The Word-order in Latin reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Word-order in Latin

Latin is quite dissimilar to most modern languages because it uses many noun cases which are declined in such a way that nearly all noun cases are different from each other, and even proper nouns like names are declined.

For example the ending of the in Latin common name Marcus changes in each of the following sentences because the noun case changes. Except for the name Marcus which is as it would be in Latin, this sentences are in English.

• Marcus hits Cornelia. (SVO, the most common permutation of expression in English)
• Cornelia hits Marcum. (SVO)
• Cornelia gives Marco a present. (Subject, Verb, [indirect object], [direct] Object, so SVO as well.)
• Cornelia shouts: "Marce, Marce, come! It's time for your difficult language homework." (SVO)

As you see in English all those sentences have the SVO sequence.

But what do the noun cases mean for what permutations of expression can be used? Well, it means of course that the word order can be much more random in Latin than in English and most contemporary languages. Because a reader or listener can see the noun case of a word it is not needed to stick to a certain sequence of words. A lot of the time Romans stuck to the SOV permutation of expression, in contrast of English that has normally an SVO sequence. But for example in Latin poetry it is very common that the sequence is changed to whichever sequence fits a nice rythm of the sentence.

The word sequences in the next sentences would be perfectly correct in Latin and the meaning would be perfectly clear, although in English the word order would be wrong or the meaning even misunderstood.

• Cornelia hits Marcus. (OVS, the Klingon sequence)
  • But which means: Marcus hits Cornelia.
• Marcum hits Cornelia. (OVS, again the Klingon sequence)
  
  • But which means: Cornelia hits Marcum.
• Marcum Cornelia hits. (OSV)
  
  • But which means: Cornelia hits Marcum.
• Marco gives Cornelia a present. ([indirect object], Verb, Subject, [direct] Object, so VSO)
  • But which means: Cornelia gives Marco a present.

So in Latin basically anything goes. It is possible to make a poem with a completely regular rythm of stressed and unstressed syllables by the combination of choosing the right order of words and choosing words whith the right order and number of stressed and unstressed syllables. In English this would be virtually impossible. An example of this form poetry is the dactylic hexameter.

Polish language have similar properties as Latin.

See also

• Linguistic typology

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