EN
This paper examines possible motivations for departures from canonical clause-final word order observed for the finite verb in Hindi-Urdu and other modern Indo-Aryan languages. Depiction of speaker attitude in Premchand's novel godān and the imperatives of journalistic style in TV newscasts are shown to be prime factors. The emergence of V-2 word-order in Kashmiri and other Himalayan languages may have had a parallel history.