1. Family: Niger-Congo
  2. Subfamily: Benue-Congo
  3. Genus: Platoid

Birom

WALS coordinates: 9° 40′ N, 8° 50′ E

spoken in Nigeria

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Birom
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Kibo,
    • Gbang
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Average
    Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio Average
    Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In both plosives and fricatives
    Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems None missing in /p t k b d g/
    Uvular Consonants None
    Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
    Front Rounded Vowels None
    Syllable Structure Moderately complex
    Tone Complex tone system
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants Labial-velars
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Strong prefixing
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural prefix
    Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
    Indefinite Articles Indefinite word distinct from 'one'
    Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics
    Nominal Syntax
    Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' identical to 'with'
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect prefixes
    The Morphological Imperative No second-person imperatives
    Imperative-Hortative Systems Both types of system
    The Optative Inflectional optative absent
    Word Order
    Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
    Order of Subject and Verb SV
    Order of Object and Verb VO
    Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX
    Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions
    Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive
    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 Final
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
    Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel
    Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj
    Simple Clauses
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
    Negative Morphemes Negative particle
    Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Symmetric
    Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Non-assignable
    Polar Questions Question particle
    Predicative Possession 'Have'