Hixkaryana language
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Hixkaryana is one of the Carib languages, spoken by just over 500 people on the Nhamundá river, a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. It is one of a few known natural languages that normally use Object Verb Subject word order, and was apparently the first such language to be described (by linguist Desmond C. Derbyshire). However, indirect objects follow the subject, and word order in nonfinite embedded clauses is SOV. [1] (http://www.ling.umd.edu/~soltan/LING419B/Handouts/handout3.pdf). Like most other languages with objects preceding the verb, it is postpositional.
Toto yonoye kamara. Translated as "The jaguar ate the man." Toto means man, yonoye is from the verb meaning "to eat," and kamara means jaguar. Word order is crucial in Hixkaryana for understanding what is meant, as there are no case endings indicating the object and subject roles.
External Links
- Hixkaryana Linguistic Overview (http://www.rosettaproject.org/live/search/detailedlanguagerecord?ethnocode=HIX)
- Metathesis in Hixkaryana (http://www.ling.ohio-state.edu/~ehume/metathesis/Hixkaryana.html)