Syntax
Given how many words in the corpus are undeciphered, there are a great many sentences whose syntax is a complete mystery. However, what is constructible is largely consistent with other Germanic languages.
The basic word order is SVO: /dai abdʒɛkt ɪz in painæpəl/,28 /darɪl vos pasɛn in viɛtnamiz pɔt bɛli pɪg/.51 There is evidence of a possible V2 order in the sentence /sou ɛs dɚ nɛdɚlændɚ fʊt kwajɚ/,11 though this is inconclusive, as the English equivalent has identical word order and Modern English can hardly be called a V2 language.
As mentioned in the article on verbs, there is evidence (though not incontrovertible) that infinitives and participles follow conjugated verbs directly rather than moving to the end of the clause: /darɪl vos pasɛn in viɛtnamiz pɔt bɛli pɪg/,51 /kan saga val dau kantɛstas?/.14 Possible evidence in the other direction, however, is /wʌts du fili?/,38,43 which would suggest (if we are correct that the first word is a contraction of a question word and an auxiliary verb) that the participle is indeed moved to the end of the clause, or at least that the subject must immediately follow the first verb in such questions.
The question of whether the language is pro-drop is unclear. Pronouns are certainly used in many contexts where pro-drop languages will typically omit them: /wʌts du fili?/,38,43 /ɛsən ist ain pip?/.39 However, there is at least one instance of an apparent pro-drop sentence: /ɪʃt ain prak?/.30 If indeed /kan saga/14 is "can say", this sentence would also seem to omit a subject.
In yes/no questions, the verb is usually the first element in the sentence, with the subject second: /hɔrz də manzi filijat?/,20,22 /arsən dust ain mit?/44—though /ɛsən ist ain pip?/39 and /ɛsən ɪs ˈbiftɪk/47 would seem to be counterexamples. In other questions, the question word comes first and the verb is second: /wat ɪn dai ˈabdʒɛkt/.27 (The phrase /wʌts du fili?/38,43 is structurally ambiguous, but if it /wʌts/ is interpreted as a contraction of /wʌt/ and some conjugated auxiliary, this question fits this pattern as well.)