Synchronic ubiquity of the Basque article -a: A look from diachrony

Abstract

The Basque definite article -a is used in more contexts than the articles in neighboring languages. This extensive use is problematic for synchronic analysis; this article will offer a diachronic perspective of the problem. Non-referential noun phrases (mass nouns and plural expressions in particular) in object position will be analyzed, showing that in old Basque they lacked the definite article; the extensive use of -a/-ak in these contexts in modern Basque will be related to the spread into non-referential expressions of the genitive plural declension mark -en, which shares its diachronic origin with the definite article -a.