Re: Germanic and Celtic (was Re: Verb-second ... verb-penultimate languages?)

Hi!

Peter Bleackley writes:
>...
> I was wondering if there could have been a VSO Germano-Celtic
> ancestor, of which a dialect developed topic-fronting, which then
> branched off to become Germanic with TVSO developing into V2.
But I think at least most generative grammarians would classify German
as basically SOV (in most subordinate clauses), having the
one-movement order VSO in questions (and in certain sub-ordinate
clauses) and the two-movements order TVSO in propositional sentences.
But I don't know to what extent the SOV in subordinate clauses is
pan-Germanic/was Proto-Germanic.  Today, German, Dutch, Afrikaans, and
closely related langs/dialects have it.  Others?

**Henrik

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