Tendency of a language to pair the subject, or agent, of an intransitive verb with the object, or patient, of a transitive verb.
This contrasts with the situation in nominative-accusative languages such as Latin or English, in which the subjects of both transitive and intransitive verbs are paired grammatically and distinguished from the object of a transitive verb. Languages or language families that display ergativity to varying degrees include Sumerian, Eskimo-Aleut , Maya , {{link=Australian Aboriginal languages">Australian Aboriginal language s, and many American Indian language s.