1. Family: Nilo-Saharan
  2. Subfamily: Eastern Sudanic
  3. Genus: Nilotic

Maasai

WALS coordinates: 3° S, 36° E

spoken in Kenya, Tanzania

Find examples here.

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Maasai
Routledge:
Other:
  • Masai,
  • Maa
ISO 639-3:

Features

ID Feature Value Area References  
1A Consonant Inventories Average Phonology
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2A Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14) Phonology
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3A Consonant-Vowel Ratio Moderately low Phonology
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4A Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives No voicing constrast Phonology
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5A Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Other Phonology
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6A Uvular Consonants None Phonology
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7A Glottalized Consonants Implosives only Phonology
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8A Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals Phonology
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11A Front Rounded Vowels None Phonology
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12A Syllable Structure Moderately complex Phonology
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13A Tone Simple tone system Phonology
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18A Absence of Common Consonants All present Phonology
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19A Presence of Uncommon Consonants None Phonology
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20A Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Tonal/concatenative Morphology
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21A Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Monoexponential case Morphology
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21B Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection TAM+polarity Morphology
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22A Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 6-7 categories per word Morphology
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26A Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly prefixing Morphology
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33A Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix Nominal Categories
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37A Definite Articles No definite or indefinite article Nominal Categories
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38A Indefinite Articles No definite or indefinite article Nominal Categories
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51A Position of Case Affixes Case tone Nominal Categories
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55A Numeral Classifiers Absent Nominal Categories
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58A Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent Nominal Syntax
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58B Number of Possessive Nouns None reported Nominal Syntax
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59A Possessive Classification Two classes Nominal Syntax
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63A Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' different from 'with' Nominal Syntax
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69A Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type Verbal Categories
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81A Order of Subject, Object and Verb VSO Word Order
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82A Order of Subject and Verb VS 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 Demonstrative-Noun Word Order
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89A Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral Word Order
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90A Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause Word Order
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90C Postnominal relative clauses Noun-Relative clause (NRel) dominant Word Order
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91A Order of Degree Word and Adjective Adjective-Degree word Word Order
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92A Position of Polar Question Particles Initial Word Order
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93A Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase Word Order
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94A Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word 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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96A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel 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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101A Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb Simple Clauses
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110A Periphrastic Causative Constructions Purposive but no sequential Simple Clauses
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111A Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound Simple Clauses
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112A Negative Morphemes Negative particle Simple Clauses
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113A Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both Simple Clauses
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114A Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Fin Simple Clauses
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116A Polar Questions Question particle Simple Clauses
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117A Predicative Possession 'Have' Simple Clauses
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118A Predicative Adjectives Mixed Simple Clauses
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119A Nominal and Locational Predication Different Simple Clauses
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120A Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible Simple Clauses
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121A Comparative Constructions Locational Simple Clauses
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examples
122A Relativization on Subjects Gap Complex Sentences
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123A Relativization on Obliques Gap Complex Sentences
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136A M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns Lexicon
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136B M in First Person Singular No m in first person singular Lexicon
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137A N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns Lexicon
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137B M in Second Person Singular No m in second person singular Lexicon
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143A Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb Type 1 / Type 3 Word Order
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143E Preverbal Negative Morphemes NegV&[Neg-V] Word Order
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143F Postverbal Negative Morphemes None 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 Immed preverbal Word Order
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144T The Position of Negative Morphemes in Verb-Initial Languages NegVSO/[Neg-V]SO Word Order
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144V Verb-Initial with Preverbal Negative Type 1 / Type 2 Word Order
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144W Verb-Initial with Negative that is Immediately Postverbal or between Subject and Object None Word Order
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144X Verb-Initial with Clause-Final Negative No clause-final neg Word Order
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