From: Brian M. Scott
Message: 49782
Date: 2007-09-03
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Brian M. Scott"[...]
> <BMScott@...> wrote:
>> At 2:12:00 PM on Sunday, September 2, 2007, tgpedersen
>> wrote:
>>> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Rick McCallister
>>> <gabaroo6958@> wrote:
>>>> When did the pre vs post position dichotomy of articles
>>>> occur?
>>> I believe it's documented from the 16th century. Before
>>> that time many texts are law texts and they have no
>>> definite articles, like ON.
>> Eh? ON has both free and suffixed definite articles. Some
>> examples from Lokasenna:
>> Free-standing:
>> ketil inn mikla 'the great kettle' (acc.)
>> sveinn inn hvíti 'the white/shining lad'
>> sá inn lævísi Loki 'that the crafty Loki'
>> hendi inni hægri 'the right hand' (dat.)
>> Suffixed:
>> ulfinn 'the wolf' (acc.)
>> munnlaugin 'the basin' (acc.)
>> From Íslendingabók:
>> Free-standing:
>> Haraldr inn hárfagri 'Harald the fairhair(ed)'
>> konungrinn Haraldr 'the king Harald'
>> inir spökustu menn 'the wisest men'
>> Suffixed:
>> til vársins 'to the spring' (gen.)
>> drauminn 'the dream' (acc.)
>> landinu 'the land' (dat.)
> True. I was a bit hasty there. Here's the preamble of
> Jyske Lov (1241)
> No definite articles either way.Free-standing includes preposed; it wasn't particularly
> Besides, I wasn't talking about free definite articles,
> but about preposed articles, as in West Germanic.