Kongo

WALS coordinates: 5° S, 15° E

spoken in Democratic Republic of Congo

Find examples here.

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Kongo
Routledge:
Other:
  • KiKongo,
  • Kikongo
ISO 639-3:

Features

ID Feature Value Area References  
10A Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent Phonology
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14A Fixed Stress Locations Initial Phonology
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15A Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) Phonology
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16A Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight Phonology
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17A Rhythm Types Trochaic Phonology
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26A Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Strong prefixing Morphology
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28A Case Syncretism No case marking Morphology
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29A Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Syncretic Morphology
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30A Number of Genders Five or more Nominal Categories
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31A Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems Non-sex-based Nominal Categories
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32A Systems of Gender Assignment Semantic and formal Nominal Categories
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33A Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural prefix Nominal Categories
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35A Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem Nominal Categories
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36A The Associative Plural Unique periphrastic associative plural Nominal Categories
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examples
39A Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive Nominal Categories
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40A Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive Nominal Categories
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44A Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns 3rd person only, but also non-singular Nominal Categories
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45A Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction Nominal Categories
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48A Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking Nominal Categories
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49A Number of Cases No morphological case-marking Nominal Categories
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50A Asymmetrical Case-Marking No case-marking Nominal Categories
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51A Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics Nominal Categories
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54A Distributive Numerals Marked by reduplication Nominal Categories
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57A Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes Nominal Categories
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69A Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type Verbal Categories
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70A The Morphological Imperative Second singular Verbal Categories
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71A The Prohibitive Normal imperative + special negative Verbal Categories
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72A Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal system Verbal Categories
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73A The Optative Inflectional optative absent Verbal Categories
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74A Situational Possibility Verbal constructions Verbal Categories
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77A Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials Verbal Categories
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78A Coding of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials Verbal Categories
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81A Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO Word Order
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82A Order of Subject and Verb SV Word Order
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83A Order of Object and Verb VO Word Order
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85A Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions Word Order
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86A Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive Word Order
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87A Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective Word Order
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88A Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative Word Order
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89A Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral Word Order
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95A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions Word Order
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97A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj Word Order
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98A Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Neutral Simple Clauses
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examples
99A Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Neutral Simple Clauses
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examples
100A Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Accusative Simple Clauses
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101A Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb Simple Clauses
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102A Verbal Person Marking Both the A and P arguments Simple Clauses
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103A Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking No zero realization Simple Clauses
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104A Order of Person Markers on the Verb A precedes P Simple Clauses
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105A Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Mixed Simple Clauses
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107A Passive Constructions Present Simple Clauses
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111A Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound Simple Clauses
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112A Negative Morphemes Double negation Simple Clauses
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113A Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Symmetric Simple Clauses
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114A Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Non-assignable Simple Clauses
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124A 'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit Complex Sentences
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129A Hand and Arm Identical Lexicon
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examples
130A Finger and Hand Different Lexicon
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examples
143A Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb OptTripleNeg&ObligDoubleNeg Word Order
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143B Obligatory Double Negation ObligDoubleNeg&OptTripleNeg Word Order
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143D Optional Triple Negation Neg[V(-Neg)]Neg/[Neg-V(-Neg)]Neg Word Order
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143E Preverbal Negative Morphemes NegV&[Neg-V] Word Order
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143F Postverbal Negative Morphemes VNeg&[V-Neg] Word Order
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143G Minor morphological means of signaling negation None Word Order
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144A Position of Negative Word With Respect to Subject, Object, and Verb More than one position Word Order
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144B Position of negative words relative to beginning and end of clause and with respect to adjacency to verb End, not immed postverbal Word Order
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144D The Position of Negative Morphemes in SVO Languages ObligNeg Word Order
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144F Obligatory Double Negation in SVO languages SNeg[V(-Neg)]ONeg/S[Neg-V(-Neg)]ONeg Word Order
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144H NegSVO Order No NegSVO Word Order
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144I SNegVO Order Word&OnlyWithAnotherNeg Word Order
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