On ergative case in Himalayan languages

Abstract

We discuss variation in the appearance of the ‘ergative’ case in Bumthang, a Bodic language of central Bhutan (described in van Driem 1995). In this paper, we report on fieldwork from the variety spoken in Ura, in the south-east of the language’s range. In particular, we focus on the ergative case and suggested analysis for how to determine ergative case usage as outlined in Donohue & Donohue 2016. In the context of other Himalayan languages, we discuss how the findings bear on other Himalayan languages and situate the analysis in the literature discussing other languages that show variability in the use of the ergative case, not uncommon in the Himalayas (e.g. Chelliah & Hyslop 2011). We discuss how the variation in ergative marking varies due to information structure differences (topic, or anti-topic), as well as differences in tense/aspect, lexical aspect, and animacy. While each of these factors have been shown to be important in determining the use of ergative case in other languages described as showing split ergativity, Bumthang shows us that at least in some languages, all these factors are important in understanding the use of the ergative case marker. We discuss these results in a typological context with a focus on south Asian languages.