transitive suffix "-i" with all objects", 3) verbs that only take "-i" with animate objects and "-ñ" with inanimate objects. Directional and Locational Verb Suffixes These suffixes attach to the end of the verb and will come after a transitive suffix if one occurs. Distance suffixes have to combine with horizontal or vertical suffixes; they cannot be alone. The ordering of these suffixes are as follows: 1) VERTICAL, 2) HORIZONTAL, 3) DISTANCE. Subject-Tense Marking In a verb phrase, a subject marking morpheme tends to occur first (except if it is an imperative, optionally conjoined, or subordinate clause). In Anejom̃, subject-tense-aspect marking is undergoing radical change. There seems to be a lot of change in present day subject-tense marking, especially in the plural subject-tense marking category by younger speakers. Here are all the (competing) subject-tense markers used in modern Anejom̃. Mood, Aspect, Tense Markers Anejom̃ has several markers (different than the subject-markers) which indicate a variety of mood, aspect and tense. Compounding Compounding is a key historical and modern feature of Anejom̃; it has both compound nouns and compound verbs. Compound nouns generally consist of a noun followed by either a noun, verb, modifier or a possessive construction, and compound verbs tend to be a combination of two verbs, although sometimes a verb is followed by a noun. Compounding is so prevalent, that historical linguistics use modern (as well as fossilized compounds) to trace genealogical relationships between Oceanic languages. Another one of the key uses of compounding in Anejom̃, is it is used to form the instrumental case. Examples of compounding can be seen below. Syntax Anejom̃ word order is fairly strict and does not allow for much variation. The preferred word order in Anejom̃ is VOS (or verb, followed by object, then subject). This word order is extremely unusual within the languages of Vanuatu and makes Anejom̃ the "only non-Polynesian language in Vanuatu to have this preferred word order." Below are a couple of examples of intransitive and transitive sentences. Departures from VOS While Anejom̃ has a fairly strict word order, there are times that the language departs from the standard VOS order. Although not very common, subjects and objects are moved to the beginning of the phrase when topicalized. When an object is a fairly long word, it is switched with the subject making the order VSO instead. Indefinite subjects tend to come before verbs, making the order SVO.