Chukchi

WALS coordinates: 67° N, 173° W

spoken in Russia

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Chukchi
Routledge:
  • Chukchee
Other:
  • Chukchee
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
Consonant Inventories Moderately small
Vowel Quality Inventories Average (5-6)
Consonant-Vowel Ratio Moderately low
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives No voicing constrast
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Other
Uvular Consonants Uvular stops only
Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
Lateral Consonants No /l/, but lateral obstruents
The Velar Nasal Initial velar nasal
Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
Front Rounded Vowels None
Syllable Structure Complex
Tone No tones
Fixed Stress Locations Initial
Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
Absence of Common Consonants All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
Morphology
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Exclusively concatenative
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Case + number
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 4-5 categories per word
Locus of Marking in the Clause Double marking
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases No marking
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Inconsistent or other
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly suffixing
Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
Case Syncretism Core and non-core
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking 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 suffix
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always obligatory
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person stem + pronominal plural affix
The Associative Plural Associative same as additive plural
Definite Articles No definite or indefinite article
Indefinite Articles No definite or indefinite article
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive
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
Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
Number of Cases 10 or more cases
Asymmetrical Case-Marking Subtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical
Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
Comitatives and Instrumentals Differentiation
Ordinal Numerals First/one-th, two-th, three-th
Distributive Numerals Marked by mixed or other strategies
Numeral Classifiers Absent
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers Formally similar, without interrogative
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
Possessive Classification No possessive classification
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses Highly differentiated
Adjectives without Nouns Marked by mixed or other strategies
Action Nominal Constructions Restricted
Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Identity
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect Grammatical marking
The Past Tense No past tense
The Future Tense Inflectional future exists
The Perfect No perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type
The Morphological Imperative No second-person imperatives
The Prohibitive Special imperative + special negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal system
The Optative Inflectional optative absent
Situational Possibility Other kinds of markers
Epistemic Possibility Other
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking No overlap
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Coding of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect None
Verbal Number and Suppletion None
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb No dominant order
Order of Subject and Verb SV
Order of Object and Verb OV
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
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 Mixed
Position of Polar Question Particles No question particle
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 OV and Postpositions
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun Other
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun OV and AdjN
Simple Clauses
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Split
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
Verbal Person Marking Both the A and P arguments
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking No zero realization
Order of Person Markers on the Verb A precedes P
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Indirect-object construction
Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
Passive Constructions Absent
Antipassive Constructions Oblique patient
Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
Negative Morphemes Negative particle
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Fin and A/NonReal
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only
Predicative Possession Conjunctional
Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Different
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
Comparative Constructions Locational
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Gap
'Want' Complement Subjects Desiderative verbal affix
Lexicon
Numeral Bases Pure vigesimal
M-T Pronouns M-T pronouns, paradigmatic
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns