In Korean, and function similarly to the Japanese topic marker. 는 is used after words that end in a vowel and 은 is used after words that end in a consonant.
Example
In the following example, "school" is the subject, and it is marked as the topic.
Japanese: は
The topic marker is one of many Japanese particles. It is written with the hiragana, which is normally pronounced ha, but when used as a particle is pronounced wa. It is placed after whatever is to be marked as the topic. If what is to be the topic would have had が, the subject marker, or を, the direct object marker, as its particle, those are replaced by は. Other particles are not replaced, and は is placed after them. The English phrase "as for" is often used to convey the connotation of は, although in many cases this sounds unnatural when used in English. It does, however, convey some senses of the particle, one of which is to mark changing topics. If a person were speaking about someone else and then switched to referring to themselves, they should say 私は, "as for me...". After that, it would not be necessary to mention again that the person is talking about themselves.
Example
In the following example, "car" is the subject, and it is marked as the topic. The が that would normally be there to mark the subject has been replaced by は. The topic normally goes at the beginning of the clause.
Okinawan: や
Similar to Japanese above, Okinawan, a Ryukyuan language closely related to Japanese, features a topic marker や ya that serves exactly the same function. However, if the topic is not a proper noun or ends with a long vowel, it tends to merge creating long vowels such as wan ya > wan nee "I am".
Example
Classical Chinese: 者 (Zhě)
Zhě is similar to the Japanese wa, but is used sporadically in Classical Chinese and only when an author wants to emphasize the topic. Zhě is usually omitted, unlike in Japanese where a topic marker is generally required. Note that although Zhě can be used as a suffix attached to a verb or adjective, transforming the verb or adjective into a noun, as a topic marker, its grammatical function is fundamentally different from that of a suffix and therefore cannot be viewed as a suffix. As an example, consider the sentence "陳勝者，陽城人也", a famous sentence from the Records of the Grand Historian:
Literal translation: Chen Sheng is a Yangcheng person.
Semantic translation: Chen Sheng is from Yangcheng originally.
Note that 者, as well as the sentence of "Chénshèng zhě, yángchéng rén yě," is romanized here according to modern Mandarin pronunciations. It is unclear how 者 and the entire sentence would have been pronounced 2,000 years ago.
Example
Note: The structure of this sentence <zhě + yě> is much more similar to the Japanese <wa + desu> structure than to modern Chinese, where topic markers have been completely lost and are not used anywhere. As the following, Note: <shì> can be omitted in some occasions.
Quechua: -qa
The topic marker "-qa" functions as a topic marker, and is added after a word. It is usually followed by the direct object marker "-ta". Other particles are not replaced, and can be placed after them. Depending on the conjugation of the verb, it can be omitted as well as the subject
Example
In the following example, Tupaq is the subject, and it is marked as the topic. The topic normally goes at the beginning of the clause.
Hindi: तो
The topic marker तो /to/ in Hindi indicates either presuppositionally shared information or shift in thematic orientation. It can come after nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and even other such markers like the agreement/disagreement markers हाँ and ना, the emphasis markers ही and भी, honorific marker जी, limiters मात्र and भर. However, if the topic marker तो is to be used with a noun, pronoun, adverb, verb or attached to a postposition or followed by another marker then the topic marker must always be put after the postposition or the other marker and never before.
Example
Mongolian бол, болбол
The Mongolian language is known to have topic markers. A common one is "бол" bol, an abbreviation of "болбол" bolbol but there are a few other words. These words have other uses as well.
