Other languages, like Finnish, Nandi, Hawaiian, Latin, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian (in some formal writing), Armenian, Serbo-Croatian, Macedonian, Georgian, Basque, Korean, Japanese, Ukrainian, Bengali, and Sri Lankan Tamil make a three-way distinction.
However, they're of wide and very common usage in some Regions, like Tuscany): in Hawaiian: in Armenian (based on the proximal "s", medial "d/t", and distal "n"): այսaysխնձորըkhndzorëայս խնձորըays khndzorë"this apple"այդaydխնձորըkhndzorëայդ խնձորըayd khndzorë"that apple (near you)"այնaynխնձորըkhndzorëայն խնձորըayn khndzorë"yon apple (over there, away from both of us)"and, in Georgian: ამისიamisiმამაmamaამისი მამაamisi mama"this one's father"იმისიimisiცოლიcoliიმისი ცოლიimisi coli"that one's wife"მაგისიmagisiსახლიsaxliმაგისი სახლიmagisi saxli"that (by you) one's house"and, in Ukrainian (note that Ukrainian has not only number, but also three grammatical genders in singular): and, in Japanese: このkonoリンゴringoこの リンゴkono ringo"this apple"そのsonoリンゴringoその リンゴsono ringo"that apple"あのanoリンゴringoあの リンゴano ringo"that apple (over there)"In Nandi (Kalenjin of Kenya, Uganda and Eastern Congo): Chego chu, Chego choo, Chego chuun "this milk", "that milk" (near the second person) and "that milk" (away from the first and second person, near a third person or even further away).
Ancient Greek has a three-way distinction between ὅδε (hóde "this here"), οὗτος (hoûtos "this"), and ἐκεῖνος (ekeînos "that").
Very rich, with more than 70 variants, the demonstrative pronouns in Arabic principally change depending on the gender and the number.
[3] Cognates of "yonder" still exist in some Northern English and Scots dialects; There are languages which make a four-way distinction, such as Northern Sami: These four-way distinctions are often termed proximal, mesioproximal, mesiodistal, and distal.
The demonstratives in Seri are compound forms based on the definite articles (themselves derived from verbs) and therefore incorporate the positional information of the articles (standing, sitting, lying, coming, going) in addition to the three-way spatial distinction.
With the exception of Romanian, and some varieties of Spanish and Portuguese, the neuter gender has been lost in the Romance languages.
also occasionally employ ello, which is an archaic survival of the neuter pronoun from Latin illud.
[citation needed] Neuter demonstratives refer to ideas of indeterminate gender, such as abstractions and groups of heterogeneous objects, and has a limited agreement in Portuguese, for example, "all of that" can be translated as "todo aquele" (m), "toda aquela" (f) or "tudo aquilo" (n) in Portuguese, although the neuter forms require a masculine adjective agreement: "Tudo (n) aquilo (n) está quebrado (m)" (All of that is broken).
Classical Chinese had three main demonstrative pronouns: proximal 此 (this), distal 彼 (that), and distance-neutral 是 (this or that).
[6] The frequent use of 是 as a resumptive demonstrative pronoun that reasserted the subject before a noun predicate caused it to develop into its colloquial use as a copula by the Han period and subsequently its standard use as a copula in Modern Standard Chinese.
Similarly, Northern Wu languages tend to also have a distance-neutral demonstrative 搿, which is etymologically a checked-tone derivation of 個.
[13] Some dialects, such as Southern American English, also use yon and yonder, where the latter is usually employed as a demonstrative determiner.