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Re: Metaconlinguistic terminology et alia

From:Raymond A. Brown <raybrown@...>
Date:Monday, July 5, 1999, 5:39
At 12:32 pm -0700 4/7/99, Sally Caves wrote:
>Leo J. Moser wrote: >> >> do we know if PIE was SOV or SVO or .... ? >> ~~~~~~~~~~~~ > >I believe I've read that Indo-European was originally >SOV, so it stands to reason that Proto-Indo European >may have been also.
That's what I've understood also, tho I have to admit I don't know the full evidence. Certainly in both ancient Greek & Latin there was a tendency to favor SOV, especially in subordinate clauses. From what I understand, Germanic is supposed to have preserved the PIE order in subordinate clauses, but the verb as second idea in main clauses is supposed to be a Germanic innovation. But, placing verb last in subordinate clauses is a very useful clause-end marker, so as a mere amateur I have to skeptical about generalizing from word order in subordinate clauses. That SVO is more marked there is no surprise to me. What does Sanskrit do? What is the evidence for PIE worder order? Ray. ======================================== A mind which thinks at its own expense will always interfere with language. [J.G.Hamann - 1760] ========================================