Object Verb Subject
Categories: Linguistic typology
Object Verb Subject (OVS) is one of the permutations of expression used in linguistic typology. OVS denotes the sequence 'Object Verb Subject' in unmarked expressions: Oranges ate Sam, Thorns have roses.
OVS languages are a type of languages when classifying languages according to the dominant sequence of these constituents. In this case the sequence of the constituents Object Verb Subject. This sequence is the rarest. Examples of human languages that actually use it include Guarijio and Hixkaryana.
Although not dominant, this sequence is also possible when the object is stressed in languages that have relatively free word order due to case marking. Romanian, Basque, Esperanto, and, to some extent, German are some examples. Some languages, such as Swedish, which normally lack any extensive case marking, allow such structures when pronouns (which are marked for case) are involved.
This sequence was chosen for the artificial language Klingon, a language spoken by the extraterrestrial Klingon race in the fictional universe of the Star Trek series, in order to make the language sound deliberately alien and counterintuitive to the human mind. Thus, Klingon uses the rarest permutation of expression, which is expected given the designers' goals.