A, the known or unknown person, people, thing, things.
Nan bolog an innal'u ya inihda'.
As for the mudfish that I got, I ate it.
A phrase introduced by this determiner is distributed as follows: 1) As a sentence introducer.
Nan manu''u ya inlā'u' ti mi'id pīhu'.
As for the chicken of mine, I sold it because I had no money.
2) As a sentence comment.
Nan halawhaw an innal Oltāgon di inhāang'u.
What I cooked was the vegetables which Oltāgon got.
3) As a sentence topic.
Immanāmut nan manu' an natīla'.
The chicken which was lost came home.
4) With a genitive ligature suffix -n preceding, as a genitive phrase, either a possessive phrase or a non-focused agent of a verb phrase.
Mun'el'el nan ūlun nan imbaluy Būgan.
The head of the child of Būgan pains.
Inyālin nan ihāwan Bāyaw nan bāluna.
The wife of Bāyaw brought his pack-lunch.
5) With a referent or locative determiner hi1, (variant -h) preceding, as a verb phrase expansion. In this context, nan serves to identify a definite referent or locative.
Hi Battun an pa''ālih nan babluy tu'u ya waday dogohna.
As for Battun who just came to the village of ours, he is sick.
6) With a coordinating conjunction, ya, preceding, as a conjunctive phrase.
Natīla' anu da Innāwan ya nan kāhuda.
They say that Innāwan and those with him and the dogs of theirs were lost.
7) Following either hādi those far or hāna those near (the hearer).
Nunggaūdanda hādi nan goday.
They completely shoveled those far earth slides, (lit ...those, the far..).
Immuyda intamol hādi nan holo' an innalda.
They went to soak that grass which they got, (lit ...that, the grass...).
See sections 7.3.1.1 and 7.25.1.
When not otherwise specified by context, nan usually indicates a definite person or thing, han an indefinite person or thing.