Mon-Khmer word order

[N. Ganesan]

NG>Do the Mon-Khmer languages possess SOV or non-SOV word order?

So far as I could gather, Mon-Khmer languages are *not* SOV order
and they are verb medial languages. The SOV pattern all over India is
a Dravidian inheritance, an important feature along with others
forming a good bundle which Masica used to support the theory for
the existence of a South Asian sprachbund.

A.F. Sjoberg, The impact of Dravidian on Indo-Aryan: An overview,
in E. C. Polome, W.Winter, Reconstructing languages and Cultures,
1992, p. 516
"Incidentally, Southworth (1979:208) feels that this is the best
explanation that can be offered for the dilemma stated by Masica
(1976:183-4) regarding the nearly complete absence of structural
features of Indian languages in Southeast Asia, an area subject to
prolonged cultural and linguistic influence from India."

Given that Mon-Khmer languages like Mon, Khmer, Vietnamese, Khmu,
Aslian etc., does not seem to have SOV word order, did the Munda
folks acquire the rigid verb final word order from the ancient North
Indian Dravidian majority?

Regards,
N. Ganesan


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