re Northern Subject Rule

[Rich Alderson]

On 14 Dec 2000, Stanley Friesen wrote:

>> What about one of the basic rules of classical Greek - neuter plural nouns
>> take a singular verb, which I think was presented to us in my first lesson
>> in the early '60s (well 'before the Beatles first LP')?

>> The construction is similar (but not entirely so) in Gaelic - ...

> On this basis some have reconstructed this construction to PIE.

Actually, the same rule ("neuter plural nouns govern singular verbs") is found
in Vedic Sanskrit and in Hittite.  It was the presence of this rule in Indic
and Greek that led Schmidt to the conclusion that neuter plurals were in origin
collective singulars.

Note that the feminine in *-a: < *-eH{_1} is formally identical to the neuter
plural = collective, which has led some to postulate a common origin, with the
semantics developing from "member of a herd" => "female".  This proposal does
not mesh well, in my opinion, with the proposal that the early IE verb system
was active/stative.

								Rich Alderson