Arrernte (Mparntwe)

WALS coordinates: 24° S, 136° E

spoken in Australia

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Aranda
Routledge:
  • Aranda (Eastern)
Other:
  • E. Arrernte,
  • E Aranda,
  • Mparntwe Arrernte,
  • Arrernte (Eastern)
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
Consonant Inventories Moderately large
Vowel Quality Inventories Small (2-4)
Consonant-Vowel Ratio High
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives No voicing constrast
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Other
Uvular Consonants None
Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
Front Rounded Vowels None
Syllable Structure Moderately complex
Tone No tones
Absence of Common Consonants No fricatives
Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
Morphology
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Exclusively concatenative
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Monoexponential case
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 4-5 categories per word
Locus of Marking in the Clause Dependent marking
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases Dependent marking
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Dependent-marking
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Strongly suffixing
Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
Nominal Categories
Coding of Nominal Plurality No plural
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always optional
Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Three-way contrast
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Unrelated
Indefinite Pronouns Generic-noun-based
Position of Case Affixes Postpositional clitics
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
Possessive Classification Two classes
Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Both expressed by juxtaposition
Verbal Categories
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb SOV
Order of Subject and Verb SV
Order of Object and Verb OV
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
Position of Polar Question Particles Second position
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase OV and Postpositions
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun OV and NRel
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun OV and NAdj
Simple Clauses
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Obligatory pronouns in subject position
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Mixed
Negative Morphemes Negative affix
Polar Questions Question particle
Predicative Possession Locational
Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Identical
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
Comparative Constructions Locational
Complex Sentences
'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit
Lexicon
Hand and Arm Different
Finger and Hand Identical
M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns