1. Family: Kiowa-Tanoan
  2. Genus: Kiowa-Tanoan

Kiowa

WALS coordinates: 37° N, 99° W

spoken in United States

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Kiowa
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 In plosives alone
      Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems None missing in /p t k b d g/
      Uvular Consonants None
      Glottalized Consonants Ejectives only
      Lateral Consonants No /l/, but lateral obstruents
      The Velar Nasal No velar nasal
      Front Rounded Vowels None
      Syllable Structure Moderately complex
      Tone Simple tone system
      Absence of Common Consonants All present
      Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
      Morphology
      Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Exclusively concatenative
      Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives No case
      Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 8-9 categories per word
      Locus of Marking in the Clause Head marking
      Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases Head marking
      Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Inconsistent or other
      Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Equal prefixing and suffixing
      Reduplication No productive reduplication
      Case Syncretism No case marking
      Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Syncretic
      Nominal Categories
      Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
      Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Number-indifferent pronouns
      Definite Articles No definite or indefinite article
      Indefinite Articles No definite or indefinite article
      Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns 'We' the same as 'I'
      Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection Inclusive/exclusive
      Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Two-way contrast
      Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical
      Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
      Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
      Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
      Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Differentiated
      Person Marking on Adpositions No adpositions
      Number of Cases Exclusively borderline case-marking
      Asymmetrical Case-Marking Symmetrical
      Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
      Numeral Classifiers Absent
      Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive prefixes
      Nominal Syntax
      Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
      Possessive Classification Two classes
      Action Nominal Constructions Restricted
      Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
      Verbal Categories
      Perfective/Imperfective Aspect Grammatical marking
      The Past Tense No past tense
      The Future Tense Inflectional future exists
      The Perfect No perfect
      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 Neither type of system
      The Optative Inflectional optative absent
      Situational Possibility Affixes on verbs
      Epistemic Possibility Affixes on verbs
      Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for either possibility or necessity
      Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Indirect only
      Coding of Evidentiality Verbal affix or clitic
      Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect None
      Verbal Number and Suppletion Singular-plural pairs, no suppletion
      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 No adpositions
      Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
      Order of Demonstrative and Noun Demonstrative-Noun
      Order of Numeral and Noun Numeral-Noun
      Order of Relative Clause and Noun Internally headed
      Position of Polar Question Particles Initial
      Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Initial interrogative phrase
      Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Subordinating suffix
      Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun Other
      Simple Clauses
      Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Neutral
      Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Hierarchical
      Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
      Verbal Person Marking A or P 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
      Reciprocal Constructions Identical to reflexive
      Passive Constructions Absent
      Antipassive Constructions Implicit patient
      Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
      Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
      Negative Morphemes Negative particle
      Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both
      Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Cat
      Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
      Polar Questions Question particle
      Predicative Adjectives Verbal encoding
      Nominal and Locational Predication Different
      Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
      Complex Sentences
      Relativization on Subjects Non-reduction
      Purpose Clauses Deranked
      'When' Clauses Deranked
      Reason Clauses Balanced/deranked
      Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced
      Lexicon
      Hand and Arm Identical
      Finger and Hand Different
      M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
      N-M Pronouns N-M pronouns, paradigmatic