<html>
<head>
<style><!--
.hmmessage P
{
margin:0px;
padding:0px
}
body.hmmessage
{
font-size: 12pt;
font-family:Calibri
}
--></style></head>
<body class='hmmessage'><div dir='ltr'>Hi Norvin<BR>
<BR>
according to my Philippino colleague who speaks Cebuano, the verb-intial sentence structure is also unmarked in Cebuano, hence your sample sentence would be something like<BR>
<BR>
Gihatog sa doktor ang tambal sa bata.<BR>
gave by doctor of medicine to child<BR>
<BR>
My area of speciality, the language of Niue, is also verb-intial.<BR>
<BR>
Cheers<BR>
<BR><BR> <BR>
<DIV>
<DIV>
<DIV><STRONG><FONT color=#006633 face="Times New Roman, Times, Serif">Wolfgang Sperlich</FONT></STRONG></DIV>
<DIV><FONT color=#000099 face="Times New Roman"><STRONG><FONT color=#006633><A href="mailto:wsperlich@hotmail.com">wsperlich@hotmail.com</FONT></STRONG></FONT><FONT color=#000099 face="Times New Roman"></FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV><A href="http://wolfgangsperlich.blogspot.com/" target=_blank>http://wolfgangsperlich.blogspot.com/</A></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV><BR>
<BR>
<DIV>
<HR id=stopSpelling>
From: norvin@mit.edu<BR>To: an-lang@anu.edu.au<BR>Date: Sun, 18 May 2014 21:11:51 +0000<BR>Subject: [An-lang] Philippine "topic-third" languages sought<BR><BR>
<STYLE id=ecxowaParaStyle>
</STYLE>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma; DIRECTION: ltr; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt">Hello, everybody--
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>I've read descriptions of the word order of Kalagan, a language of the Philippines, which claim that its word order is 'topic-third'; its clauses are verb-initial, with what Schachter called the 'actor' in second position, and then the 'topic' (or 'trigger', or 'subject', or 'absolutive nominal', or whatever--the argument that's picked out by the verbal morphology that's sometimes called "Philippine-type voice"). In other words, Kalagan is described as a language in which the Tagalog word order in (1) would be acceptable, but any other order of the post-verbal nominals would be out:</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>(1) Ibinigay ng doktor ang gamot sa bata</DIV>
<DIV> gave doctor medicine child</DIV>
<DIV> 'The doctor gave the medicine to the child'</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>Does anybody know of other languages of the Philippines with this property? Happy to post a summary, if it's warranted and of interest.</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>
<DIV>--Norvin Richards</DIV></DIV><BR>_______________________________________________ An-lang mailing list An-lang@anu.edu.au http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang</DIV> </div></body>
</html>