No Proto-Celtic?

[Stanley Friesen]

At 09:58 PM 5/20/01 +0200, Xavier Delamarre wrote:
>     And Calvert Warkins answered that both were probably wrong (his article
>on syntax reprinted in his "Selected Writings", IBS), PIE being a flexional
>language, with free word order (every student in Latin knows this) where the
>SOV / VSO controversy has no relevance.

Only that is not true.  Even a free word order language has a preferred,
*neutral* order.  In Latin that order was SOV.  Word order variations in
such languages are used to encode variations in emphasis and attitude -
they are *not* meaningless.

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May the peace of God be with you.         sarima at friesen.net