Kannada

WALS coordinates: 14° N, 76° E

spoken in India

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Kannada
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Kanarese,
    • Havyaka
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Average
    Vowel Quality Inventories Average (5-6)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio High
    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 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
    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 2-3 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
    Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
    Case Syncretism No syncretism
    Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Syncretic
    Nominal Categories
    Number of Genders Three
    Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems Sex-based
    Systems of Gender Assignment Semantic
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
    Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, optional in inanimates
    Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person stem + pronominal plural affix
    The Associative Plural Unique periphrastic associative plural
    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 Different inflection
    Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related to remote demonstratives
    Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns 3rd person only, but also non-singular
    Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns Multiple politeness distinctions
    Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
    Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Identical
    Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
    Number of Cases 6-7 cases
    Asymmetrical Case-Marking Symmetrical
    Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
    Comitatives and Instrumentals Differentiation
    Ordinal Numerals First/one-th, two-th, three-th
    Distributive Numerals Marked by reduplication
    Numeral Classifiers Absent
    Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers Formally similar, with interrogative
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
    Possessive Classification No possessive classification
    Action Nominal Constructions Mixed
    Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with'
    Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation
    Verbal Categories
    Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
    The Past Tense Present, no 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 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 Indirect only
    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 Numeral-Noun
    Order of Relative Clause and Noun Mixed
    Order of Degree Word and Adjective Degree word-Adjective
    Position of Polar Question Particles Final
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
    Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Mixed
    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 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 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
    Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Indirect-object construction
    Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
    Passive Constructions Present
    Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
    Applicative Constructions Benefactive object; both bases
    Periphrastic Causative Constructions Purposive but no sequential
    Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
    Negative Morphemes Negative affix
    Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Asymmetric
    Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Fin and A/Cat
    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
    Complex Sentences
    Relativization on Subjects Gap
    Relativization on Obliques Gap
    'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit
    Purpose Clauses Deranked
    'When' Clauses Deranked
    Reason Clauses Deranked
    Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced/deranked
    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
    Other
    Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks Affective meanings