1. Family: Trans-New Guinea
  2. Genus: Engan

Kewa

WALS coordinates: 6° 30′ S, 143° 50′ E

spoken in Papua New Guinea

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Kewa
Routledge:
    Other:
      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 No voicing constrast
      Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Other
      Uvular Consonants None
      Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
      Lateral Consonants Laterals, but no /l/, no obstruent laterals
      The Velar Nasal No velar nasal
      Front Rounded Vowels None
      Syllable Structure Simple
      Tone Simple tone system
      Fixed Stress Locations No fixed stress
      Weight-Sensitive Stress Not predictable
      Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems Lexical stress
      Rhythm Types No rhythmic stress
      Absence of Common Consonants All present
      Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
      Morphology
      Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Exclusively concatenative
      Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Monoexponential case
      Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 6-7 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
      Case Syncretism No case marking
      Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Syncretic
      Nominal Categories
      Number of Genders None
      Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems No gender
      Systems of Gender Assignment No gender
      Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
      Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem
      Definite Articles No definite or indefinite article
      Indefinite Articles No definite or indefinite article
      Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
      Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive
      Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Unrelated
      Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
      Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
      Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
      Number of Cases 6-7 cases
      Asymmetrical Case-Marking Symmetrical
      Position of Case Affixes Postpositional clitics
      Ordinal Numerals Various
      Numeral Classifiers Absent
      Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
      Nominal Syntax
      Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
      Possessive Classification No possessive classification
      Verbal Categories
      Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
      The Past Tense Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions
      The Future Tense Inflectional future exists
      The Perfect Other perfect
      Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
      The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
      The Prohibitive Normal imperative + normal negative
      Imperative-Hortative Systems Neither type of system
      The Optative Inflectional optative absent
      Epistemic Possibility Other
      Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Direct and indirect
      Coding of Evidentiality Verbal affix or clitic
      Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect Tense
      Verbal Number and Suppletion None
      Word Order
      Order of Subject, Object and Verb SOV
      Order of Subject and Verb SV
      Order of Object and Verb OV
      Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
      Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
      Order of Adjective and Noun Adjective-Noun
      Order of Demonstrative and Noun Demonstrative-Noun
      Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
      Order of Relative Clause and Noun Mixed
      Position of Polar Question Particles Final
      Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
      Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Final subordinator word
      Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase OV and Postpositions
      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 OV and AdjN
      Simple Clauses
      Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Ergative - absolutive
      Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Ergative - absolutive
      Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Active
      Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
      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
      Reciprocal Constructions No reciprocals
      Passive Constructions Absent
      Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
      Applicative Constructions Benefactive object; both bases
      Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
      Negative Morphemes Negative affix
      Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Symmetric
      Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Non-assignable
      Polar Questions Question particle
      Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
      Nominal and Locational Predication Different
      Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
      Complex Sentences
      Purpose Clauses Deranked
      'When' Clauses Balanced
      Reason Clauses Balanced
      Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced
      Lexicon
      Hand and Arm Different
      Finger and Hand Different
      M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
      N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns