Re: [tied] Re: SVO - SOV

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 7077
Date: 2001-04-12

SOV in subordinate clauses is a common Germanic phenomenon (Old English had it too), often though to be a survival of the Proto-Germanic (and PIE) underlying SOV order which evolved into SVO first in main clauses.
 
Piotr
 
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Håkan Lindgren
To: Cybalist
Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2001 7:38 AM
Subject: [tied] Re: SVO - SOV

And in the first World War, the Germans were called Huns! Coincidence? :o)

Isn't the German verb-final word order a rather late phenomenon? I remember hearing somewhere that it developed during the baroque, because written German was heavily influenced by the elaborate word order of written Latin.

Most runic inscriptions are highly formalized or written in verse. This means that they probably do not reflect the word order of the spoken language - if we find a runic inscription with VSO, that doesn't mean that people spoke that way. The changes you mention - from VSO and SOV to SVO - should perhaps be interpreted as changes of literary style, not as changes of everyday speech. "Write like you speak" is a recent thing.

Håkan