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Subject–object–verb
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In linguistic typology, a subject–object–verb (SOV) language is one in which the subject, object, and verb of a sentence always or usually appear in that order. If English were SOV, "Sam oranges ate" would be an ordinary sentence, as opposed to the actual Standard English "Sam ate oranges" which is subject–verb–object (SVO). The term is often loosely used for ergative languages like Adyghe and Basque that really have agents instead of subjects.

typology subject–object–verb subject–verb–object

1. Incidence

Among natural languages with a word order preference, SOV is the most common type (followed by subject–verb–object; the two types account for more than 75% of natural languages with a preferred order).[1]

Languages that have SOV structure include all Indo-Iranian languages (Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Pāli, Pashto, Persian, Punjabi, Sindhi, Sinhalese, Urdu, Zazaki), Ainu, Akkadian, Amharic, Armenian, Assyrian, Aymara, Basque, Burmese, Burushaski, Cherokee, Dakota, Dogon languages, Elamite, Ancient Greek, Hajong, Hittite, Hopi, Ijoid languages, Itelmen, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Classical Latin, Lakota, Manchu, Mande languages, Meeteilon, Mongolian, Navajo, Newari, Nivkh, Nobiin, Omaha, Quechua, Senufo languages, Seri, Sicilian, Sunuwar, Somali and virtually all other Cushitic languages, Sumerian, Tibetan and nearly all other Tibeto-Burman languages, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and all other Dravidian languages, Tigrinya, Turkic languages, almost all Uto-Aztecan languages, Yukaghir, Zazaki and virtually all Caucasian languages.

Standard Mandarin is generally SVO but common constructions with verbal complements require SOV or OSV. Some Romance languages are SVO, but when the object is an enclitic pronoun, word order allows for SOV (see the examples below). German and Dutch are considered SVO in conventional typology and SOV in generative grammar. They can be considered SOV but with V2 word order as an overriding rule for the finite verb in main clauses, which results in SVO in some cases and SOV in others. For example, in German, a basic sentence such as "Ich sage etwas über Karl" ("I say something about Karl") is in SVO word order. Non-finite verbs are placed at the end, however, since V2 only applies to the finite verb: "Ich will etwas über Karl sagen" ("I want to say something about Karl"). In a subordinate clause, the finite verb is not affected by V2, and also appears at the end of the sentence, resulting in full SOV order: "Ich sage, dass Karl einen Gürtel gekauft hat." (Word-for-word: "I say that Karl a belt bought has.")

A rare example of SOV word order in English is "I (subject) thee (object) wed (verb)" in the wedding vow "With this ring, I thee wed."[2]

2. Properties

SOV languages have a strong tendency to use postpositions rather than prepositions, to place auxiliary verbs after the action verb, to place genitive noun phrases before the possessed noun, to place a name before a title or honorific ("James Uncle" and "Johnson Doctor" rather than "Uncle James" and "Doctor Johnson") and to have subordinators appear at the end of subordinate clauses. They have a weaker but significant tendency to place demonstrative adjectives before the nouns they modify. Relative clauses preceding the nouns to which they refer usually signals SOV word order, but the reverse does not hold: SOV languages feature prenominal and postnominal relative clauses roughly equally. SOV languages also seem to exhibit a tendency towards using a time–manner–place ordering of adpositional phrases.

In linguistic typology, one can usefully distinguish two types of SOV languages in terms of their type of marking:

  1. dependent-marking has case markers to distinguish the subject and the object, which allows it to use the variant OSV word order without ambiguity. This type usually places adjectives and numerals before the nouns they modify, and is exclusively suffixing without prefixes. SOV languages of this first type include Japanese and Tamil.
  2. head-marking distinguishes subject and object by affixes on the verb rather than markers on the nouns. It also differs from the dependent-marking SOV language in using prefixes as well as suffixes, usually for tense and possession. Adjectives in this type are much more verb-like than in dependent-marking SOV languages, and hence they usually follow the nouns. In most SOV languages with a significant level of head-marking or verb-like adjectives, numerals and related quantifiers (like "all", "every") also follow the nouns they modify. Languages of this type include Navajo and Seri.

In practice, of course, the distinction between these two types is far from sharp. Many SOV languages are substantially double-marking and tend to exhibit properties intermediate between the two idealised types above.

Many languages that have shifted to SVO word order from earlier SOV retain (at least to an extent) the properties: for example, the Finnish language (high usage of postpositions etc.)

3. Examples

3.1. Albanian

Sentence Agimi librin e mori.
Words Agimi librin e mori
Gloss Agimi the book took
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Agimi took the book. (It was Agimi who took the book)
  • This sequence (SOV) occurs only in the poetic language.

3.2. Azerbaijani

Sentence Ümid ağac əkəcək.
Words Ümid ağac əkəcək
Gloss Umid tree will plant
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Umid will plant a tree.

3.3. Armenian

Sentence Իմ անունը Շուշանիկ է։
Words Իմ անունը Շուշանիկ է
Romanization Im anunȳ Šušanik ē
Gloss My name Shushanik is
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation My name is Shushanik.

3.4. Basque

Basque in short sentences, usually, subject or agent–object–verb; in long sentences, usually, subject or agent-verb-objects):

Sentence Enekok sagarra ekarri du.
Words Enekok sagarra ekarri du
Gloss Eneko (+ERGative) the apple brought (to bring) AUX has
Parts Agent Object Verb
Translation Eneko has brought the apple
Sentence Eneritzek eskatu du inork irakurri nahi ez zuen liburua
Words Eneritzek eskatu du + + +
Gloss Eneritz (+ERGative) asked for AUX has + + +
Parts Agent Verb Objects
Translation Eneritz requested the book nobody wanted to read

3.5. Bengali

Sentence আমি ভাত খাই
Words আমি ভাত খাই
IPA ami
ami
bʰat
bhat
kʰai
khai
Gloss I (subj) rice (obj) eat (pres)
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I eat rice.

3.6. Burmese

Burmese is an analytic language.

Sentence ငါက ‌ရေသန့်ဘူးကို ဖွင့်တယ်။
Words ငါ က ‌ရေသန့်ဘူး ကို ဖွင့် တယ်
IPA ŋà
nga
ɡa̰
ga.
seʔkù bú
se'ku bu:
ɡò
gou
pʰwìɴ
hpwin.

de
Gloss I (subj) water bottle (obj) open (pres)
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I open the water bottle.

3.7. Chinese

Generally, Chinese varieties all feature SVO word order. However, especially in Standard Mandarin, SOV is tolerated as well. There is even a special structure to form an SOV sentence.

SOV structure is also widely used in railway contact in order to clarify the objective of the order.[3]

The following example that uses 把 is controversially labelled as SOV. 把 may be interpreted as a verb, meaning "to hold". However, it does not mean to hold something literally or physically. Rather, the object is held mentally, and then another verb is acted on the object.

Sentence 我把苹果吃了.
Words 苹果 吃了.
Transliteration píngguǒ chīle
Gloss I sign for moving object before the verb apple ate
Parts Subject Sign Object Verb
Translation I ate the apple. (The apple we were talking about earlier)
 

3.8. Dutch

Dutch is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) verb is moved to the second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, non-finite verbs (participles, infinitives) and compound verbs follow this pattern:

Sentence Ik wil je helpen.
Parts Ik wil je helpen
Gloss I want to you help
Parts subject fin.verb object nonfin.verb
Translation I want to help you.

Pure SOV order is found in subordinate clauses:

Sentence Ik zei dat ik je wil helpen.
Parts Ik zei dat ik je wil helpen
Gloss I said that I you want to help
Parts subject fin.verb subord. conj. subject object fin.verb nonfin.verb
Translation I said that I want to help you.

3.9. French

The French language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure but places proclitics before the verb when using most pronouns, which is sometimes mistaken for SOV word order.

Sentence Nous les avons.
Parts Nous les-avons.
Gloss We them/those-have
Parts Subject Object-Verb
Translation We have those/them

3.10. Georgian

The Georgian language isn't extremely rigid with regards to word order, but is typically either SOV or SVO.

Sentence მე ქართველი ვარ.
Transliteration me kartveli var
Parts მე ქართველი ვარ.
Gloss I Georgian [I] am
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I am (a) Georgian.

3.11. German

German is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) verb is moved to the second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, compound verbs follow this pattern:

Sentence Er hat einen Apfel gegessen.
Words Er hat einen Apfel gegessen.
Gloss He has an apple eaten.
Parts Subject Auxiliary Object Verb
Translation He has eaten an apple.

The word order changes also depending on whether the phrase is a main clause or a dependent clause. In dependent clauses, the word order is always entirely SOV (cf. also Inversion):

Subordinate Clause Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hat.
Words Weil Horst einen Apfel gegessen hat.
Gloss Because Horst an apple eaten has.
Parts Conjunction Subject Object Verb Auxiliary
Translation Because Horst has eaten an apple.

3.12. Gothic

Sentence Guma qinon frijoþ.
Words Guma qinon frijoþ.
Gloss The man the woman loves.
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation The man loves the woman.

3.13. Greek (Classical)

Sentence ὁ ἀνὴρ τòν παĩδα φιλεῖ.
Words ὁ ανήρ (ho anḗr) τòν παĩδα (tòn paîda) φιλεῖ (phileî).
Gloss The man the child loves.
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation The man loves the child.

3.14. Hajong

Sentence Moi hugre'mre' khasei.
Words Moi hugre'm re' kha sei.
Gloss I guava (accusative) eat (past tense, indicative)
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I ate the guava.

're is a particle that indicates the accusative case and 'sei' indicates past tense declarative. Here, 'e is pronounced as the 'i' in 'girl' and 'ei' is pronounced as the 'ay' in 'say'.

3.15. Hindi

Sentence मैं एक सेब खाता हूँ।
Words मैं एक सेब खाता हूँ
Romanization main ek seb khaataa hun
Gloss I an apple eat (simple present. m.)
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I eat an apple.

3.16. Hungarian

Hungarian word order is free, although the meaning slightly changes. Almost all permutations of the following sample are valid, but with stress on different parts of the meaning.

Sentence Pista kenyeret szeletel.
Words Pista kenyeret szeletel
Gloss Pista bread slices
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation  Pista slices bread.

3.17. Italian

The Italian language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure, but when an enclitic pronoun is used, this comes before the verb and the auxiliary.

Sentence Io la sto mangiando
Parts Io la sto mangiando
Gloss I it am eating
Parts Subject Object Auxiliary Verb
Translation I am eating it

3.18. Japanese

The basic principle in Japanese word order is that modifiers come before what they modify. For example, in the sentence "こんな夢を見た,"[4] the direct object "こんな夢" (this sort of dream) modifies the verb "見た" (saw, or in this case had). Beyond this, the order of the elements in a sentence is relatively free. However, because the topic/subject is typically found in sentence-initial position and the verb is typically in sentence-final position, Japanese is considered an SOV language.[5]

Sentence ジョン台所読んだ。[6]
Words ジョン 台所 読ん だ。
Romanization Jon wa daidokoro de hon o yon da
Gloss John (TOP) kitchen (LOC) book (ACC) read (PAST)
Parts Subject Prepositional phrase Object Verb
Translation John read a book in the kitchen.

A closely-related quality of the language is that it is broadly head-final.[7]

3.19. Kannada

Sentence ನಾನು ಮನೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆನು .
Words ನಾನು ಮನೆ ಕಟ್ಟಿದೆನು
Transliteration Naanu mane kaTTidenu
Gloss I the house built
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I built the house.

3.20. Kashmiri

Like German and Dutch, the Indo-Aryan language Kashmiri is SOV combined with V2 word order. The non-finite verb (infinitive or participle) remains in final position, but the finite (i.e. inflected) part of the verb appears in second position. Simple verbs look like SVO, whereas auxiliated verbs are discontinuous and adhere to this pattern:

Sentence کور چہے ثونٹہ کہیوان
Transcription kuur chhi tsũũţh khyevaan
Gloss girl is apples eating
Parts Subject Auxiliary Object Verb
Translation The girl is eating apples.

Given that Kashmiri is a V2 language, if the word tsũũţh 'apple' comes first then the subject kuur 'girl' must follow the auxiliary chhi 'is': tsũũţh chhi kuur khyevaan [Lit. "Apples is girl eating."]

Also, the word order changes depending on whether the phrase is in a main clause or in certain kinds of dependent clause. For instance, in relative clauses, the word order is SOVAux:

Main clause + Subordinate Clause میے ان سوہ کور یوس ثونٹہ کہیوان چہے
Transcription => mye eny swa kuur => ywas tsũũţh khyevaan chhi
Gloss => I brought that girl => who apples eating is
Parts Main clause => Subject Verb Object Relative clause => Subject Object Verb Auxiliary
Translation I brought the girl who is eating apples.

3.21. Kazakh

Sentence Дастан кітап оқыды.
Words Дастан кітап оқыды
Transliteration Dastan kitap oqıdı
Gloss Dastan a book read
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Dastan read a book.

Like in Japanese, OSV is possible too. (Кітапті Дастан оқыды.)

3.22. Korean

Sentence 상자다.
Words 상자 여(ㄹ) 다.
Romanization nae ga sangja reul yeo(l) n da.
Gloss I (subject) box (object) open (present) (indicative)
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I open the box.

'가 (Ga)/이 (i)' is a particle that indicates the subject. '를 (Reul)/을 (eul)' is a particle that indicates the object. The consonant 'ㄹ (l)' in the verb stem (열-) is dropped before the suffix.

※ Here, '나 (na, I (pronoun))' is changed to '내 (nae)' before '가 (ga)'.

3.23. Kurdish (Kurmanci)

Sentence Ez xwarin dixwim.
Words Ez xwarin dixwim
Gloss I food eat
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I eat food.

3.24. Kurdish (Sorani)

Sentence .من خواردن دەخۆم
Words من خواردن دەخۆم
Gloss I food eat
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I eat food.

3.25. Kyrgyz

Sentence Биз алма жедик
Words Биз алма жедик
Transliteration Biz alma jedik
Gloss We an apple ate
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation We ate an apple

3.26. Latin

Classical Latin was an inflected language and had a very flexible word order and sentence structure, but the most usual word order in formal prose was SOV.

Sentence Servus puellam amat
Words Servus puellam amat
Gloss Slave (nom) girl (acc) loves
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation The slave loves the girl.

Again, there are multiple valid translations (such as "a slave") that do not affect the overall analysis.

3.27. Malayalam

Sentence ഞാൻ പുസ്തകം എടുത്തു.
Words ഞാൻ പുസ്തകം എടുത്തു
Transliteration ñān pustakam̥ (-e) (accusative)* eṭuttu
Gloss I (the) book   took
Parts Subject Object (case-marker)
Verb
Translation I took the book.
  • Pustakam̥ + -e = pustakatte (പുസ്തകത്തെ)

3.28. Manchu

Sentence ᠪᡳ ᠪᡠᡩᠠ ᠪᡝ ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ
Words ᠪᡳ ᠪᡠᡩᠠ ᠪᡝ ᠵᡝᠮᠪᡳ
Transliteration bi buda be jembi
Gloss I meal (accusative) eat
Parts Subject Object Grammatical marker Verb
Translation I eat a meal.

3.29. Marathi

Sentence तो बियाणे पेरतो.
Words तो बियाणे पेरतो
Transliteration biyāṇē pēratō
Gloss he seeds sows
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation He sows seeds.

3.30. Meitei

Sentence ꯑꯩ ꯐꯨꯠꯕꯣꯜ ꯁꯥꯅꯩ꯫
Words ꯑꯩ ꯐꯨꯠꯕꯣꯜ ꯁꯥꯅꯩ
Transliteration Ei football sanei
Gloss I football play
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I play football.

3.31. Mongolian

Sentence Би ном уншив.
Words Би ном уншив
Transliteration Bi nom unshiv
Gloss I a book read
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I read a book.

3.32. Nepali

Sentence म विद्यालय जान्छु ।
Words विद्यालय जान्छु
Transliteration Ma vidyalaya jānchhu
Gloss I school go (simple present)
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I go to school.

3.33. Ossetian

Sentence Алан чиныг кæсы.
Words Алан чиныг кæсы
Transliteration Alan činyg kæsy
Gloss Alan book reads
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Alan reads a book.

3.34. Pashto

Sentence .زۀ کار کوم
Words زۀ کار کوم
Gloss زۀ (Subject Pronoun) کار (Noun) کوم (verb)
Transliteration kaar kawəm
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I do the work.

3.35. Persian

Sentence .من سیب می‌خورم
Words من سیب می‌خورم
Gloss I apple eat (first person present tense)
Transliteration man seeb mikhoram
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I am eating an apple.

3.36. Portuguese

Portuguese is an SVO language, but it has some SOV constructs.

In case of proclisis:

Sentence Todos aqui te amam.
Word Todos aqui te amam
Gloss Everybody here you (proclitic) love
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Everybody here loves you.
Sentence Aquilo me entristeceu.
Word Aquilo me entristeceu
Gloss It/that me (proclitic) saddened
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation It saddened me.

When using a temporal adverb, optionally with the negative:

Sentence Nós já [não] os temos.
Word Nós já [não] os temos
Gloss We already [not] them (masc.) have
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation (Positive) We already have them.
(Negative) We do not have them anymore.
Sentence Nós ainda [não] os temos.
Word Nós ainda [não] os temos
Gloss We still [not] them (masc.) have
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation (Positive) We still have them.
(Negative) We do not have them yet.

There is an infix construction for the future and conditional tenses:

Sentence Eu fá-lo-ei amanhã.
Word Eu fá-lo-ei amanhã
Gloss I do-it-will tomorrow
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I will do it tomorrow.

SVO form: Eu hei-de fazê-lo amanhã or eu farei o mesmo amanhã

3.37. Punjabi

Punjabi is very flexible in word order and is written in two writing systems, Gurmukhi and Shahmukhi - which is written from right-to-left.

Sentence Gurmukhi ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇੱਕ ਸੇਬ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ।
Shahmukhi مَیں نُوں اِکّ سیب چاہیدا ہے۔
Words Gurmukhi ਮੈਨੂੰ ਇੱਕ ਸੇਬ ਚਾਹੀਦਾ ਹੈ
Shahmukhi مَیں نُوں اِکّ سیب چاہیدا ہے
Romanization mainu ikk seb chaahida hai
Gloss I (dative) an apple want
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I want an apple.

3.38. Quechua

Quechuan languages have standard SOV word order. The following example is from Bolivian Quechua.

Sentence Ñuqaqa papata mikhurqani.
Words Ñuqa-qa papa-ta mikhu-rqa-ni
Gloss I-TOPIC potato-ACCUSATIVE eat-PAST-1SG
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I ate potatoes.

3.39. Russian

Russian, similar to most other Slavic languages, is an inflected language and thus is very flexible in word combinations. It is generally considered an SVO language; however, sentences in SOV word order are not incorrect.

Sentence Раскольников старуху убил.
Words Раскольников старуху убил
Romanization Raskól'nikov starúkhu ubíl
Gloss Raskolnikov old lady killed
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Raskolnikov killed the old lady.

3.40. Sanskrit

Sanskrit, like its predecessor, Vedic, is an inflected language and very flexible in word order; it allows all possible word combinations. However, it is generally considered a SOV language.

Sentence तत्त्वमसि
Words तत्त् (त्)वम सि
Transliteration tát t(ú)vam ási
Gloss that you are
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation That you are.

3.41. Somali

Somali generally uses the subject–object–verb structure when speaking formally.

Sentence Aniga baa albaabka furay
Words Aniga baa albaab(ka) furay
Gloss I Focus (the) door opened
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I opened the door

3.42. Spanish

The Spanish language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure, but when an enclitic pronoun is used, this comes before the verb and the auxiliary. Sometimes, in dual-verb constructions involving the infinitive and the gerund, the enclitic pronoun can be put before both verbs, or attached to the end of the second verb.

Sentence Yo lo como
Parts Yo lo como
Gloss I it eat
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I eat it

3.43. Talysh

Sentence Merd kitob handedə.
Words Merd kitob handedə
Gloss Man book reading
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation The man is reading a book.

3.44. Tamil

Tamil being a strongly head-final language, the basic word-order is SOV. However, since it is highly inflected, word order is flexible and is used for pragmatic purposes. That is, fronting a word in a sentence adds emphasis on it; for instance, a VSO order would indicate greater emphasis on the verb, the action, than on the subject or the object. However, such word-orders are highly marked, and the basic order remains SOV.

Sentence நான் பெட்டியை திறப்பேன்.
Words நான் பெட்டியை திறப்பேன்.
Romanization Nān peṭṭi-yai tiṟa-pp-ēn.
Gloss I-Nom. box-Acc. open-Fut.-1P.Sing.
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I will open the box.

3.45. Telugu

Sentence నేను పార్టీకి వెళ్తున్నాను.
Words నేను పార్టీకి వెళ్తున్నాను.
Transliteration Nēnu pārtīki veḷtunnānu.
Gloss I to party am going.
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I am going to the party.

3.46. Tigrinya

The Tigrinya language usually uses a subject–verb–object structure.

Sentence ዳኒኤል ኩዑሶ ቀሊዑ
Words ዳኒኤል ኩዑሶ ቀሊዑ
Gloss Daniel ball kicked
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Daniel kicked the ball.

3.47. Turkish

Sentence Yusuf elmayı yedi.
Words Yusuf elmayı yedi
Gloss Joseph the apple ate
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Joseph ate the apple.

Like all other Turkic languages, Turkish has flexibility in word order, so any order is possible. For example, in addition to the SOV order above, this sentence could also be constructed as OSV (Elmayı Yusuf yedi.), OVS (Elmayı yedi Yusuf.), VSO (Yedi Yusuf elmayı.), VOS (Yedi elmayı Yusuf.), or SVO (Yusuf yedi elmayı.), but these other orders carry a connotation of emphasis of importance on either the subject, object, or the verb. The SOV order is the "default" one that does not connote particular emphasis on any part of the sentence.

3.48. Udmurt

Sentence мoн книгa лыӟӥcькo.
Words мoн книгa лыӟӥcькo.
Romanization mon kniga lyjis'ko
Gloss I a book to read
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I am reading a book.

3.49. Urdu

Sentence .مَیں نے اُسے دیکھا
Words مَیں نے اُسے دیکھا
Romanization main ne use dekha
Gloss I (ergative) him/her saw
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I saw him/her.

3.50. Uzbek

Sentence Anvar Xivaga ketdi.
Words Anvar Xivaga ketdi.
Gloss Anvar (nom) to Khiva (dat) went
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation Anvar went to Khiva.

The marker "ga" is a dative case marker for the object that precedes it. Due to flexibility in word order in Uzbek, it is possible to transform the sentence into OSV as well ("Xivaga Anvar ketdi" / "It was Anvar who went to Khiva").

3.51. Yi

Sentence ꉢꌧꅪꋠ.
Words ꌧꅪ ꋠ .
Romaniz. nga syp-hni zze.
Gloss I (an) apple (to) eat.
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation I eat an apple.

3.52. Zazaki

The Zazaki language usually uses a subject–object-verb structure,[8] but it sometimes uses subject-verb-object too.

Sentence O ey kırışeno.
Words O ey kırışeno
Gloss He it carries
Parts Subject Object Verb
Translation He carries it.

3.53. Zarma

Sentence Hama na mo ŋwa .
Words Hama na mo ŋwa
Gloss Hama (completed aspect) rice eat
Parts Subject Grammatical marker Object Verb
Translation Hama ate rice.

References

  1. Crystal, David (1997). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-55967-7. 
  2. Andreas Fischer, "'With this ring I thee wed': The verbs to wed and to marry in the history of English". Language History and Linguistic Modelling: A Festschrift for Jacek Fisiak on his 60th Birthday. Ed. Raymond Hickey and Stanislaw Puppel. Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 101 (Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1997), pp.467-81
  3. 车机联控语言——铁路行车领域“共同语言”的研究 (Thesis) (in 中文). https://wenku.baidu.com/view/832c1d110b4e767f5acfce6d.html
  4. Sōseki, Natsume (July 26, 1988) (in Japanese). 夢十夜. Chikuma Shobō. ISBN 4-480-02170-1. 
  5. Makino, Seiichi; Tsutsui, Michio (March 1999). A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar. The Japan Times, Ltd.. p. 16. ISBN 4-7890-0454-6. 
  6. Futagi, Yoko (October 2004). Japanese focus particles at the syntax-semantics interface (PDF) (PhD). Rutgers University–New Brunswick. p. 23. OCLC 60853899. Retrieved 2021-08-01. https://ling.rutgers.edu/images/dissertations/futagi_thesis.pdf
  7. Siegel, Melanie; Bender, Emily M. (2004). "Head-Initial Constructions in Japanese". in Müller, Stefan. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications. pp. 244-260. https://web.stanford.edu/group/cslipublications/cslipublications/HPSG/2004/siegel-bender.pdf. 
  8. Ahmadi, S. (2020, December). Building a Corpus for the Zaza–Gorani Language Family. In Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on NLP for Similar Languages, Varieties and Dialects (pp. 70-78).
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