Nenets

WALS coordinates: 69° N, 72° E

spoken in Russia

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Nenets
Routledge:
  • Nenets (Yurak Samoyed)
Other:
  • Samoyed,
  • Yurak Samoyed
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
Consonant Inventories Moderately large
Vowel Quality Inventories Average (5-6)
Consonant-Vowel Ratio Moderately high
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In plosives alone
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Other
Uvular Consonants None
Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
The Velar Nasal Initial velar nasal
Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
Front Rounded Vowels None
Syllable Structure Complex
Tone No tones
Fixed Stress Locations Initial
Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems Coda consonant
Rhythm Types Trochaic
Absence of Common Consonants All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants Pharyngeals and "th"
Morphology
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Exclusively concatenative
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Case + number
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 2-3 categories per word
Locus of Marking in the Clause Double 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 Strongly suffixing
Case Syncretism Core and non-core
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Syncretic
Nominal Categories
Number of Genders None
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems No gender
Systems of Gender Assignment No gender
Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person stem + nominal plural affix
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
Person Marking on Adpositions Pronouns only
Number of Cases 6-7 cases
Asymmetrical Case-Marking Subtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical
Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
Comitatives and Instrumentals Mixed
Ordinal Numerals First, second, three-th
Distributive Numerals Marked by suffix
Numeral Classifiers Absent
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
Possessive Classification No possessive classification
Action Nominal Constructions Possessive-Accusative
Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' identical to 'with'
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
The Past Tense Present, no remoteness distinctions
The Future Tense Inflectional future exists
The Perfect No perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
The Morphological Imperative Second singular
The Prohibitive Special imperative + special negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal system
The Optative Inflectional optative absent
Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for either possibility or necessity
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Direct and indirect
Coding of Evidentiality Verbal affix or clitic
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect None
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 Object, Oblique, and Verb XOV
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
Order of Adjective and Noun Adjective-Noun
Order of Demonstrative and Noun Demonstrative-Noun
Order of Numeral and Noun Numeral-Noun
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 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 Zero in all 3sg forms
Order of Person Markers on the Verb A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb
Passive Constructions Present
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
Negative Morphemes Negative auxiliary verb
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Asymmetric
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Fin
Predicative Possession Genitive
Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Identical
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
Comparative Constructions Locational
Lexicon
Numeral Bases Decimal
M-T Pronouns M-T pronouns, paradigmatic
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns