The Ergative System in Balochi from a Typological Perspective

For the Western Iranian languages the transition from the Old Iranian to theMiddle-Iranian period is characterised by – among other things – the loss ofword-final syllables. This loss had a far-reaching impact on the nominal andverbal systems since it caused the loss of categories which had been expressedby suffixes. The consequences include the emergence of the so-called ergativesystem.Although descriptions of the ergative construction in Balochi do exist, thereis no treatment yet which takes into account the material of the differentdialects. Furthermore, the ergative construction in Balochi has been comparedwith data from Old Iranian, but not with data from Middle Iranian languages,and the development from the Middle Iranian stage to the different types foundin present-day Balochi has also not yet been studied. The aim of this paper istherefore to present the data from the Balochi dialects as far as they are knowntoday and to update, complete (and in some points, correct) previousdescriptions of the matter.