Ngiyambaa

WALS coordinates: 31° 45′ S, 145° 30′ E

spoken in Australia

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
    Routledge:
      Other:
      • Wongaibon
      ISO 639-3:

      Features

      Feature Value References
      Phonology
      Vowel Quality Inventories Small (2-4)
      Consonant-Vowel Ratio Moderately high
      Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives No voicing constrast
      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 Moderately complex
      Tone No tones
      Fixed Stress Locations No fixed stress
      Weight-Sensitive Stress Unbounded: Stress can be anywhere
      Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems Long vowel
      Rhythm Types Trochaic
      Absence of Common Consonants All present
      Presence of Uncommon Consonants 'Th' sounds
      Morphology
      Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Exclusively concatenative
      Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Monoexponential case
      Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 4-5 categories per word
      Locus of Marking in the Clause Dependent marking
      Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases Dependent marking
      Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Dependent-marking
      Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Strongly suffixing
      Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
      Case Syncretism Core and non-core
      Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking No subject person/number marking
      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
      Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always optional
      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 No person marking
      Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Two-way contrast
      Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical
      Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related for all demonstratives
      Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
      Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
      Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
      Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns Differentiated
      Person Marking on Adpositions No adpositions
      Number of Cases 5 cases
      Asymmetrical Case-Marking Qualitatively asymmetrical
      Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
      Comitatives and Instrumentals Differentiation
      Ordinal Numerals None
      Numeral Classifiers Absent
      Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
      Nominal Syntax
      Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
      Possessive Classification Two classes
      Action Nominal Constructions No action nominals
      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 person number-neutral
      The Prohibitive Special imperative + special negative
      Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal system
      The Optative Inflectional optative absent
      Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
      Epistemic Possibility Other
      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 and Verb SV
      Order of Object and Verb OV
      Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb No dominant order
      Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase No adpositions
      Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
      Order of Adjective and Noun No dominant order
      Order of Demonstrative and Noun Demonstrative-Noun
      Order of Relative Clause and Noun Mixed
      Position of Polar Question Particles Second position
      Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Initial interrogative phrase
      Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun Other
      Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun Other
      Simple Clauses
      Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Ergative - absolutive
      Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Nominative - accusative (standard)
      Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Split
      Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject clitics on variable host
      Verbal Person Marking Both the A and P arguments
      Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking No zero realization
      Order of Person Markers on the Verb Both orders of A and P occur
      Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Secondary-object construction
      Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
      Passive Constructions Absent
      Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
      Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
      Periphrastic Causative Constructions Purposive but no sequential
      Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
      Negative Morphemes Negative particle
      Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Symmetric
      Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation Non-assignable
      Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
      Polar Questions Question particle
      Predicative Adjectives Nonverbal encoding
      Nominal and Locational Predication Identical
      Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
      Complex Sentences
      Relativization on Subjects Gap
      Relativization on Obliques Gap
      'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is left implicit
      'When' Clauses Balanced/deranked
      Reason Clauses Deranked
      Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced
      Lexicon
      Hand and Arm Different
      Finger and Hand Identical
      M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
      N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns