The indefinite article, homophonous to the numeral, can be used without a following NP to refer to persons and things. In the following examples, this article (or determiner) refers to persons:

In the following examples, it refers to things:

Note that these examples are idiomatic, a matter for further investigation. The determiner may also be part of phrases signifying ‘nobody’. In the first place, it can be preceded by the loan from German irgend ‘any’, which seems to be a free choice item. An example is given below:

In this example, irgendaan does not seem to be different from aan. The following example may be less innocuous in this respect:

Nowadays, irgend- is well entrenched in spoken Saterland Frisian. In the second place, the existential determiner can be part of an idiomatic disjunction: een of uur ‘one or other > somebody’

Note by the way, that the disjunction doesn’t employ the masculine form aan, but the feminine/neuter form een. See also: universal quantification for the phrase een foar uur ‘everyone’, which features the same form followed by a PP foaruur ‘other’.

A special subclass of existential quantifiers derives from interrogative pronouns. They function as interrogatives, but they can also function as existential quantifiers, especially in the middle field, that is, in the VP.

The following examples show that the adjectival pronoun, used without a following NP, can refer to persons and things:

Note that the pronoun is written with a following -n in case it refers to persons, whereas it just exhibits normal adjectival agreement in schwa when referring to things. For persons, the form wäkkene has also been encountered. Surprisingly, the pronoun can also be interpreted as an existential determiner at the beginning of the clause:

So it is not the case that its position in the clause determines its reference. Compare this to the neuter interrogative wät ‘what’. The neuter interrogative cannot be interpreted as an existential determiner at the beginning of the clause, it can only be thus interpreted inside VP.

The following examples show that the interrogative pronoun foar persons can be used as an indefinite quantifier for persons.

It is not clear whether wäl and aan can always be interchanged and what the coditions on their use are. See also: Negative quantification (7.3)

This neuter pronoun is used quite generally as an indefinite quantifier, not only in Saterland Frisian but also in West Frisian and Dutch. The following examples illustrate its use as an existential quantifier, non-human, with a count interpretation:

It can also have a mass interpretation, as in the following example:

In that case it quantifies over substance. It can refer to adjectives, in which case it quantifies over degrees of the property denoted by the adjective, see AP. Two peculiar usages are signalled below:

The first example has the quantifier in a weird position in the clause, following the PP from which it gets its reference. The second example features an exclamative, in which the existential quantifier now receives a high degree reading. As a question word, wät ‘what’ can also be be used as an adjectival pronoun. In this use, it can also have an existential reading, as a synonym of wäkke ‘which’:

Saterland Frisian has gone further than West Frisian or Dutch in not only allowing the neuter interrogative to be used as an existential quantifier, but also the interrogative for persons and the interrogative for adjectives. The existential quantifier for frequency is: insen (or the German loan moal). Some examples are given below:

The frequency / time distinction can be likened to the count / mass distinction.The existential quantifier for time is: ieuwen ‘a moment’. Some examples are given below:

This existential quantifier is used for softening commands or making them more polite. In a way, it can be likened to diminutives. It is often left untranslated in English, or it can sometimes be translated as ‘please’. A variant form has the appearance of a plural diminutive: ieuwenkes ‘a moment’. An example is given below:

Its Dutch and West Frisian cognates similarly have a normal form and a diminutive form, without any difference in meaning. The German interference moal is used in the same contexts in which ieuwen is used, and from a prescriptive perspective, its use should be discouraged.