Personal Pronouns / Ergativity

[petegray]

Carol said:

> On Hittite kuen-, ... for
> which the passive is the suppletive -hi verb ak(k)-/ek(k)- 'die', which is
> attested with medio-passive endings. .... I
> don't know what the system of Hittite is doing here, but I find it
> fascinating to try to find out. But if Hittite was at all like PIE in this
> respect, then the argument for a PIE passive of *ghwen- is hereby weakened.

A parallel exists in Greek, which has a perfectly productive medio-passive
(and passive some forms).   The (apo-)kteino "to kill" uses the suppletive
(apo-)thne:sko "to die" as its passive.

Peter