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Ah, finally, we can figure out what Cicero is talking about! (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 week ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/linguistics_humor@sh.itjust.works

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[–] lvxferre@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days 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")