Re: But where does *-mi come from?

From: tgpedersen
Message: 38866
Date: 2005-06-22

>
> > > If *-m marks the object in Uralic and Indo-European, what is
it
> > most
> > > likely to have marked the day they split from each other?
> > Something
> > > completely different?
> >
> > If the language was ergative at that time, the question makes no
> > sense. Objects, along with subjects of intransive sentences,
would
> > of course be 'marked' with nothing, since the absolutive was
> > endingless. And both languages would have an allative (or
> illative)
> > in *-m.
>
> The observation that *-m marks the object in a non-ergative syntax
> in IE and Uralic alike is not a very good basis for supposing the
> languages were any different when they separated.
>

Yes. And when did I make it a basis for that hypothesis?


Torsten