Editing Niger–Congo languages (section)

==== Word order ====
A [[subject–verb–object|subject-verb-object]] word order is quite widespread among today's Niger–Congo languages, but [[subject–object–verb|SOV]] is found in branches as divergent as [[Mande languages|Mande]], [[Ijoid languages|Ijoid]] and [[Dogon languages|Dogon]]. As a result, there has been quite some debate as to the basic [[word order]] of Niger–Congo.

Whereas Claudi (1993) argues for SVO on the basis of existing SVO > SOV grammaticalization paths, Gensler (1997) points out that the notion of 'basic word order' is problematic as it excludes structures with, for example, [[Auxiliary verb|auxiliaries]]. However, the structure SC-OC-VbStem (Subject concord, Object concord, Verb stem) found in the "verbal complex" of the SVO Bantu languages suggests an earlier SOV pattern (where the subject and object were at least represented by pronouns).

[[Noun phrase]]s in most Niger–Congo languages are characteristically ''noun-initial'', with [[adjective]]s, [[Numeral (linguistics)|numerals]], [[demonstrative]]s and [[genitive]]s all coming after the noun. The major exceptions are found in the western<ref name=Haspelmath>Haspelmath, Martin; Dryer, Matthew S.; Gil, David and Comrie, Bernard (eds.) ''The World Atlas of Language Structures''; pp 346–385. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. {{ISBN|0-19-925591-1}}</ref> areas where verb-final word order predominates and genitives precede nouns, though other modifiers still come afterwards. Degree words almost always follow adjectives, and except in verb-final languages [[adposition]]s are prepositional.

The verb-final languages of the Mende region have two quite unusual word order characteristics. Although verbs follow their direct objects, oblique adpositional phrases (like "in the house", "with timber") typically come after the verb,<ref name=Haspelmath /> creating a '''SOVX''' word order. Also noteworthy in these languages is the prevalence of internally headed and correlative [[relative clause]]s, in both of which the head occurs ''inside'' the relative clause rather than the main clause.