Datapoint Kikongo-Kituba/Definite articles

Kikongo-Kituba is regarded as lacking a definite article, although the demonstratives yayi and yina can be rendered by 'the' as well.Discourse context determines whether they are interpreted as demonstratives or definite articles. Maybe definiteness can be correlated with anaphoric use, but this has not been investigated. The demonstrative is not obligatory with definite noun phrases; a singular noun often has definite reference unless it combines with the quantifier 'one'.

Values

Neither definite nor indefinite article

Example 58-38:
muntu yayi, ba-ntu yayi
muntu
person
yayi,
this
ba-ntu
persons
yayi
this
this/the person these/the persons
Example 58-39:
mu-nti yina, ba-ntu yina
mu-nti
person
yina,
that
ba-ntu
persons
yina
that
that/the person, those/the persons
Confidence:
Certain