Supplement: On Article: from historical comparative linguistics perspective
Introduction:
Among the Indo-Germanic languages, the invention of article by the Greeks is truly a breakthrough. It is neither found in Sanskrit, nor in Latin.[1] The Greek article is first seen in Homer.
Development:
The definite article is developed from the demonstrative. Though Greek does not have indefinite article, but in fact this has been developed by LXX, by using the numeral for one ( ei(v) see Lesson 32.)[2] E.g. Judge 13:2 one/a man a)nh\r ei(~v.
Rules: demonstrative (that) à definite article (the)
Numeral (one) à indefinite article (a, an)
Other languages have followed this lead.
From Latin ille (that, those) develops definite articles for Italian (il, la), Spanish (el, la), and French (le, la.) The first is for masculine nouns, while the second is for feminine nouns.
From Latin ūnus, ūna (one) develops indefinite articles for Italian (un(o), una), Spanish (un(o), una), and French (un, une.) The first is for masculine nouns, while the second is for feminine nouns.
In German, der (die, das) is used as demonstrative, article, relative. Ein denotes both one (numeral), and indefinite article (a, an). It is why the Germans usually use "one" for "an" of English.
In English, the same picture applies. Before 950, "the" is derived from Middle English, as uninflected singular of the demonstrative pronoun (that.) [3] "An" is from Middle English ān, which is "one" in a weakened sense. "A" is from Middle English, originally preconsonantal phonetic variant of "An".
Subject: language, Greek, English
