From ergativus absolutus to topic marking in Kiranti: a typological perspective

In many languages, clauses can be subordinated by means of case markers. For Bodic languages, a branch of Sino-Tibetan, Genetti (1986) has shown that the mean-ing of case markers on clauses is in most instances a natural extension of their function on nouns. A dative, for example, which marks a referential goal with a noun, signals a situational goal, i.e., a purpose, when used on a clause. Among the case markers recruited for subordination, we not only get relatively concrete cases like datives, comitatives and various types of locatives, but also core argument rela-tors such as ergatives and accusatives. In this paper, I focus on ergative markers in one subgroup of Bodic, viz. in Kiranti languages spoken in Eastern Nepal, espe-cially in Belhare. A typical example of ergative case-marking on a clause is the fol-lowing:1 (1) cama m-pak-yakt-u-na≥a ta-hatt-he-≥. food 3nsA-serve-IPFV-3U-ERG reach-TELIC-PT-1sA ‘I arrived there when they were dealing out the food.’ In Belhare the ergative is marked by-≥a, but after vowels there is an alternative for