summary of q : articles two weeks ago i posted the following query : ) a system of articles is an innovative feature of a number of languages . are ) there any examples of languages that have lost their articles ? i would also ) be interested in creoles , especially , say , if both ( all ) source languages ) had articles , but the pidgin / creole turned out lacking them . thanks to the following for responding : lars borin david gohre john e . koontz jeff marck deborah d . kela ruuskanen achim stenzel shigenori wakabayashi dave wharton of the 8 replies , only one was an actual response to my query . lars borin ( lars . borin @ ling . uu . se ) pointed out that ) finnish romani is a language which has lost its articles completely . the ) loss is almost certainly due to finnish influence , as are many other ) traits of modern finnish romani morphology and syntax . moreover , as ( colloquial ) finnish may seem to developing an article system using the demonstrative * se * ' that ' ( def . ) and the numeral * yksi * ' one ' ( indef . ) , it is interesting to note that lars has ) noticed in finnish romani texts that there are forms of the demonstrative ) pronouns 'd auva ' ( this ) and 'd ouva ' ( that ) , which are ) ( a ) reduced phonologically and indeclinable ( reduced versions of the ) nominative plural ) ; the forms are : 'd ala ' and 'd ola ' ( while the ) nominative plurals of 'd auva / douva ' are written 'd aala / doola ' ) ) ( b ) used much as spoken finnish 's e ' , i . e . perhaps representing the first ) ( or maybe second [ . . . ] ) stage in a development from demonstrative to ) preposed definite article . importantly , the definite articles used to be ' o ' ( sg masculine ) , ' i ' ( sg feminine ) , and ' e ' ( plural , both genders ) , hence nothing like the demonstrative pronouns . now , let me elaborate somewhat on my reason for inquiring into this matter . disregarding massive language contact ( i . e . " hey , this is the way we say things around here , and you 'd better start doing so too ! " ) and / or creolization ( i . e . " ok guys , let 's start all over again . we ' ll begin with lexical categories , then . . . " ) : if it were the case that there is a universal tendency that languages acquire articles , but do not loose them , then why should this be so ? if we take a configurational approach to noun phrase interpretation , we could say that articles , and hence their semantics , are associated with a noun phrase internal functional projection in much the same way as some linguists would assume an association between tense ( and other verbal inflections ) and a clausal functional projection . ( in essence , i ' m talking about some kind of a dp - analysis . ) since possible noun phrase interpretations differ minimally across languages ( i guess ) , we would then assume that in languages without articles , the functional projection associated with the semantic properties in question would have phonetically empty heads . the possible tendency of acquiring articles could then be explained as a strive to fill this / these head / s with overt elements . unfortunately , i cannot say that i so far have any reason to be convinced about this line of reasoning , but i can't see any obvious reason to give it up either . however , i am ready to be butchered . i should probably read the following references provided by john e . koontz ( koontz @ alpha . bldr . nist . gov ) ) greenberg , joseph h . 1978 . how does a language acquire gender markers ? pp . ) 47-82 . in : universals of human language , vol . 4 , ed . jos . h . greenberg , ) et al . stanford , ca : stanford university press . ) discusses evolution of gender marking from articles and articles from ) demonstratives . see also : ) greenberg , joseph h . 1981 . nilo - saharan moveable-k as a stage iii article ) ( with a penutian typological parallel ) . journal of african languages and ) linguistics 3 : 105-112 . those interested in definiteness , especially with respect to english and finnish , should consult the following work provided by deborah d . kela ruuskanen ( druuskan @ cc . helsinki . fi ) . ) chesterman , a . ( 1991 ) on definiteness : a study with special reference to ) english and finnish . cambridge studies in linguistics 56 , cambridge ) university press . it 's worth reading - i ' ve done it . 0ystein alexander vangsnes university of iceland - university of bergen oystein @ rhi . hi . is vangsnes @ foli . uib . no
