The Kashubian indefinite marker jeden ‘one’ and its grammaticalisation

Abstract

This article analyses the use of the indefinite marker jeden ‘one’ in contemporary Kashubian, which has often been treated simply as an indefinite article in previous studies. A synchronic description has been presented in the first part of this paper, comparing the use of the indefinite marker in Kashubian with that in Polish, Upper Sorbian and German. The second part deals with the diachronic change in Kashubian in this respect. The main conclusion of this paper is that Kashubian has never developed the indefinite article per se, while its usage was far more frequent in the past, which could be explained by the emergence of the German influence.

Keywords

• kashubian
• indefinite marker
• language contact
• german
• upper sorbian
• polish