rarum 39: nominative (marking intransitive and transitive subject) as the morphologically marked case vis-à-vis (zero-marked) accusative (marking direct object), for all nouns or for some noun classes
Where found
some older Germanic lgs (IE); Old French (Italic, IE); Oromo, Dasenech, Kambata, and perhaps a few further Cushitic lgs (Afroasiatic); Zayse and perhaps a few further Omotic lgs (Afroasiatic); some Berber lgs (Afroasiatic); Old Egyptian (pronouns) (Afroasiatic); Proto-Afroasiatic (!);Eastern Nilotic lgs with tonal case (Nilo-Saharan); some Surmic lgs (Nilo-Saharan); Mojave and most other Yuman lgs (Hokan); varieties of Maidu (Penutian); Wappo (Yukian); Shokleng (Jê, Tupi, Andean-Equatorial); Malakmalak (nonPN, Australian); Houailou (Oceanic, Austronesian)
Domain
morphology: inflection
Subdomain
markedness: case
Keywords
nominative, accusative
Type
rarum
Universals violated
Source
Plank, Frans (1985a). The extended accusative / restricted nominative in perspective. In Frans Plank (ed.), Relational Typology, 269-310. Berlin: Mouton, with further references Dixon, R. M. W. (1994). Ergativity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Gensler, Orin (2000). Proto-Afroasiatic as a “marked nominative” language. Paper at WOCAL 3, Lomé, Togo.
