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Is the Hattic verb aligned actively, ergatively or accusatively, and what does each verbal prefix mark?

Asked 31 Oct 2026 by ·Part of What language family, if any, does Hattic belong to?·2 answers·0·0 following
Two answers, none aheadNone is ahead yet. See what would settle it.

Where it stands

Two answers have been proposed. None is ahead on the evidence yet. Two are still possible.

Why it matters

The three current grammars disagree on the prefix chain; settling it fixes how every Hattic sentence in the bilinguals is parsed and what typological profile any comparison must match.

Answers 2

Evidence: 1 for, 1 against
Still possible
Evidence: 1 for, 1 against
Still possible

History

  1. Annelies Kammenhuber: the earlier grammars of Kammenhuber and Girbal describe the prefix slots without an active or ergative alignment.For: Hattic is nominative-accusative, and the variation between an- and zero reflects other categories (tense, aspect or…
  2. Christian Girbal: the earlier grammars of Kammenhuber and Girbal describe the prefix slots without an active or ergative alignment.For: Hattic is nominative-accusative, and the variation between an- and zero reflects other categories (tense, aspect or…
  3. Petra M. Goedegebuure: in the bilinguals both an- and zero occur with intransitive verbs, and Goedegebuure ties the choice to whether the…For: Hattic is an active language with an ergative base: an- marks the agent of a transitive verb, zero marks the patient…
  4. Petra M. Goedegebuure: goedegebuure rejects scribal error as the explanation for an- and zero with intransitive verbs and finds a semantic…Against: Hattic is nominative-accusative, and the variation between an- and zero reflects other categories (tense, aspect or…
  5. Zsolt Simon: schrijver's 2018 analysis of the same prefix chain and Simon's 2012 grammar reach different accounts of the Hattic verb.Against: Hattic is an active language with an ergative base: an- marks the agent of a transitive verb, zero marks the patient…
  6. Peter Schrijver: schrijver's 2018 analysis of the same prefix chain and Simon's 2012 grammar reach different accounts of the Hattic verb.Against: Hattic is an active language with an ergative base: an- marks the agent of a transitive verb, zero marks the patient…
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