OVS

[qiihoskeh]

I'm working on an OVS language I've been calling OVS*. I was tempted to write the syntax chapter as "OVS Syntax: the name says it all!" but actually wrote a whole paragraph:

OVS word order in clauses is OVS: when an object is expressed as a phrase, it appears before the verb and when a subject is expressed as a phrase, it appears after the verb. Since the head noun of a phrase parallels the subject of a clause, most noun modifiers appear before the head noun.

The morphology and phonology pages are somewhat larger.

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* but possibly called Ngovasi or Kàafesà.

Comments

[4pq1injbok.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of the story of the chapter on Owls in Horrebow's Natural History of Iceland -- as they tell it the chapter reads, in full,

There are no owls in Iceland.

(Of course that's slightly (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2441376/pdf/tacca00106-0223.pdf) too good to be true.)

[qiihoskeh]

I haven't read the pdf yet, but in the same spirit (I think), I've figured out the relative clause syntax (but not typed it up yet).

RelPron is at the start, followed by case or postposition or verb.
Relativized subject (only for complicated clauses) is fronted in this case. Indefinite relative clauses, and possibly parenthetical clauses, work the same way.