It is found in Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Quechua, Ryukyuan, Imonda and, to a limited extent, Classical Chinese.
It often overlaps with the subject of a sentence, causing confusion for learners, as most other languages lack it.
In the following example, "school" (Korean: 학교; Hanja: 學校; RR: hakkyo) is the subject, and it is marked as the topic.
학교hakkyoschool는neunTOP저기jeogiover there에eLOC있다.itta.is학교 는 저기 에 있다.hakkyo neun jeogi e itta.school TOP {over there} LOC is(The) school is over there.The topic marker is one of many Japanese particles.
[masu form of だ: copula]車 は 新しい です。kuruma wa atarashii desu.car TOP new {[masu form of だ: copula]}(The) car is new.In the following example, "television" (テレビ, terebi) is the direct object, and it is marked as the topic.
[masu form of "to go"]今日 は 学校 に 行きます。Kyou wa gakkou ni ikimasu.Today TOP school IO {[masu form of "to go"]}As for today, (I) go to school.Okinawan uses the topic marker や (ya).
あんまーanmaamotherやyaTOPちゅらさん.churasan.beautifulあんまー や ちゅらさん.anmaa ya churasan.mother TOP beautifulMother is beautiful.In multiple Kurdish and related languages there are certain fixes that signify emphasis and also the present continuous tense.
In Northern Kurdish and Zazaki, ezafe markers can function both as present continuous suffixes and be used for emphasis or statements in contrary.
This has developed from sentences where the subject is denoted to be the ... one for example: Em d kêm in u Xuedê ê temam e. (lit.
/ You drink water too.In Central and Southern Kurdish and certain other dialects, the "e" prefix is used to signify the same senses mentioned previously.
(Sorani e êre, e êsta) but when it is put before nouns it emphasizes them and attracts the accent.
.者 (zhě) is used sporadically in Classical Chinese and only when an author wants to emphasize the topic.
者 is usually omitted, unlike in other languages where a topic marker is generally required.
It is unclear how 者 and the entire sentence would have been pronounced 2,000 years ago (and what the proper romanization should have been).
陳勝Chénshèng[person name]者zhěTOP陽城Yángchéng[town name]人rénperson也。yě.is陳勝 者 陽城 人 也。Chénshèng zhě Yángchéng rén yě.