Re: Basque/Georgian

From: John Croft
Message: 1475
Date: 2000-02-13

Mark wrote
original article:http://www.egroups.com/group/cybalist/?start=1465
> Beekes give some compelling arguments that PIE may have descended
from an older ergative language, eg, the old genitive became used as
the new nominative (the agent in a passive construction is often a
genetive, eg, in German ("von") & Dutch dialects ("van").

For a discussion on the ergative nature of PIE see
http://www.dabis.at/Anwender.htm/Alscher/contents.htm

Glen, any chance that Nostratic was also ergative?

(Sorry I don't have dictionaries, I am not a professional linguist)

Regards

John