the chief characteristics distinguishing the Scandinavian languages from the other Teutonic tongues.
Note 2. The enclitic (post-positive) article, besides being used with substantives standing alone, is employed with substantives qualified by the following adjectives: al all, begge both, selv self; Ex. : ai Maden all the food, selve Kongen or Kongen selv the king himself, begge Brödrene both the brothers.
153. The præ-positive definite article is:
| comm. gender. | neuter. | plural. |
| den | de(t) | de |
den store Man(d) the great man, de(t) nye Hus the new house; plur.: de store Mænd the great men. This article may also be employed with an adjective alone when used substantively: den gode the good (man), de(t) skjönne the beautiful, beauty.
Note 1. With the following adjectives the postpositive and the præpositive article may be used promiscuously: hel whole, halv half; Ex. : hele Dagen or den hele Dag the whole day, halve Riget or det halve Rige half the kingdom, störste, mindste Delen the greater, smaller part. Sometimes, mostly in poetry, the postpositive article may be used where the præpositive is regularly employed: et Skud af gamle Heltestammen, a scion of the old stock of heroes, Svenske Kysten or den svenske Kyst the Swedish coast.
Note 2 Colloquially it is common in Norway to use both the post-positive and the præ-positive article at the same time with nouns qualified by an adjective; Ex. : den store Manden the big man. In the same manner the postpositive article is in Norwegian often added to nouns determined by demonstrative pronouns: i denne Villaen in this villa here; den Manden der that man there. This is not used in Danish.
Note 3. The præpositive article is sometimes in poetry and religious style used with nouns not qualified by adjectives; Ex. : Brevet til de Romere the Epistle to the Romans, de Vover saa sagtelig trille the waves roll leisurely along.
Note 4. The præpositive article is originally the same word as the demonstrative pronoun den, det, de which has lost its logical stress and consequently its accent stress and has come to be considered as a mere prefix.
