Indefinite articles and licensing of nominals in two Slavic varieties

I address the status of an indefinite article in two understudied Slavic varieties spoken in Italy, Resian and Molise Croatian. By applying standard diagnostics, I show that both varieties have grammaticalized an indefinite article. I further compare the distribution of nouns in these two varieties, which allow bare nominals in argument position, on a par with other Slavic articleless languages, and conclude that Resian, but not Molise Croatian, has also developed a definite article. Considering that the distribution of the definite article in Resian is restricted to nouns with prenominal modifiers, I argue that the rise of the definite article is related to adjectival syntax – if adjectives are placed prenominally, which is the case in Resian but not in Molise Croatian, they prevent the noun from being in a local relation with a definite D(eterminer). I also claim that the development of an indefinite article is completely independent of the emergence of a definite article, which explains the similarities between the two varieties.