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The Many Shapes of Language
The Fascinating World of Linguistic Typology
How many languages do you speak?
If your answer is “one”, or if you speak only European languages, then you might be surprised by how many strategies different languages use to communicate the same information.
For example, most European languages have what is known as a subject-verb-object word order. This means that in a basic declarative sentence such as ‘I eat bread’, the subject (I) comes first, followed by the verb (eat), and then the object (bread).
The Patterns in Languages
Subject-verb-object is the dominant word order in Europe, but it is not the most common order in the world’s languages. At least, not according to the World Atlas of Language Structures, (aka WALS) where you can compare information on the features of thousands of the world’s languages. You can also see on a map where in the world they are spoken.
According to WALS 35% of the world’s languages use subject-verb-object word order (I eat bread). But 41% of the world’s languages use subject-object-verb order (I bread eat). The mathematicians amongst you may have noticed that this only adds up to 76%.
