Page:A simplified grammar of the Danish language.djvu/47

Rh The indefinite article must be repeated after og, even where the nouns, which it enumerates, are of the same gender; as, en Mand og en Kone, 'a man and a woman.'

This article is not used to designate a rank, or calling, or a distinctive qualification; as, Er han Grev eller Baron? "Is he (a) Count or (a) Baron?" Han er Læge, "He is (a) doctor;" Hun er Enke, "She is (a) widow;" Han er Protestant, "He is (a) Protestant."

The indefinite article may be used with a plural to express an indefinite quantity in the sense of "about," "nearly;" as, jeg bliver her tre, fire Uger, "I shall stay here about three or four weeks." (De bestemte Kendeord.)

The agglutination with the noun of the affix-article en or n (m.f.), et or t (n.), ene or ne (pl.), which constitutes the most striking characteristic of the Scandinavian tongues, has been derived from the Old Northern, although it does not occur in Old Gothic. It is met with, however, under a modified form in Roumanian and Bulgarian, as well as in Albanian, which must be regarded as more original in structure than either of the former.

In the most ancient Icelandic writings the definite noun-article is not to be found, but it would appear that the demonstrative pronoun hinn (m.), hin (f.), hitt (n.), 'that,' was early used after the noun to define the latter, as is still frequently done by Norwegians in the case of the pronouns min, din, sin; as, Fader min, 'father mine;' Broder din, 'brother thine;' &c. The Danes and Norwegians, following