In this paper the author discusses the definite articles in Sogdian, an East Middle Iranian language, both from synchronic and diachronic perspectives. While the articles abound in Buddhist Sogdian texts of the eighth century, very few articles are encountered in Christian Sogdian texts of the tenth century. The articles of he Buddhist texts are comparable with the definite articles of the modern Western European languages like English and French, while Sogdian differs from the European languages in that the former attests the articles representing three types of deixis referred to as hic, iste, and ille types. Functionally only the ille type can be called the definite article, whereas the remaining two, in particular the iste type, still maintain their deictic force. Inquiries as to how and why the deifinite articles came to be abolished so quickly are also addressed.
目次
Introduction 261 Definite articles in Sogdian and other Iranian languages 261 The Sogdian articles 263 Greenberg’s (1978) theory and the Sogdian article 265 Nature of the Sogdian articles originating from the weak demonstratives of ille deixis 267 Sogdian articles in French translation: Vessantara Jātaka 268 Articles and the three systems of deixis 270 Archaism of the language of the Ancient Letters 272 Frequency of the articles and the contexts where bare forms are employed 272 Decline of the definite article 276 Conclusion 279
