Re: Split-Ergativity Madness

Kurdish is spoken by minority populations in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.
In all they're a pretty large group.  According to SIL Kurdi has over 11
million speakers -- 2,785,000 in Iraq, 3,250,000 in Iran.  They also
indicate that only 15% of Iranian Kurds and 27% of Iraqi Kurds are literate
in a language other than Kurdish.  Sounds like the language is holding its
own to me.  Their site also identifies Kurdi as a member of the Iranian
sub-branch of IE.

Adam

So lift the cup of joy and take a big drink.
In spite of it all it's a beautiful world.
-------Suzanne Knutzen




>From: David Peterson <DigitalScream@...>
>Reply-To: Constructed Languages List <CONLANG@...>
>To: CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU
>Subject: Re: Split-Ergativity Madness
>Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2001 03:40:24 EDT
>
>In a message dated 10/3/01 7:53:23 PM, amber@OJNK.NET writes:
>
><< What is Kurdish related to?  Is it IE? >>
>
>     I'm not sure...  It's spoken by a small group of people in Iran, I'm
>told, though it's quickly disappearing.  I think the reason why the
>construction may look familiar (if, indeed, it turns out not to be related
>to
>Hindi) is because a passive can often times turn into an ergative past
>tense--or, at least, that's what my historical linguistics professor is
>arguing.
>
>-David

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