Hebrew (Modern)

WALS coordinates: 31° 30′ N, 34° 50′ E

spoken in Israel

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Hebrew
Routledge:
  • Israeli Hebrew
Other:
  • Modern Hebrew
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
The Velar Nasal No velar nasal
Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
Fixed Stress Locations Ultimate
Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
Rhythm Types Trochaic
Morphology
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Ablaut/concatenative
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives No case
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 4-5 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 Inconsistent or other
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly suffixing
Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
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 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 No associative plural
Definite Articles Definite affix
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 Two-way contrast
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related for all demonstratives
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns In 3rd person + 1st and/or 2nd person
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
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 Prepositional clitics
Comitatives and Instrumentals Identity
Ordinal Numerals First, two-th, three-th
Distributive Numerals No distributive numerals
Numeral Classifiers Absent
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers Formally similar, without interrogative
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
Possessive Classification No possessive classification
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses Highly differentiated
Adjectives without Nouns Without marking
Action Nominal Constructions Mixed
Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Identity
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
The Past Tense Present, no remoteness distinctions
The Future Tense Inflectional future exists
The Perfect No perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type
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
Verbal Number and Suppletion None
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
Order of Subject and Verb SV
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 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 No dominant order
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 Nominative - accusative (standard)
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Nominative - accusative (standard)
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Accusative
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Mixed
Verbal Person Marking Only the A argument
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking Zero in all 3sg forms
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 Purposive but no sequential
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
Negative Morphemes Negative particle
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Fin
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
Polar Questions Question particle
Predicative Possession Locational
Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Identical
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
Comparative Constructions Locational
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Gap
Relativization on Obliques Pronoun-retention
'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit
Purpose Clauses Balanced/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 No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns
Tea Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te
Other
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks Logical meanings