Pointing & Naming: Articles and Demonstratives

Markers are their own part of speech

The grammar groups ti, diáy, and words like them as markers — short, closed-class words whose whole job is to introduce a noun phrase. You'll see them constantly, almost never alone.

ti — 'the/a', unmarked position

ti is the plain article. It marks a noun phrase without pointing to a specific one nearby.

• ti balásang

  the/a young woman

• Mangán ti manggá diáy ubíng.

  The child will eat a mango.

  ti manggá — an unfocused, indefinite goal

diay and dagiti — pointing at something

diáy is a demonstrative article — it marks a noun as a specific, identifiable one (closer to "that/the" with a sense of "the one we mean"). dagití is its plural: "the (several)."

• diáy ubíng

  the/that child

• dagití ubbíng

  the children

• Nagtataráy dagití ubbíng.

  The children ran away.

Short vs. long demonstratives

Beyond diáy, Ilokano has a small set of demonstrative pronouns for "this/that" that change depending on distance from the speaker and listener — the grammar book distinguishes short forms (like -ay) from long ones (like deytóy 'this', deydiáy 'that').

• Deytóy-ak.

  I am this.

• deydiáy manggá

  that mango (over there)