Lakota demonstratives

[Kathleen Shea]

> > I'm told that both Japanese and Spanish have a 3-way distinction
> > in demonstratives like the Lakhota one -- is the "furthest" form in
those
> > languages distributed equally with the other two?
>
> Spanish (I think):
>
> Demonstratives:    este   ese   aquel
> Locative:          aqui   alli  ahi
>                    aca    alla  aya
>
> JEK

I checked with a native speaker of Mexican Spanish, Ivonne Heinz, who is a
graduate student in linguistics here at the University of Kansas.  She seems
to have a two-way system.  She says that she uses both aqui and ahi
frequently and alli very infrequently, all referring to a location.  (She
said she thinks she uses alli in response to questions, when someone asks
about something specific.)  She uses aca  and alla for motion towards a
location and says that aya doesn't exist as far as she knows.  (I'm not sure
that there would be a difference in pronunciation anyway, at least in
Mexican Spanish, between alla and aya.)  Aqui and aca indicate,
respectively, location at and motion towards a nearby place, and ahi and
alla indicate, respectively, location at and motion towards a distant place.

Kathy Shea