Re: Indo-European Languages and Gramatical Gender Loss

Xabi wrote:
Richard Wordingham wrote:

Along the same lines, some languages actually have the 4th person ('obviative').

Thank you, I have learned something new. It is some sort of an indefinite third person, isn't it?

In general, no, though there can be evolutionary change form one to the other. I believe http://people.ucsc.edu/~aissen/navajo.rtf will tell you far more about contrasting 3rd and 4th persons (less ambiguously, proximate and obviative persons) than I know.

I suppose good old "ye" is death and buried and without any expectation of resurrection.

Yes, but that's a case distinction, not a number distinction.

Richard.

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