Grammar Crumbs: Articles and Body Parts

Grammar quirk: Valthungian has two definite articles – he and sa – which are inherited from the Germanic proximal and medial demonstratives, *hiz and *sa, respectively, and counterparts to the demonstratives his and sā. Sa is usually the default (as became the case in most Germanic languages), but you can use he if your “the” feels more “this-y” than “that-y.”

However, when referring to personal body parts, always use he for your own and sa for others’.

E.g. ‘my heart’ is always he hreta mīna – never þa hreta mīna; conversely, you would never say he hreta þīna – always þa.

Some other useful body parts:

	“mine”	“yours”
hair:	he hēr mīna	þa hēr þīna
head:	he hǭviþ mīna	þa hǭviþ þīna
brain:	he hrežne mīna	þa hrežne þīna
eyes:	hīž·ǭgana mīnan	þ·ōgana þīnan
nose:	he nasa mīna	þa nasa þīna
ears:	hi hǭsana mīnan	þo hǭsana þīnan
mouth:	he munþs mīna	sa munþs þīna
tongue:	hi tunga mīna	so tunga þīna
teeth:	his tynþis mīnans	þe tynþis þīnans
throat:	he haus mīna	sa haus þīna
neck:	he þnaka mīna	sa þnaka þīna
arm:	he rams mīna	sa rams þīna
hand:	hi handus mīna	so handus þīna
fingers:	his fingras mīnans	þe fingras þīnans
nail:	he naglas mīna	sa naglas þīna
chest:	he brust mīna	sa brust þīna
heart:	he hreta mīna	þa hreta þīna
lungs:	hi lungna mīnan	þo lungna þīnan
stomach:	he maga mīna	sa maga þīna
leg:	hīž·anke mīna	s·anke þīna
knee:	he knio mīna	þa knio þīna
shin:	hi skina mīna	so skina þīna
calf:	he waþua mīna	þa waþua þīna
ankle:	his anklas mīna	s·ānklas þīna
feet:	his fœučis mīnans	þe fœučis þīnans