# What is the proper way to describe Yoda's (From Star wars) speech problem?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-proper-way-to-describe-yodas-from-star-wars-speech-problem/636025>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 27, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-proper-way-to-describe-yodas-from-star-wars-speech-problem/636025 "2012-09-27T15:18:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 3

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-proper-way-to-describe-yodas-from-star-wars-speech-problem/636025/41 "2012-10-02T07:36:29Z")

</div>

> [@tapu](#):
>
> I think Yoda may be using topic-comment structure, rather than a straight grammatical word ordering. I will go look this up… I don’t have enough data yet.

This is quite obvious in that he doesn’t always even use what appears to be OSV. OVS is common, too, as in the above “Problem listening have you.”

And I think I got that from **Bosstone** ’s analysis. :smack: That’ll teach me to respond before I’ve finished the thread.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-proper-way-to-describe-yodas-from-star-wars-speech-problem/636025/42 "2012-10-02T13:44:03Z")

</div>

Ah! Big T! Finally, yes! 😃

So many online references to Yoda’s speech being OSV… They could be blown away by a topic-comment analysis. The data falls into place.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [October 2, 2012, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-proper-way-to-describe-yodas-from-star-wars-speech-problem/636025/43 "2012-10-02T13:48:19Z")

</div>

"Speech problem Yoda has not.

Listening problem, _you_ have."

Regarding German verbs at the end, I love Mark Twain’s quote: “Once the literary German dives into a sentence, that is the last you see of him until he emerges from the other side of the Atlantic with his verb in his mouth.”  
From _A Connectivcut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court_, of all places, although I believe he uses it elsewhere, too.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-proper-way-to-describe-yodas-from-star-wars-speech-problem/636025.md?page=2)