--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:
> The "have" construction is present in Hittite as well
And occured in some Middle (Eastern) Iranian languages (Khotanese?) as
well. Precise details are in an article reprinted in Benveniste's
Problems in General Linguistics. His claim is that the 'have'
construction is found precisely in those languages that use a verb of
possession (and have a perfect formed with an auxilliary). I don't
know if this has been checked outside IE languages.
An interesting sidelight is the -tavat (-ta from -*to + -va(n)t, a
suffix denoting possession) form of Sanskrit which occurs sporadically
in a verbal role, but did not catch on Middle IA languages.