Re: Banin Tenses, verbal and nominal

"Luís Henrique" wrote:
> If Nik is right, it must have evolved from a less-free-word-order language
> than it is now (the aux particle should be always placed after the "subject"
> noun) - is that possible? Indo-european evolution, to what I know, is just
> the opposite, from very free-word-order languages to very strict-word-order
> languages (I suppose it is the case for Chinese, too?).
The only reason that's true of IE evolution is that PIE started out as
free word-order.  Both directions are equally possible, and in the long
run, form a cycle.  Some time ago, we talked about French word order
being relatively free, by using pronouns that have fused on the verb.
Example:

Je détèste Marie (unmarked, VO) - I can't remember the exact diacritics,
so that might be wrong
Marie, je la détèste (OV)
Moi, je la détèste Marie (SVO)
Moi, Marie, je la détèste (SOV)
Je la détèste, moi, Marie (VSO)
Je détèste, Marie, moi (VOS)
Marie, je la détèste, moi (OVS)
Moi, je détèste Marie (SVO)

All meaning "I hate Marie"

Essentially, je- has become a prefix meaning "first person singular
subject", and "la-" is a prefix meaning "3rd person singular feminine
object", as if they were written "jdétèste" and "jladétèste".

Finnish acquired cases from fused postpositions, so I would assume that
it must've been pretty strict word order before developing those cases.

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