the most important thing? Maku e ki, he tangata, he tangata, he tangata. I reply, it is people, it is people, it is people.
