What word order is typical of Trans-New Guinea languages?

Created from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.

The languages of the Trans-New Guinea family typically follow a subject–object–verb (SOV) word order. This pattern is characteristic of the majority of Papuan languages, although some languages within the broader group may exhibit a rather free word order.1

As a feature of their verb-final structure, these languages generally utilize postpositions (e.g., "town in") rather than the prepositions (e.g., "in town") found in languages with subject–verb–object (SVO) word order.21