Re: What features do P-I-E languages have in common?
| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, July 16, 2003, 20:50 |
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Mark J. Reed scripsit:
> Okay, my goal is to design a family of languages that all descend
> from PIE, but have been completely isolated from all other
> members of that family for the past few tens of millennia
The time depth of PIE is only about 6000 years.
> So, my question: apart from the common vocabulary roots, are there
> any grammatical tendencies that are present more often in PIE
> languages than in non-PIE languages?
Generally speaking, I'd expect to see SOV, inflecting, a fair number
of noun cases, three genders, plenty of tenses, adjectives noun-like.
But just about all of these features can and do change in later history:
they are what we get by extrapolating from the oldest available languages
in each branch.
--
BALIN FUNDINUL UZBAD KHAZADDUMU jcowan@reutershealth.com
BALIN SON OF FUNDIN LORD OF KHAZAD-DUM http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
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