Datapoint Sri Lankan Malay/Order of subject, object, and verb

Both values are possible, however SOV is much more frequent than SVO. SVO is more common among the oldest Colombo area speakers (70+) and the frequency of SOV may be increasing across generations. SVO order does not encode object focus as it does in Sinhala.

Values

Subject-object-verb (SOV) Frequency: 70.0%

Example 66-2:
Farida dua pong yang siklatan.
Farida
Farida
dua
two
pong
tree
yang
acc.def
si-klatan.
pst-look
Farida looked at the two trees.
Example 66-3:
Anak nasi simakan.
Anak
child
nasi
rice
si-makan.
pst-eat
The child ate rice.
Confidence:
Certain

Subject-verb-object (SVO) Frequency: 30.0%

Example 66-1:
Go bicaya luyang.
Go
1sg
bicaya
believe
lu-yang.
2sg-acc.def
I believe you. (NOT: I believed you.)
Example 66-71:
Pompanganak ekasi (aða) kumbang attu deppe ummana.
Pompang-anak
female-child
e-kasi
asp-give
(aða)
(aux)
kumbang
flower
attu
indf
de-pe
3sg-poss
umma-na.
mother-dat
The girl has given a flower to her mother.
Confidence:
Certain