accusative and ergative languages

[Patrick C. Ryan]

Dear Peter and IEists:
 ----- Original Message -----
From: petegray <petegray at btinternet.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 29, 1999 3:07 PM

<snip>

Peter:

> IE roots of the kind CRC had the ablauts CeRC, CoRC, CR.C.   The first
> appears in the Germanic present, the second in the past singular, the third
> in the past plural and the past participle (remember that PIE /o/ appears as
> /a/ in Germanic).  After standardisation of the vowel of the past, we find
> in modern German:
>     werfen    warf    geworfen

Pat:

Yes, but if a new verb were formed, e.g. webben (from English 'web'), there
is no possibility that it would be conjugated webben, wabb, gewobben.

What I consider 'internal inflection'  is Arabic yaktubu, kataba, katibun,
etc. which applies to any and all verbs, old, and those taken new into the
language.

 Pat

PATRICK C. RYAN (501) 227-9947; FAX/DATA (501)312-9947 9115 W. 34th St.
Little Rock, AR 72204-4441 USA WEBPAGES:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803 and PROTO-RELIGION:
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2803/proto-religion/indexR.html "Veit
ek, at ek hekk, vindga meipi, nftr allar nmu, geiri undapr . . . a ~eim
meipi er mangi veit hvers hann af rstum renn." (Havamal 138)