Re: CONLANG Digest - 21 Feb 2004 to 22 Feb 2004 (#2004-52)

In a message dated 2/24/2004 6:43:09 PM Eastern Standard Time,
jq_ithkuil@INREACH.COM writes:

>Perhaps there's a better way to put Phillipe's question: Isn't it curious
>that most ergative languages (with the exception of Hindi) appear to occur
>in cultures that have historically shown extreme cultural homogeneity and
>cultural isolation, whether through physical inaccessibility (e.g., the
>Dagestanian languages of the Caucausus, Tonganese, Burushaski, etc.), or a
>strong sense of cultural identity, lack of dispersion from their homeland
>or adherence to a traditional way of life (e.g., Basque, Georgian, the
>Paleo-Siberian languages)?
I don't think there's really a correlation here, but I'm not going to try to
argue the point.

BTW, whoever started this thread (I forget) should have used a better subject
line than "Re: CONLANG DIGEST . . ."  It would be better to give some hint of
what in that digest you were replying to.

Doug