Usage and relation of に to 他

Question

Tae Kim translates the following as:

他にいいものがたくさんあるけど、やっぱりこれにする。
There are a lot of other good things, but as I thought, I'll go with this one.

Here is 他 a noun, adjective or an adverb? I would think adjective, but then why the に？ Because 他 is a の (as opposed to な）adjective then the conjugation　to change to an adverb should be "他く" not "他に". However, 他 (ほか) does not end in い　so I'm thoroughly confused as to how 他 conjugates as an adverb.

Can someone please explain to me what 他 is and why we use 他にいいもの　as opposed to 他いいもの or 他のいいもの to express "good things"?

Answer 1

I would recommend avoiding projecting English/Western linguistic terminology onto Japanese as much as humanly possible, as it will mostly just distort what is really going on. Focus on how it is used until you're ready to read about native Japanese linguistic analysis. 他に is ほかに because that's how it's used, in the end.

A more satisfying answer in between blind tautology and heavy-duty analysis is to analyze 「他に」 as a 'list of alternatives', as shown by the 「これにする」fragment. "他に" is expressing the existence of other choices, which you know is given the に particle.

「 どれに する？」

「うん…これと、これかな。」

「他には？」

「あと、そこの…」

「赤いの、それとも、青いの？」

「うん…やっぱり 青いのに しよう。」

(If you are a programmer or an adventure gamer, you can think of it as a forked path, and the "に" here as marking a direction or destination you go to upon choosing.)