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From: "Danny Wier" <
dawier@...>
Date sent: Tue, 04 Jul 2000 07:16:40 CDT
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Subject: Re: [TIED] IE, AA, Nostratic and Ringo
> Possible evidence of an "ergative" system for neuters. (I thought the
> neuter plural merged with the feminine singular. Or is it just that one
> case, nominative?)
Yes, the idea that the PIE system developed from an ergative one
has been in circulation since the end of the 19th century. At that
period the best-known examples of ergative systems were those of
various Caucasian languages and of Basque. As we know at
present, there are different shades of "ergativity" -- a whole
spectrum is very nicely illustrated by the various Australian
languages. Some of them bear a strong typological resemblance to
what's reconstructed for PIE.
As the feminine gender became established, there were feminines
as well as somewhat rarer masculines in *-ax- (the latter mostly
occupational nouns, cf. Latin nauta, agricola). They differed from
neuter plurals in having a distinct Acc. form (*-ax-m > *-a:m). Of
course they also had their own Nom.pl. (*-ax-es > *-a:s),
Nom/Acc.du. (exceptionally, of a neuter-like type, *-ax-i: > *-ai),
and Acc.pl. (*ax-ns > *-a:ns), etc.
Neuter "plurals" could be used with a singular verb even in Greek
and Sanskrit. Collective formations involving *-j- occur e.g. in Slavic
(*list-ij-e 'foliage' vs. *list-U 'leaf'), which explains why this stem
extension was employed in neuter duals as well as (occasionally)
in neuter "plurals" (*-j-ax). An special type of stress-shifting
collective (or rather "augmentative"?) formation can be seen in
ancient neuters like *wodr vs. *wedo:r 'water' (reflected in Hittite).
Piotr
><><><PIOTR><><><
[pyotr gonshorofski]
School of English
Adam Mickiewicz University
Poznan, Poland
><><><>BYE<><><><