1. Family: Indo-European
  2. Genus: Germanic

German

WALS coordinates: 52° N, 10° E

spoken in Switzerland, Germany, Austria

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • German
Routledge:
    Other:
      ISO 639-3:

      Features

      Feature Value References
      Phonology
      Consonant Inventories Average
      Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14)
      Consonant-Vowel Ratio Low
      Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In both plosives and fricatives
      Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems None missing in /p t k b d g/
      Uvular Consonants Uvular continuants only
      Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
      Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
      The Velar Nasal No initial velar nasal
      Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
      Front Rounded Vowels High and mid
      Syllable Structure 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 Trochaic
      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 2-3 categories per word
      Locus of Marking in the Clause Dependent marking
      Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases Dependent marking
      Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Dependent-marking
      Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Strongly suffixing
      Reduplication No productive reduplication
      Case Syncretism Core and non-core
      Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Syncretic
      Nominal Categories
      Number of Genders Three
      Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems Sex-based
      Systems of Gender Assignment Semantic and formal
      Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
      Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always obligatory
      Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem
      The Associative Plural Unique periphrastic associative plural
      Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
      Indefinite Articles Indefinite word same as 'one'
      Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
      Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive
      Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives No distance contrast
      Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical
      Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related by gender markers
      Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns 3rd person singular only
      Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns Binary politeness distinction
      Indefinite Pronouns Mixed
      Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Differentiated
      Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
      Number of Cases 4 cases
      Asymmetrical Case-Marking Syncretism in relevant NP-types
      Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
      Comitatives and Instrumentals Identity
      Ordinal Numerals First, two-th, three-th
      Distributive Numerals Marked by preceding word
      Numeral Classifiers Absent
      Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
      Nominal Syntax
      Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
      Possessive Classification No possessive classification
      Action Nominal Constructions Ergative-Possessive
      Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Identity
      Verbal Categories
      Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
      The Past Tense Present, no remoteness distinctions
      The Future Tense No inflectional future
      The Perfect From possessive
      Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
      The Morphological Imperative Second singular
      The Prohibitive Normal imperative + normal negative
      Imperative-Hortative Systems Neither type of system
      The Optative Inflectional optative absent
      Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
      Epistemic Possibility Verbal constructions
      Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for both possibility and necessity
      Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Indirect only
      Coding of Evidentiality Modal morpheme
      Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect Tense
      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 No dominant order
      Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb No dominant order
      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 No question particle
      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 Other
      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 Other
      Simple Clauses
      Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Nominative - accusative (standard)
      Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Nominative - accusative (standard)
      Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Accusative
      Expression of Pronominal Subjects Obligatory pronouns in subject position
      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' Indirect-object construction
      Reciprocal Constructions Mixed
      Passive Constructions Present
      Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
      Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
      Periphrastic Causative Constructions Sequential but no purposive
      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 Interrogative word order
      Complex Sentences
      Relativization on Subjects Relative pronoun
      Relativization on Obliques Relative pronoun
      'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit
      Purpose Clauses Balanced/deranked
      'When' Clauses Balanced/deranked
      Reason Clauses Balanced
      Lexicon
      Hand and Arm Different
      Finger and Hand Different
      Numeral Bases Decimal
      Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories 6
      Number of Basic Colour Categories 11
      Green and Blue Green vs. blue
      Red and Yellow Red vs. yellow
      M-T Pronouns M-T pronouns, paradigmatic
      N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns
      Tea Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te
      Other
      Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks Affective meanings