| Phonology |
|---|
|
Consonant Inventories
|
Average |
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Vowel Quality Inventories
|
Large (7-14) |
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Consonant-Vowel Ratio
|
Moderately low |
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Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives
|
No voicing constrast |
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Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems
|
Other |
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Uvular Consonants
|
None |
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Glottalized Consonants
|
Ejectives only |
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Lateral Consonants
|
/l/, no obstruent laterals |
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The Velar Nasal
|
No initial velar nasal |
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Vowel Nasalization
|
Contrast absent |
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Front Rounded Vowels
|
None |
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Syllable Structure
|
Moderately complex |
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Tone
|
No tones |
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Absence of Common Consonants
|
All present |
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Presence of Uncommon Consonants
|
None |
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| Morphology |
|---|
|
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives
|
Exclusively concatenative |
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Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives
|
Monoexponential case |
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Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb
|
6-7 categories per word |
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Locus of Marking in the Clause
|
Dependent marking |
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Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
|
Dependent marking |
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Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology
|
Dependent-marking |
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Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
|
Strongly suffixing |
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Reduplication
|
Productive full and partial reduplication |
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Case Syncretism
|
No case marking |
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Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking
|
No subject person/number marking |
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| Nominal Categories |
|---|
|
Coding of Nominal Plurality
|
Plural suffix |
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Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
Person-number stem + nominal plural affix |
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The Associative Plural
|
Associative same as additive plural |
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Definite Articles
|
No definite or indefinite article |
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Indefinite Articles
|
No definite or indefinite article |
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Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns
|
No inclusive/exclusive |
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Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection
|
No person marking |
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Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives
|
Three-way contrast |
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Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives
|
Different stem |
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Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives
|
Unrelated |
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Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
3rd person singular only |
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Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns
|
Pronouns avoided for politeness |
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Indefinite Pronouns
|
Interrogative-based |
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Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns
|
Identical |
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Person Marking on Adpositions
|
No person marking |
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Number of Cases
|
6-7 cases |
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Asymmetrical Case-Marking
|
Symmetrical |
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Position of Case Affixes
|
Case suffixes |
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Comitatives and Instrumentals
|
Differentiation |
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Ordinal Numerals
|
One-th, two-th, three-th |
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Distributive Numerals
|
Marked by suffix |
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Numeral Classifiers
|
Obligatory |
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| Nominal Syntax |
|---|
|
Obligatory Possessive Inflection
|
Absent |
|
|
Possessive Classification
|
No possessive classification |
|
|
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses
|
Highly differentiated |
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Adjectives without Nouns
|
Marked by following word |
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Action Nominal Constructions
|
Sentential |
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Noun Phrase Conjunction
|
'And' different from 'with' |
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Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
|
Differentiation |
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| Verbal Categories |
|---|
|
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect
|
Grammatical marking |
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The Past Tense
|
Present, no remoteness distinctions |
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The Future Tense
|
No inflectional future |
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The Perfect
|
No perfect |
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Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes
|
Tense-aspect suffixes |
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The Morphological Imperative
|
Second person number-neutral |
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The Prohibitive
|
Normal imperative + special negative |
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Imperative-Hortative Systems
|
Neither type of system |
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The Optative
|
Inflectional optative absent |
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Situational Possibility
|
Other kinds of markers |
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Epistemic Possibility
|
Other |
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Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking
|
Overlap for either possibility or necessity |
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Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality
|
Indirect only |
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Coding of Evidentiality
|
Verbal affix or clitic |
|
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Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect
|
None |
|
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Verbal Number and Suppletion
|
None |
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| Word Order |
|---|
|
Order of Subject, Object and Verb
|
SOV |
|
|
Order of Subject and Verb
|
SV |
|
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Order of Object and Verb
|
OV |
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Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
|
Postpositions |
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|
Order of Genitive and Noun
|
Genitive-Noun |
|
|
Order of Adjective and Noun
|
Adjective-Noun |
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Order of Demonstrative and Noun
|
Demonstrative-Noun |
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Order of Numeral and Noun
|
Numeral-Noun |
|
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Order of Relative Clause and Noun
|
Relative clause-Noun |
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Order of Degree Word and Adjective
|
Degree word-Adjective |
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Position of Polar Question Particles
|
No question particle |
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Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
|
Not initial interrogative phrase |
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Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause
|
Final subordinator word |
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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
|
OV and RelN |
|
|
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
|
Neutral |
|
|
Expression of Pronominal Subjects
|
Optional pronouns in subject position |
|
|
Verbal Person Marking
|
No person marking |
|
|
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking
|
No person marking |
|
|
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 |
|
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Applicative Constructions
|
No applicative construction |
|
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Periphrastic Causative Constructions
|
Purposive but no sequential |
|
|
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions
|
Morphological but no compound |
|
|
Negative Morphemes
|
Negative particle |
|
|
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
Both |
|
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Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
A/Fin and A/NonReal |
|
|
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation
|
Predicate negation also present |
|
|
Polar Questions
|
Interrogative verb morphology |
|
|
Predicative Possession
|
Locational |
|
|
Predicative Adjectives
|
Mixed |
|
|
Nominal and Locational Predication
|
Different |
|
|
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals
|
Impossible |
|
|
Comparative Constructions
|
Locational |
|
| Complex Sentences |
|---|
|
Relativization on Subjects
|
Gap |
|
|
Relativization on Obliques
|
Gap |
|
|
'Want' Complement Subjects
|
Subject is left implicit |
|
|
Purpose Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
'When' Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Reason Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Utterance Complement Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
| Lexicon |
|---|
|
Hand and Arm
|
Different |
|
|
Finger and Hand
|
Different |
|
|
Numeral Bases
|
Decimal |
|
|
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories
|
6 |
|
|
Number of Basic Colour Categories
|
11 |
|
|
Green and Blue
|
Green vs. blue |
|
|
Red and Yellow
|
Red vs. yellow |
|
|
M-T Pronouns
|
No M-T pronouns |
|
|
N-M Pronouns
|
No N-M pronouns |
|
|
Tea
|
Words derived from Sinitic cha |
|
| Other |
|---|
|
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks
|
Affective meanings |
|
