Most languages I’ve encountered seem to have a way of indicating that something or somebody is close to the speaker, i.e. this man, or close to the listener, i.e. that man. Some languages make a third distinction: that something is distant from both the speaker and the listener. In standard English you can express this idea by saying something like ‘that man over there’, but in some dialects of English you can say ‘yon man’, ‘yonder man’ or ‘that there man’.
Does anybody know of any languages that make further distinctions?
In the Celtic languages there are no single words for this and that. Instead they use the constructions ‘the man here’ and ‘the man there’.
Irish
an duine seo – this man
an duine sin – that man
an duine úd – that man over there / yonder man
Scottish Gaelic
an duine seo – this man
an duine sin – that man
an duine siud – that man over there / yonder man
Manx
yn dooinney shoh – this man
yn dooinney shen – that man
yn dooinney shid – that man over there / yonder man
Welsh
y dyn ʼma – this man
y dyn ʼna – that man
y dyn acw – that man over there / yonder man