--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...> wrote:
>
> I believe Avestan has examples of subjects in gen.pl.
>
> BTW the PIE nom *-s, gen. *-Vs looks suspicious, especially since
an
> accusative language like PIE should have an unmarked nom., like
Uralic.
The syntax of early PIE might have been ergative. William R.
Schmalstieg's The Ergative Syntax of the Indo-European Middle Aorist
[Lingua Posnaniensis XXXI, p.20]: "One can surmise that in the Indo-
European languages some nouns (i.e., those which are attested as
*{j}o-stem masculines {or feminines}) transformed the old ergative
(= genitive) into the nominative case, whereas the remaining classes
transformed the old absolute into the nominative case. This
derivation of the sigmatic nominative singular from the sigmatic
genitive singular explains their identity in Hittite (e.g., nom. =
gen. sg. antuHs^as^ 'man' {Ivanov, 1963,132-133}), the Gothic *jo-
stem nom. = gen. sg. harjis 'army', haírdeis 'shepherd', Vedic nom.
= gen. sg. ve-s 'bird' (beside the usual nom. sg. vi-s {Specht,
1947, 362}).
Ualarauans