Third-person possessive suffixes as definite articles in Semitic

Abstract

One of the best-known features of Neo-Ethio-Semitic languages is the use of the third-person possessive suffix as a definite article (Appleyard 2005, Rubin 2010). In this study we show that third-person possessive suffixes are also used as definite articles in other Semitic languages, although in none of them is this function fully grammaticalized, as it is in Ethio-Semitic. Beyond adding data that have received little attention so far, we offer an explanation for the phenomenon in Semitic, rather than concentrating on one branch, as has been done thus far in the literature.