Word Order
Word order in Oceanic languages is highly diverse, and is distributed in the following geographic regions (Lynch, Ross, & Crowley 2002:49).
- SVO: Admiralty Islands, most of Markham Valley, Siasi Islands, most of New Britain, New Ireland, some parts of Bougainville Island, most parts of the southeast Solomon Islands, most parts of Vanuatu, some parts of New Caledonia, most of Micronesia
- SOV: central and southeast Papua New Guinea, some parts of Markham Valley, Madang coast, Wewak coast, Sarmi coast, a few parts of Bougainville, some parts of New Britain
- VSO: New Georgia, some parts of Santa Ysabel Island, much of Polynesia, Yap
- VOS: Fijian language, Anejom language, Loyalty Islands, Kiribati, many parts of New Caledonia, Gela language
- TVX (where T = topic, V = verb, X = arguments other than topic): much of Bougainville Island, Choiseul Island, some parts of Santa Ysabel Island
Read more about this topic: Oceanic Languages
Famous quotes containing the words word and/or order:
“Men talk glibly enough about moonshine, as if they knew its qualities very well, and despised them; as owls might talk of sunshine,—none of your sunshine!—but this word commonly means merely something which they do not understand,—which they are abed and asleep to, however much it may be worth their while to be up and awake to it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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—Isak Dinesen [Karen Blixen] (1885–1962)