Re: [tied] Re: Black Athena: The Afroasiatic RootsofClassicalCivili

On 2006-06-09 01:13, Richard Wordingham wrote:

> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "aquila_grande" <aquila_grande@...>
> wrote:
>> In the Eurasian region, the definite article appared first in the
>> Near East and rapidly thereafter Greek also got this feature. Later
>> Latin/Romance also got it, and then the Germanic languages.
>>
>> The Slavonic languages have not yet got this feature, except those
>> bordering to the Greek area.
>
> The Balto-Slavonic weak adjectives appear to have incorporated an
> article. The Germanic system of weak and strong adjectives is also an
> old system of marking definiteness marking, predating the modern
> articles, though perhaps not the addition of an article.

What about innumerable other languages which have definite articles as a
separate category of words (distinct from demonstrative pronouns and not
incorporated as definite suffixes) -- in central Africa, New Guinea,
Mesoamerica, and the West Coast to name only the best-known areas where
they are common? Although Ojibwe, for example, has both definite
articles and a two-gender system (not to mention an essentially
triangular vowel system and VS word-order) the only piece of indirect
Semitic influence that can be claimed for the language is its word for
'coffe', Ojib. gaapii <-- Eng. coffee <-- Arab. qahwa (via Turkish, with
Italian and other Romance interference) :)

Piotr