accusative and ergative languages

[Ralf-Stefan Georg]

>> Try reconstructing PIE using _nothing_ but contemporary Albanian and
>> English.  You'd be hard-put to prove that such a language even existed.

>It is thuis type of illogic which stands in the way of real progress in
>historical linguistics.

>Larry Trask and others have done an excellent job, IMHO, of reconstructing
>the language from which present Basque derives --- from only one language.

That's because Basque has been for long known to be related to Basque. This
is called internal reconstruction.

>I also am certain that if we had reason to know that Albanian and English
>were descendants of a common language, we would eventually discover a kind
>of IE that would be inaccurate in some ways but essentially write.

The trick is about having reasons to know this, without resorting to some
ideology which tells you before, i.e. without looking at any data.

>Naturally, the more languages we added to the equation, the better
>reconstruction of IE we would achieve.

>Same principle.

>Pat
>
>PATRICK C. RYAN (501) 227-9947; FAX/DATA (501)312-9947 9115 W. 34th St.

[ moderator snip ]

Stefan Georg
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