Comment by Muromec

1 day ago

that was my expectation as well, because mosyt languages dont have a concept of articles

According to one count, 32% of languages don't have articles (although only based on 620 languages. 198 / 620).

https://wals.info/chapter/37

  • What I think is wild is that Indo-European languages have developed articles at least four times: in Greek (apparently from a weak demonstrative) with only the definite article, in Romance languages from vulgar Latin with both definite and indefinite articles, distinctly in Romanian where only the definite article exists as an enclitic (suffixed to the noun), and in some, but not all, Germanic languages, perhaps under the influence of vulgar Latin, but I’ve not been able to trace it in my meagre attempts to research the topic.