Greek (Modern)

WALS coordinates: 39° N, 22° E

spoken in Greece

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Greek
Routledge:
  • Greek
Other:
  • Modern Greek
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 both plosives and fricatives
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 No velar nasal
Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
Front Rounded Vowels None
Syllable Structure Complex
Tone No tones
Fixed Stress Locations Antepenultimate
Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems Lexical stress
Rhythm Types Trochaic
Absence of Common Consonants All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants 'Th' sounds
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 Double marking
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Double-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 Not 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 + pronominal plural affix
The Associative Plural No 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 Three-way contrast
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns 3rd person singular only
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns Binary politeness distinction
Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Differentiated
Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
Number of Cases 3 cases
Asymmetrical Case-Marking Syncretism in relevant NP-types
Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
Comitatives and Instrumentals Identity
Ordinal Numerals First, second, three-th
Distributive Numerals Marked by preceding word
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
Possessive Classification No possessive classification
Action Nominal Constructions Ergative-Possessive
Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Identity
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect 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 and second plural
The Prohibitive Special imperative + special negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal 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 No grammatical evidentials
Coding of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect Tense and aspect
Verbal Number and Suppletion None
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb No dominant order
Order of Subject and Verb No dominant order
Order of Object and Verb VO
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 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 AdjN
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 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 P precedes A
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 Purposive but no sequential
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Neither
Negative Morphemes Negative particle
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Symmetric
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Non-assignable
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
Polar Questions Question particle
Predicative Possession 'Have'
Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Identical
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
Comparative Constructions Particle
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Relative pronoun
Relativization on Obliques Relative pronoun
'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is expressed overtly
Purpose Clauses Deranked
'When' Clauses Balanced
Reason Clauses Balanced
Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced
Lexicon
Hand and Arm Different
Finger and Hand Different
Numeral Bases Decimal
M-T Pronouns M-T pronouns, paradigmatic
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns
Tea Words derived from Sinitic cha
Other
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks Logical meanings