Editing Article (grammar) (section)

==Historical development==

Articles often develop by specialization of [[adjectives]] or [[determiners]]. Their development is often a sign of languages becoming more [[Analytic language|analytic]] instead of [[synthetic language|synthetic]], perhaps combined with the loss of [[inflection]] as in English, Romance languages, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Torlakian.

[[Joseph Greenberg]] in Universals of Human Language describes "the cycle of the definite article": Definite articles (Stage I) evolve from demonstratives, and in turn can become generic articles (Stage II) that may be used in both definite and indefinite contexts, and later merely noun markers (Stage III) that are part of nouns other than proper names and more recent borrowings. Eventually articles may evolve anew from demonstratives.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenberg |first=Joseph H. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/132691297 |title=Genetic linguistics : essays on theory and method |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |others=William Croft |isbn=978-0-19-151452-4 |location=Oxford |oclc=132691297}}</ref>

=== Definite articles ===

Definite articles typically arise from [[demonstrative]]s meaning ''that''. For example, the definite articles in most [[Romance languages]]—e.g., ''el'', ''il'', ''le'', ''la'', ''lo, a, o'' — derive from the [[Latin]] demonstratives ''ille'' (masculine), ''illa'' (feminine) and ''illud'' (neuter).

The [[English language|English]] definite article ''[[English articles|the]]'', written ''þe'' in [[Middle English]], derives from an [[Old English language|Old English]] demonstrative, which, according to [[grammatical gender|gender]], was written ''se'' (masculine), ''seo'' (feminine) (''þe'' and ''þeo'' in the Northumbrian dialect), or [[That#Historical usage|''þæt'']] (neuter). The neuter form ''þæt'' also gave rise to the modern demonstrative ''that''. The ''ye'' occasionally seen in pseudo-archaic usage such as "[[Ye Olde]] Englishe Tea Shoppe" is actually a form of ''þe'', where the letter [[thorn (letter)|thorn]] (''þ'') came to be written as a ''y''.

Multiple demonstratives can give rise to multiple definite articles. [[Macedonian language|Macedonian]], for example, in which the articles are suffixed, has ''столот'' (''stolot''), the chair; ''столов'' (''stolov''), this chair; and ''столон'' (''stolon''), that chair. These derive from the [[Proto-Slavic]] demonstratives ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/tъ|*tъ]]'' "this, that", ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/ovъ|*ovъ]]'' "this here" and ''[[wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Slavic/onъ|*onъ]]'' "that over there, yonder" respectively. [[Colognian dialect|Colognian]] prepositions articles such as in ''dat Auto'', or ''et Auto'', the car; the first being specifically selected, focused, newly introduced, while the latter is not selected, unfocused, already known, general, or generic.

Standard [[Basque language|Basque]] distinguishes between proximal and distal definite articles in the plural (dialectally, a proximal singular and an additional medial grade may also be present). The Basque distal form (with infix ''-a-'', etymologically a suffixed and phonetically reduced form of the distal demonstrative ''har-/hai-'') functions as the default definite article, whereas the proximal form (with infix ''-o-'', derived from the proximal demonstrative ''hau-/hon-'') is [[markedness#Marked and unmarked word pairs|marked]] and indicates some kind of (spatial or otherwise) close relationship between the speaker and the referent (e.g., it may imply that the speaker is included in the referent): ''etxeak'' ("the houses") vs. ''etxeok'' ("these houses [of ours]"), ''euskaldunak'' ("the Basque speakers") vs. ''euskaldunok'' ("we, the Basque speakers").

Speakers of [[Assyrian Neo-Aramaic]], a [[modern Aramaic language]] that lacks a definite article, may at times use demonstratives ''aha'' and ''aya'' (feminine) or ''awa'' (masculine) – which translate to "this" and "[[that]]", respectively – to give the sense of "the".<ref>Solomon, Zomaya S. (1997). ''Functional and other exotic sentences in Assyrian Aramaic'', Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies, XI/2:44-69.</ref> In [[Indonesian language|Indonesian]], the third person [[possessive affix|possessive suffix]] ''-nya'' could be also used as a definite article.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://kumparan.com/ragam-info/20-contoh-penggunaan-kata-nya-dalam-kalimat-22B008A3Fp3|title=20 Contoh Penggunaan Kata nya dalam Kalimat|website=kumparan.com|access-date=2024-05-26}}</ref>

=== Indefinite articles ===

Indefinite articles typically arise from adjectives meaning ''one''. For example, the indefinite articles in the [[Romance languages]]—e.g., ''un'', ''una'', ''une''—derive from the [[Latin]] adjective ''unus''. Partitive articles, however, derive from [[Vulgar Latin]] ''de illo'', meaning ''(some) of the''.

The [[English language|English]] indefinite article ''[[English articles|an]]'' is derived from the same root as ''one''. The ''-n'' came to be dropped before consonants, giving rise to the shortened form ''a''. The existence of both forms has led to many cases of [[juncture loss]], for example transforming the original ''a napron'' into the modern ''an apron''.

The [[Persian language|Persian]] indefinite article is ''yek'', meaning one.