PROTO-GERMANIC WORD ORDER

The purpose of this paper is the investigation of Proto-Germanic word order. To do such investigation, we needed to collect a number of texts written in the oldest Germanic languages, and to produce a tagged corpus on their basis. Due to the fact that there are no written texts in Proto-Germanic proper, we took into account texts from Old High German (OHG), Gothic and West-Saxon, as well as runic inscriptions. In order to objectivise the analysis, we chose texts whose parallel analysis in different languages would be possible. The best candidate for this analysis was the New Testament. Such procedure also allowed us to make recourse to the Vulgate and Septuagint and make further comparisons. The data that we obtained, mostly confirm the opinions generally held about Proto-Germanic word order, but there are some details that seem to say the opposite. For example, that Proto-Germanic had main clauses that were predominantly VO. Therefore, we venture to claim that Proto-Germanic was a VO language, especially if we take into account the elements V(erb) and O(bject).