| Phonology |
|---|
|
Consonant Inventories
|
Average |
|
|
Vowel Quality Inventories
|
Average (5-6) |
|
|
Consonant-Vowel Ratio
|
Average |
|
|
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives
|
In plosives alone |
|
|
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 |
|
|
The Velar Nasal
|
Initial velar nasal |
|
|
Vowel Nasalization
|
Contrast absent |
|
|
Front Rounded Vowels
|
None |
|
|
Syllable Structure
|
Moderately complex |
|
|
Tone
|
No tones |
|
|
Fixed Stress Locations
|
No fixed stress |
|
|
Weight-Sensitive Stress
|
Right-oriented: One of the last three |
|
|
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems
|
Coda consonant |
|
|
Rhythm Types
|
Undetermined |
|
|
Absence of Common Consonants
|
All present |
|
|
Presence of Uncommon Consonants
|
None |
|
| Morphology |
|---|
|
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives
|
Isolating/concatenative |
|
|
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives
|
No case |
|
|
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb
|
6-7 categories per word |
|
|
Locus of Marking in the Clause
|
Dependent marking |
|
|
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
|
Head marking |
|
|
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology
|
Inconsistent or other |
|
|
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
|
Little affixation |
|
|
Reduplication
|
Productive full and partial reduplication |
|
|
Case Syncretism
|
No case marking |
|
|
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking
|
Not syncretic |
|
| Nominal Categories |
|---|
|
Number of Genders
|
None |
|
|
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems
|
No gender |
|
|
Systems of Gender Assignment
|
No gender |
|
|
Coding of Nominal Plurality
|
Plural word |
|
|
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality
|
Only human nouns, optional |
|
|
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
Person-number stem |
|
|
The Associative Plural
|
Associative same as additive plural |
|
|
Definite Articles
|
Definite word distinct from demonstrative |
|
|
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns
|
Inclusive/exclusive |
|
|
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection
|
No person marking |
|
|
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives
|
Three-way contrast |
|
|
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives
|
Identical |
|
|
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives
|
Unrelated |
|
|
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
No gender distinctions |
|
|
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns
|
No politeness distinction |
|
|
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns
|
Identical |
|
|
Person Marking on Adpositions
|
Pronouns only |
|
|
Number of Cases
|
No morphological case-marking |
|
|
Asymmetrical Case-Marking
|
No case-marking |
|
|
Ordinal Numerals
|
First, two-th, three-th |
|
|
Distributive Numerals
|
Marked by mixed or other strategies |
|
|
Numeral Classifiers
|
Absent |
|
|
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes
|
Possessive suffixes |
|
| Nominal Syntax |
|---|
|
Obligatory Possessive Inflection
|
Absent |
|
|
Possessive Classification
|
No possessive classification |
|
|
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses
|
Highly differentiated |
|
|
Adjectives without Nouns
|
Without marking |
|
|
Action Nominal Constructions
|
Other |
|
|
Noun Phrase Conjunction
|
'And' identical to 'with' |
|
|
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
|
Identity |
|
| Verbal Categories |
|---|
|
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect
|
Grammatical marking |
|
|
The Past Tense
|
No past tense |
|
|
The Future Tense
|
No inflectional future |
|
|
The Perfect
|
No perfect |
|
|
The Prohibitive
|
Normal imperative + special negative |
|
|
Imperative-Hortative Systems
|
Neither type of system |
|
|
The Optative
|
Inflectional optative absent |
|
|
Situational Possibility
|
Affixes on verbs |
|
|
Epistemic Possibility
|
Other |
|
|
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking
|
Overlap for either possibility or necessity |
|
|
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality
|
Indirect only |
|
|
Coding of Evidentiality
|
Separate particle |
|
|
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect
|
Tense |
|
|
Verbal Number and Suppletion
|
None |
|
| Word Order |
|---|
|
Order of Subject, Object and Verb
|
VSO |
|
|
Order of Subject and Verb
|
VS |
|
|
Order of Object and Verb
|
VO |
|
|
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
|
Prepositions |
|
|
Order of Genitive and Noun
|
Noun-Genitive |
|
|
Order of Adjective and Noun
|
Adjective-Noun |
|
|
Order of Demonstrative and Noun
|
Demonstrative-Noun |
|
|
Order of Numeral and Noun
|
Numeral-Noun |
|
|
Order of Relative Clause and Noun
|
Noun-Relative clause |
|
|
Order of Degree Word and Adjective
|
Degree word-Adjective |
|
|
Position of Polar Question Particles
|
Initial |
|
|
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
|
Mixed |
|
|
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 AdjN |
|
| Simple Clauses |
|---|
|
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases
|
Neutral |
|
|
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns
|
Ergative - absolutive |
|
|
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking
|
Ergative |
|
|
Verbal Person Marking
|
Only the A argument |
|
|
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking
|
No zero realization |
|
|
Order of Person Markers on the Verb
|
A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb |
|
|
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'
|
Secondary-object construction |
|
|
Reciprocal Constructions
|
Distinct from reflexive |
|
|
Passive Constructions
|
Present |
|
|
Antipassive Constructions
|
Oblique patient |
|
|
Applicative Constructions
|
Benefactive object; both bases |
|
|
Periphrastic Causative Constructions
|
Purposive but no sequential |
|
|
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions
|
Morphological but no compound |
|
|
Negative Morphemes
|
Negative particle |
|
|
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
Symmetric |
|
|
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
Non-assignable |
|
|
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation
|
No predicate negation |
|
|
Polar Questions
|
Question particle |
|
|
Predicative Adjectives
|
Verbal encoding |
|
|
Nominal and Locational Predication
|
Different |
|
|
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals
|
Impossible |
|
| Complex Sentences |
|---|
|
Relativization on Subjects
|
Gap |
|
|
Relativization on Obliques
|
Gap |
|
|
'Want' Complement Subjects
|
Subject is left implicit |
|
|
'When' Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Reason Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
| Lexicon |
|---|
|
Hand and Arm
|
Identical |
|
|
Finger and Hand
|
Different |
|
|
Numeral Bases
|
Decimal |
|
|
M-T Pronouns
|
No M-T pronouns |
|
|
N-M Pronouns
|
No N-M pronouns |
|
|
Tea
|
Words derived from Sinitic cha |
|
