Re: Skälansk - History and Babel text

Pascal A. Kramm wrote:

> On Tue, 7 Dec 2004 08:36:38 +0100, Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>
> wrote:
>
>>On Mon, 6 Dec 2004 19:14:07 -0500, Pascal A. Kramm <pkramm@...> wrote:
>>
>>>There are some other nifty features, like VSO syntax (which is pretty rare),
>>
>>It's used in at least some Polynesian languages -- e.g. Niuean is
>>arguably VSO (if you don't consider it ergative, in which case it's
>>VAP).
>
> I know, that's why I wrote "rare" and not "hardly used at all".
I wouldn't say the third most widely used word order could be considered
"rare". Uncommon maybe, but not rare.

>>>    * It was decided to put the verb at the beginning, followed by subject
>>>and object, since this structure was not found in any other known languages.
>>
>>I think OSV is the rarest word order, with few known natlangs using it.
>
> Yes, but keep in mind that this decision was made in the late middle ages,
> so it refers to their knowledge at that time.
Tsk, tsk! Quite the opposite! Languages with a VSO word order would have
been quite well-known. Ireland, for a start, was one of the centres of
learning during the Middle Ages, Gaelic and was one of the first
langauges with a written grammar. You can count all the other Celtic
languages in too.

K.

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