This is Randi Hacker with another Postcard from Asia from the KU Center for East Asian Studies.

"Agree with you the council does. Your apprentice Skywalker will be." Yoda said that. So here's my question: Was Yoda Mongolian? His syntax says yes. Syntax, as you already know, refers to the arrangement of words in a sentence. Some languages, like Mongolian, have very strict rules about word placement. Others, like English, not so much. English has a subject-verb-object or SVO syntax. For example, you might say: I eat camel cheese curds. I is the subject, eat is the verb and camel cheese curds is the object and they are delicious in case you were wondering. Some languages, however, have a subject-object-verb or SOV syntax. Mongolian is one of these languages. Thus I camel cheese curds eat. Sounds a lot like Yoda, don't you think? And given Chinggis Khaan's prodigious DNA legacy, it isn't impossible.

From the KU Center for East Asian Studies, this is Randi Hacker. Wish you were here.