| Phonology |
|---|
|
Consonant Inventories
|
Average |
|
|
Vowel Quality Inventories
|
Average (5-6) |
|
|
Consonant-Vowel Ratio
|
Average |
|
|
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 |
|
|
Front Rounded Vowels
|
None |
|
|
Tone
|
Complex tone system |
|
|
Absence of Common Consonants
|
All present |
|
|
Presence of Uncommon Consonants
|
None |
|
| Morphology |
|---|
|
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
|
Little affixation |
|
| Nominal Categories |
|---|
|
Coding of Nominal Plurality
|
Plural word |
|
|
Definite Articles
|
No definite or indefinite article |
|
|
Indefinite Articles
|
No definite or indefinite article |
|
|
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives
|
Two-way contrast |
|
|
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives
|
Identical |
|
|
Position of Case Affixes
|
No case affixes or adpositional clitics |
|
|
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes
|
No possessive affixes |
|
| Verbal Categories |
|---|
|
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes
|
No tense-aspect inflection |
|
|
The Morphological Imperative
|
No second-person imperatives |
|
|
The Prohibitive
|
Normal imperative + special negative |
|
|
Imperative-Hortative Systems
|
Neither type of system |
|
|
The Optative
|
Inflectional optative absent |
|
| Word Order |
|---|
|
Order of Subject, Object and Verb
|
SVO |
|
|
Order of Subject and Verb
|
SV |
|
|
Order of Object and Verb
|
VO |
|
|
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb
|
VOX |
|
|
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
|
Prepositions |
|
|
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
|
Numeral-Noun |
|
|
Order of Relative Clause and Noun
|
Noun-Relative clause |
|
|
Order of Degree Word and Adjective
|
Adjective-Degree word |
|
|
Position of Polar Question Particles
|
Final |
|
|
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
|
Not initial interrogative phrase |
|
|
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause
|
Mixed |
|
|
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
|
VO and Prepositions |
|
|
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 |
|---|
|
Polar Questions
|
Question particle |
|
| Complex Sentences |
|---|
|
Purpose Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
'When' Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Reason Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
|
Utterance Complement Clauses
|
Balanced |
|
| Lexicon |
|---|
|
Hand and Arm
|
Different |
|
|
Finger and Hand
|
Different |
|
|
Tea
|
Words derived from Sinitic cha |
|
