| Phonology |
|---|
|
Consonant Inventories
|
Average |
|
|
Vowel Quality Inventories
|
Large (7-14) |
|
|
Consonant-Vowel Ratio
|
Moderately low |
|
|
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives
|
No voicing constrast |
|
|
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems
|
Other |
|
|
Uvular Consonants
|
None |
|
|
Glottalized Consonants
|
Implosives only |
|
|
Lateral Consonants
|
/l/, no obstruent laterals |
|
|
The Velar Nasal
|
Initial velar nasal |
|
|
Vowel Nasalization
|
Contrast absent |
|
|
Front Rounded Vowels
|
None |
|
|
Syllable Structure
|
Moderately complex |
|
|
Tone
|
Simple tone system |
|
|
Fixed Stress Locations
|
No fixed stress |
|
|
Weight-Sensitive Stress
|
Unbounded: Stress can be anywhere |
|
|
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems
|
Prominence |
|
|
Rhythm Types
|
Undetermined |
|
|
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
|
4-5 categories per word |
|
|
Locus of Marking in the Clause
|
No marking |
|
|
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
|
Dependent marking |
|
|
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology
|
Inconsistent or other |
|
|
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
|
Weakly prefixing |
|
|
Reduplication
|
No productive reduplication |
|
|
Case Syncretism
|
Core and non-core |
|
|
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking
|
Not syncretic |
|
| Nominal Categories |
|---|
|
Coding of Nominal Plurality
|
Plural prefix |
|
|
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality
|
All nouns, always obligatory |
|
|
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
Person-number stem |
|
|
The Associative Plural
|
Associative same as additive plural |
|
|
Definite Articles
|
No definite or indefinite article |
|
|
Indefinite Articles
|
No definite or indefinite article |
|
|
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns
|
Inclusive/exclusive |
|
|
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection
|
Inclusive/exclusive |
|
|
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives
|
Three-way contrast |
|
|
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives
|
Identical |
|
|
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns
|
3rd person singular only |
|
|
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns
|
No politeness distinction |
|
|
Person Marking on Adpositions
|
No person marking |
|
|
Number of Cases
|
6-7 cases |
|
|
Asymmetrical Case-Marking
|
Syncretism in relevant NP-types |
|
|
Position of Case Affixes
|
Case prefixes |
|
|
Comitatives and Instrumentals
|
Differentiation |
|
|
Ordinal Numerals
|
One, two, three |
|
|
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes
|
No possessive affixes |
|
| Nominal Syntax |
|---|
|
Obligatory Possessive Inflection
|
Absent |
|
|
Possessive Classification
|
Two classes |
|
|
Action Nominal Constructions
|
Possessive-Accusative |
|
|
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
|
Differentiation |
|
| Verbal Categories |
|---|
|
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect
|
Grammatical marking |
|
|
The Past Tense
|
No past tense |
|
|
The Future Tense
|
No inflectional future |
|
|
The Perfect
|
Other perfect |
|
|
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes
|
Mixed type |
|
|
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
|
Other |
|
|
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality
|
No grammatical evidentials |
|
|
Coding of Evidentiality
|
No grammatical evidentials |
|
|
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect
|
None |
|
|
Verbal Number and Suppletion
|
Singular-plural pairs, suppletion |
|
| Word Order |
|---|
|
Order of Subject, Object and Verb
|
VSO |
|
|
Order of Subject and Verb
|
VS |
|
|
Order of Object and Verb
|
VO |
|
|
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb
|
VOX |
|
|
Order of Genitive and Noun
|
Noun-Genitive |
|
|
Order of Adjective and Noun
|
Noun-Adjective |
|
|
Order of Demonstrative and Noun
|
Noun-Demonstrative |
|
|
Order of Numeral and Noun
|
Noun-Numeral |
|
|
Order of Relative Clause and Noun
|
Noun-Relative clause |
|
|
Order of Degree Word and Adjective
|
No dominant order |
|
|
Position of Polar Question Particles
|
No question particle |
|
|
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
|
Not initial interrogative phrase |
|
|
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause
|
Initial subordinator word |
|
|
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun
|
VO and NRel |
|
|
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun
|
VO and NAdj |
|
| Simple Clauses |
|---|
|
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases
|
Neutral |
|
|
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns
|
Neutral |
|
|
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking
|
Neutral |
|
|
Expression of Pronominal Subjects
|
Mixed |
|
|
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
|
Identical to reflexive |
|
|
Passive Constructions
|
Present |
|
|
Antipassive Constructions
|
Implicit patient |
|
|
Applicative Constructions
|
Benefactive and other; both bases |
|
|
Periphrastic Causative Constructions
|
Purposive but no sequential |
|
|
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions
|
Neither |
|
|
Negative Morphemes
|
Negative particle |
|
|
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
Both |
|
|
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation
|
A/Fin |
|
|
Polar Questions
|
Interrogative verb morphology |
|
|
Predicative Possession
|
'Have' |
|
|
Predicative Adjectives
|
Verbal encoding |
|
|
Nominal and Locational Predication
|
Different |
|
|
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals
|
Impossible |
|
|
Comparative Constructions
|
Locational |
|
| Complex Sentences |
|---|
|
Relativization on Subjects
|
Gap |
|
|
Relativization on Obliques
|
Pronoun-retention |
|
|
'Want' Complement Subjects
|
Subject is left implicit |
|
|
Purpose Clauses
|
Deranked |
|
|
'When' Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Reason Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Utterance Complement Clauses
|
Balanced/deranked |
|
| Lexicon |
|---|
|
Hand and Arm
|
Identical |
|
|
Finger and Hand
|
Different |
|
|
Numeral Bases
|
Pure vigesimal |
|
|
M-T Pronouns
|
No M-T pronouns |
|
|
N-M Pronouns
|
No N-M pronouns |
|
|
Tea
|
Words derived from Sinitic cha |
|
