| Phonology |
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Consonant Inventories
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Average |
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Vowel Quality Inventories
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Average (5-6) |
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Consonant-Vowel Ratio
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Moderately high |
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Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives
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In both plosives and fricatives |
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Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems
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None missing in /p t k b d g/ |
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Uvular Consonants
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None |
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Glottalized Consonants
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No glottalized consonants |
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Lateral Consonants
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/l/, no obstruent laterals |
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Vowel Nasalization
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Contrast absent |
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Front Rounded Vowels
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None |
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Syllable Structure
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Moderately complex |
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Tone
|
Simple tone system |
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Absence of Common Consonants
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All present |
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Presence of Uncommon Consonants
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Labial-velars |
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| Morphology |
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Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
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Weakly suffixing |
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| Nominal Categories |
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Coding of Nominal Plurality
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Plural suffix |
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Occurrence of Nominal Plurality
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All nouns, always obligatory |
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Definite Articles
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Definite word distinct from demonstrative |
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Indefinite Articles
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No indefinite, but definite article |
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Indefinite Pronouns
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Generic-noun-based |
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Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes
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No possessive affixes |
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| Nominal Syntax |
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Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
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Differentiation |
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| Verbal Categories |
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Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes
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Mixed type |
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| Word Order |
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Order of Subject, Object and Verb
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SVO |
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Order of Subject and Verb
|
SV |
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Order of Object and Verb
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VO |
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Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
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Postpositions |
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Order of Genitive and Noun
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Genitive-Noun |
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Order of Adjective and Noun
|
Noun-Adjective |
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Order of Demonstrative and Noun
|
Noun-Demonstrative |
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Order of Numeral and Noun
|
Noun-Numeral |
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Order of Degree Word and Adjective
|
Adjective-Degree word |
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Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
|
Initial interrogative phrase |
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Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
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VO and Postpositions |
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Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun
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VO and NAdj |
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| Simple Clauses |
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Expression of Pronominal Subjects
|
Obligatory pronouns in subject position |
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Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'
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Double-object construction |
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Negative Morphemes
|
Negative particle |
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Predicative Adjectives
|
Mixed |
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Nominal and Locational Predication
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Different |
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Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals
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Impossible |
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Comparative Constructions
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Exceed |
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| Complex Sentences |
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Relativization on Subjects
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Gap |
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'Want' Complement Subjects
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Subject is expressed overtly |
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