Icelandic

WALS coordinates: 65° N, 17° W

spoken in Iceland

Alternative Names

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

      Features

      Feature Value References
      Phonology
      Fixed Stress Locations Initial
      Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
      Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
      Rhythm Types Trochaic
      Morphology
      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
      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
      The Associative Plural Unique periphrastic associative plural
      Definite Articles Definite affix
      Indefinite Articles No indefinite, but definite article
      Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
      Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Differentiated
      Number of Cases 4 cases
      Asymmetrical Case-Marking Syncretism in relevant NP-types
      Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
      Comitatives and Instrumentals Mixed
      Ordinal Numerals First, second, three-th
      Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
      Nominal Syntax
      Action Nominal Constructions Other
      Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
      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 either possibility or necessity
      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 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
      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
      Expression of Pronominal Subjects Obligatory pronouns in subject position
      Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
      Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
      Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Symmetric
      Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Non-assignable
      Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Mixed behaviour
      Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
      Nominal and Locational Predication Identical
      Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
      Lexicon
      Tea Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te