But isn't that the major contributing factor to the preservation of an
ergative system - islands in a sea of accusativeness?
Mike
>
> >If I may ask: isn't it remarkable that languages
> >presented as examples for ergativity (Basque, Eskimo,
> >Georgian, Dyirbal...) nearly always seem to be used in
> >very far-off, hidden and hardly reachable places,
> >seeming to indicate that these people had little
> >contact with other ones ?
> >
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