4.3 Demonstratives 239w-en, etc.), have unreliable accents. In postnominal position, the
demonstrative has independent accentuation, so all demonstratives are heard as
accented. However, the monosyllabic demonstratives are often unaccented in
the (infrequent) case where they directly follow a preposition, as in dxr w-a
'in this'.
(214) Demonstrative pronouns
category MaSg MaPl FeSg FePla. gender-number marked
unmarked w-ά w-i t-ά t-1
Proximal w-d-hi w-i-hi t-d-hi t-i-hi
Near-Distant ws-dl w-i-di ta-dl t-i-di
II ws-dl-hi w-i-di-hi ta-di-hi t-i-dl-hi
Distant w-en w-l-n t-en t-ί-η
II w-en-hi w-i-n-hi t-en-hi t-in-hi
Recent Anaphoric wa-nnin w-i-nnln ta-nnin t-i-nnln
II w3-ndln w-i-ndin ts-ndi-n t-i-ndlnb. single form
unmarked a-w-ά
Proximal ά-di
Distant a-w-en
Focus a
minimal Dem άThe MaSg unmarked, Proximal, and Distant demonstratives often occur
following the minimal demonstrative ά to form a neutral demonstrative
glossable 'this', 'that', with no specific gender identity: α w-ά 'this/that'
(unmarked), α w-a-hi 'this', α-w-en 'that' (Anaphoric α w-en-daer).
The form α w-a-hi 'this (one)' can also be taken as a demonstrative noun
a-w-d-hi 'this thing', which generates a full paradigm: MaPl i-w-a-hi-taen,
FeSg t-a-wa-hi-t-t, FePl t-i-wa-hi-t-en.
The single-form demonstratives (214.b) have less definite reference than
the forms showing agreement. The single forms can be glossed 'that', 'this',
etc. The Focus form is a minimal demonstrative used in apposition to a fronted
(focalized) constituent (§12.2).
The unmarked set can be used loosely in proximal sense, but are also
used e.g. at the beginning of definite relative clauses where no deictic sense is
involved. In MaSg w-ά and FeSg t-ά, clearly w- and t- are gender markers and
-a is the (singular) stem. MaPl w-1 and FePl t-ί have the same gender markers.
One can argue whether they have a plural demonstrative stem -i contrasting
with singular -a, or whether they add PI -i to /-a-/ with VV-Contraction (41.c)
(e.,g. Λν-ά-ΐ/ > w-0-1).