Re: [tied] Re: Accusative was allative

> I don't have my books at hand, but I seem to remember that Dixon
> ("Ergativity") states somewhere that while we can have a marked
> nominative (in accusativic languages), there is no such thing as a
> marked absolutive (in ergativic languages).

Although there are a few with distinct marking on A, P and absolutive.

> When a language changes type, from accusativic to ergativic, or from
> ergativic to accusativic, the development is hardly ever one of simple
> inversion of the case endings.

It's also common for ergative languages to be split.

Harald