Nivkh

WALS coordinates: 53° 20′ N, 142° E

spoken in Russia

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Gilyak
Routledge:
  • Gilyak
Other:
  • Gilyak,
  • Amur
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 fricatives alone
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Other
Uvular Consonants Uvular stops and continuants
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 Simple tone system
Fixed Stress Locations Initial
Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
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 8-9 categories per word
Locus of Marking in the Clause Head marking
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases Head marking
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Head-marking
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly suffixing
Reduplication Full reduplication only
Case Syncretism No syncretism
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
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always optional
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person stem + nominal plural affix
The Associative Plural Associative same as additive plural
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 Different inflection
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related for non-human reference
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
Person Marking on Adpositions Pronouns only
Number of Cases 8-9 cases
Asymmetrical Case-Marking Symmetrical
Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
Comitatives and Instrumentals Differentiation
Ordinal Numerals First, two, three
Distributive Numerals Marked by mixed or other strategies
Numeral Classifiers Obligatory
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers Formally similar, with interrogative
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive prefixes
Nominal Syntax
Action Nominal Constructions Sentential
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
The Past Tense No past tense
The Future Tense Inflectional future exists
The Perfect No perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
Imperative-Hortative Systems Maximal system
The Optative Inflectional optative absent
Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
Epistemic Possibility Affixes on verbs
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking No overlap
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Indirect only
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 Adposition and Noun Phrase Postpositions
Order of Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
Order of Adjective and Noun Adjective-Noun
Order of Demonstrative and Noun Demonstrative-Noun
Order of Numeral and Noun No dominant order
Position of Polar Question Particles Final
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
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 Neutral
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Neutral
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' Secondary-object construction
Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
Passive Constructions Absent
Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
Negative Morphemes Negative auxiliary verb
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Fin and A/NonReal
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
Polar Questions Question particle
Predicative Adjectives Verbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Different
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
Complex Sentences
Purpose Clauses Deranked
'When' Clauses Deranked
Reason Clauses Deranked
Utterance Complement Clauses Deranked
Lexicon
Numeral Bases Decimal
M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns