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<html><head><title>Verbal Morphology</title></head>
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<center><h1><!--title-->Verbal Morphology
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<p>Posted by <b><!--poster-->Håvard Tegle</b>
on <!--date-->18:09 7/28/01
<p>In reply to: (none)
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<p>
Excerpt from Proto-Eastern page:
<blockquote><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
<br>Verbs are conjugated by person and number. The personal endings are similar in all tenses. In the present tense, for instance, the endings all follow the pattern
<br>I. sg. <b>aw</b>V II. sg. <b>ew</b>Vs III. sg. <b>et</b> I. pl. V<b>wmu</b> II. pl. V<b>wsi</b> III. pl. V<b>ntu</b>
<br>The vowel V varies by conjugation. The endings are similar in the other tenses, and it is tempting to derive the endings from a previous morpheme sequence
<br> tense + plural + pronoun
e.g. <b>V w mu</b>
<br>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
</blockquote>
The peculiarities in the person category of the different conjugations remind
me of a theory that the active, medium and perfect Indo-European endings
originated from the verb showing concordance by locative(= ergative), dative
and accusative(= absolutive) reference.
<p>See <a href="http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Hall/9766/indoeuro/verbend.htm">http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Hall/9766/indoeuro/verbend.htm</a>
<p>If such a development is recognised for Proto-Eastern then one can explain
the vocalic alternations (marked as 'V' above) as relics of different older case endings.
A shift in case system (ergative --> nominative) might have made this system obsolete.
The verbs could be grouped after what reference they kept which resulted in
the brake-up into conjugations. Any thoughts?
<p>PS: This belongs to the subjects I had in mind when starting a-lxs.
(Almean linguistic studies discussion group)
<p>Best regards,
<br>Håvard
<hr><i>Mark responds:
<p>I'm not sure I follow Alscher's argument... it's probably too late
(2 a.m.). Sounds intriguing, though. I'll have to look at it again
(and perhaps also at Winfred Lehmann, who argues that IE was a
stative language).
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<b>Håvard Tegle</b>
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