What is split ergativity in Limbu and Sherpa?

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relationships among the Tibeto-Burman languages — Tibeto-Burman languages Relationships among the Tibeto-Burman languages.

In Tibeto-Burman languages, split ergativity refers to a grammatical system where a language exhibits ergativity—treating the subject of an intransitive verb the same as the object of a transitive verb—only under specific conditions.1

In the case of Limbu and Sherpa, this split is determined by tense and aspect. These languages are not ergative in all contexts; rather, they function as ergative languages only in certain tenses or aspects, such as the past tense or the completive aspect.1