| 1A |
Consonant Inventories |
Average |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 2A |
Vowel Quality Inventories |
Large (7-14) |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 3A |
Consonant-Vowel Ratio |
Average |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 4A |
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives |
In both plosives and fricatives |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 5A |
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems |
None missing in /p t k b d g/ |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 6A |
Uvular Consonants |
None |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 7A |
Glottalized Consonants |
Implosives only |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 8A |
Lateral Consonants |
/l/, no obstruent laterals |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 10A |
Vowel Nasalization |
Contrast present |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 10B |
Nasal Vowels in West Africa |
four-way nasal vs. oral vowel contrast (/ṽ/ vs. /ṽː/ vs. /V/ v /Vː/) with nasal spreading |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 11A |
Front Rounded Vowels |
None |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 12A |
Syllable Structure |
Complex |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 13A |
Tone |
Complex tone system |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 18A |
Absence of Common Consonants |
All present |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 19A |
Presence of Uncommon Consonants |
Labial-velars |
Phonology |
|
comment
|
| 26A |
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology |
Strongly suffixing |
Morphology |
|
comment
|
| 33A |
Coding of Nominal Plurality |
Plural suffix |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 34A |
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality |
All nouns, optional in inanimates |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 37A |
Definite Articles |
Demonstrative word used as definite article |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 38A |
Indefinite Articles |
No indefinite, but definite article |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 44A |
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns |
No gender distinctions |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 46A |
Indefinite Pronouns |
Generic-noun-based |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 48A |
Person Marking on Adpositions |
No person marking |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 51A |
Position of Case Affixes |
No case affixes or adpositional clitics |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 57A |
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes |
Possessive suffixes |
Nominal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 64A |
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction |
Differentiation |
Nominal Syntax |
|
comment
|
| 69A |
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes |
Tense-aspect tone |
Verbal Categories |
|
comment
|
| 81A |
Order of Subject, Object and Verb |
SVO |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 82A |
Order of Subject and Verb |
SV |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 83A |
Order of Object and Verb |
VO |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 85A |
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase |
No dominant order |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 86A |
Order of Genitive and Noun |
Genitive-Noun |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 87A |
Order of Adjective and Noun |
Noun-Adjective |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 89A |
Order of Numeral and Noun |
Noun-Numeral |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 90A |
Order of Relative Clause and Noun |
Noun-Relative clause |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 90C |
Postnominal relative clauses |
Noun-Relative clause (NRel) dominant |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 92A |
Position of Polar Question Particles |
Final |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 93A |
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions |
Not initial interrogative phrase |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 95A |
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase |
Other |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 96A |
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun |
VO and NRel |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 97A |
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun |
VO and NAdj |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 100A |
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking |
Accusative |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 101A |
Expression of Pronominal Subjects |
Mixed |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 102A |
Verbal Person Marking |
Both the A and P arguments |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 103A |
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking |
Zero in all 3sg forms |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 104A |
Order of Person Markers on the Verb |
A precedes P |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 105A |
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' |
Double-object construction |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 107A |
Passive Constructions |
Present |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 111A |
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions |
Morphological but no compound |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 112A |
Negative Morphemes |
Double negation |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 116A |
Polar Questions |
Question particle |
Simple Clauses |
|
comment
|
| 143A |
Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb |
OptTripleNeg&ObligDoubleNeg |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 143B |
Obligatory Double Negation |
ObligDoubleNeg&OptTripleNeg |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 143D |
Optional Triple Negation |
Neg[V-Neg]/NegVNeg&NegTone |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 143E |
Preverbal Negative Morphemes |
NegV |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 143F |
Postverbal Negative Morphemes |
VNeg&[V-Neg] |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 143G |
Minor morphological means of signaling negation |
NegTone |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144A |
Position of Negative Word With Respect to Subject, Object, and Verb |
ObligDoubleNeg |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144B |
Position of negative words relative to beginning and end of clause and with respect to adjacency to verb |
Immed preverbal |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144D |
The Position of Negative Morphemes in SVO Languages |
ObligNeg |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144F |
Obligatory Double Negation in SVO languages |
SNeg[V-Neg]O&NegTone/SNegVNegO |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144H |
NegSVO Order |
No NegSVO |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144I |
SNegVO Order |
Word&OnlyWithAnotherNeg |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144J |
SVNegO Order |
Suffix&OnlyWithAnotherNeg |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
| 144K |
SVONeg Order |
OnlyWithAnotherNeg |
Word Order |
|
comment
|
