Chinantec (Lealao)

WALS coordinates: 17° 20′ N, 95° 55′ W

spoken in Mexico

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Chinantec
Routledge:
  • Chinanteko
Other:
  • San Juan Chinanteco Lealao,
  • Lealao Chinantec
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
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
Front Rounded Vowels None
Syllable Structure Moderately complex
Tone Complex tone system
Fixed Stress Locations No fixed stress
Weight-Sensitive Stress Not predictable
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
Absence of Common Consonants All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
Morphology
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly prefixing
Reduplication Full reduplication only
Case Syncretism No case marking
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Syncretic
Nominal Categories
Number of Genders Two
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems Non-sex-based
Systems of Gender Assignment Semantic
Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural word
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number affixes
Definite Articles No definite or indefinite article
Indefinite Articles No definite or indefinite article
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns Inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Three-way contrast
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Different inflection
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related to non-remote demonstratives
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Identical
Person Marking on Adpositions Pronouns only
Number of Cases No morphological case-marking
Asymmetrical Case-Marking No case-marking
Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics
Comitatives and Instrumentals Identity
Ordinal Numerals None
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
Verbal Categories
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type
The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
The Prohibitive Special imperative + normal negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems Minimal system
The Optative Inflectional optative present
Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Coding of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect Aspect
Verbal Number and Suppletion None
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb VOS
Order of Subject and Verb VS
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 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 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
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Neutral
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Neutral
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Accusative
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
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
Passive Constructions Present
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Symmetric
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Non-assignable
Polar Questions Question particle
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Gap
Relativization on Obliques Gap
Purpose Clauses Balanced
'When' Clauses Balanced
Reason Clauses Balanced
Lexicon
Hand and Arm Different
Finger and Hand Different
Numeral Bases Hybrid vigesimal-decimal
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories 5
Number of Basic Colour Categories 7-7.5
Green and Blue Green/blue
Red and Yellow Red vs. yellow