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

Quoting Henrik Theiling <theiling@...>:

> 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?
Well, it's not in the continental Scandinavian languages or in English. I
suppose that leaves Icelandic (Benct?) and Frisian.

Ancient Scandinavian inscriptions have, at least some of the time, SOV in main
clauses.

                                               Andreas

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