Re: SVO vs SOV and A lot of other questions

En réponse à Ray Brown :


>All - AFAIK. Unfortunately, I don't have to hand info about minor Romance
>langs like Ladin, Friulan, Romauntsch etc.; but from what I remember, they
>follow the common Romance system of
>having oblique forms of the personal pronouns (object & indirect object)
>as clitics attached to the verb.  The normal position with finite verbs,
>except imperatives, is as proclitics (i.e. before the verb).
In this matter, Romance languages can give surprises though. For instance, 
Spanish is quite straightforward with object pronouns in front of finite 
forms, but cliticised behind infinite forms (infinitive, participle, 
gerund) and the imperative. On the other hand, in French object pronouns 
are *always* in front of the verb, even in the infinitive and other 
infinite forms, and in the imperative affirmative the pronouns do indeed go 
behind the verb, but take the full forms moi, toi, etc... instead of me, 
te, etc...

In other words, the extent to which pronouns go in front of verbs is 
different in different Romance languages :) .


>The innovation in French is to have have the subject forms as proclitics
>also; this developed, of course, as some 50% or so of personal endings
>fell silent.  The other major Romancelangs have not done this but IIRC
>proclitic subject forms have developed in Friulan and related Romance
>dialects/langs.
http://www.eirelink.com/alanking/modals/documents/do-g-frl.htm for an 
excellent grammar of Friulan. Indeed, in Friulan (as well as in every 
Rhaeto-Romance tongue IIRC) the original subject pronouns have become 
proclitic forms which are mandatory even if the full subject pronouns are 
used (French is slowly going this way IMHO).

Christophe Grandsire.

http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr

You need a straight mind to invent a twisted conlang. 

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