this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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Linguistics Humor

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Ah, finally, we can figure out what Cicero is talking about! (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 weeks ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/linguistics_humor@sh.itjust.works
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[–] MalikMuaddibSoong@startrek.website 16 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Reminds me of learning German

[–] residentoflaniakea@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

German, as well as other germanic languages aside from English actually use verb second structure. True, that the main part sits at the end if there is an auxiliary verb. Example word for word translation would be: Tomorrow go I to school. Or Yesterday have I cake eaten. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/V2_word_order

[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 1 week ago

V2 is basically SOV with a twist, "if the clause is declarative and non-dependent move the last verb to the second position". That explains why, in a string with 3 or more verbs, Latin and German would agree on almost all of them - except one. While SVO languages invert the whole chain; e.g.

  • [Latin, SOV, default] Ego tangum ballare[1] discere[2] uolo[3].
  • [German, V2] Ich will[3] Tango tanzen[1] lernen[2].
  • [English, SOV] I want[3] to learn[2] to dance[1] tango.
  • [Italian, SOV] Io voglio[3] imparare[2] a ballare[1] il tango.

Focus on the verbs I've numbered [1] and [2] - both Latin and German would use them in this order, while English and Italian go [2] then [1] instead.

(inb4: I added the "ego" and "io" just for the sake of sentence formation, it sounds weirdly emphatic. I also had to backport "tango" as "tangus")