Glen: Ah yes. The question is: Why NOT seperate Sumerian from Elamite? I
haven't seen anything so far that would warrant Sumerian and Elamite to
be very close.
Gerry: Are Sumerian and Elamite both ergative languages?
Glen: Elamite is often said to bare similarities with Dravidian. If we
view Eurasiatic as expanding towards the eastern steppe, Sumerian pretty
much holds the original locale, Elamite is a little further east,
Dravidian some more and Steppe is fully so. When one draws out the
family tree, this should be represented. As such, we might speak of an
ElamoDravidian subbranch under Eurasiatic, seperate from Sumerian, with
a DravidoSteppe subsubbranch which in turn has a Steppe subsubsubbranch.
...On the other hand, the group could have expanded first and then
dialects formed in their respective geographical areas, making Sumerian,
Elamite, Dravidian and Steppe equal members of Eurasiatic.
Gerry: And what about Dravidian and Steppe. Are they *ergative* also?
Gerry
2/17/00
--
Gerald Reinhart
Independent Scholar
(650) 321-7378
waluk@...
http://www.alekseevmanuscript.com