Paamese

WALS coordinates: 16° 30′ S, 168° 15′ E

spoken in Vanuatu

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Paama
Routledge:
  • Paama
Other:
  • Paamese of Vanuatu
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
Consonant Inventories Moderately small
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 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 Antepenultimate
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
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Weakly prefixing
Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
Case Syncretism No case marking
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Not syncretic
Nominal Categories
Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural word
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem + pronominal plural affix
Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
Indefinite Articles No indefinite, but definite article
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns Inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection Inclusive/exclusive
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related for all demonstratives
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
Indefinite Pronouns Generic-noun-based
Person Marking on Adpositions Pronouns only
Number of Cases No morphological case-marking
Asymmetrical Case-Marking No case-marking
Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Exists
Possessive Classification Three to five classes
Action Nominal Constructions Restricted
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation
Verbal Categories
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect prefixes
The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
The Prohibitive Special imperative + special negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems Neither type of system
The Optative Inflectional optative absent
Epistemic Possibility Affixes on verbs
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Coding of Evidentiality No grammatical evidentials
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb SVO
Order of Subject and Verb SV
Order of Object and Verb VO
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions
Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive
Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
Position of Polar Question Particles No question particle
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Not initial interrogative phrase
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word
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
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Neutral
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Neutral
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Accusative
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
Verbal Person Marking Both the A and P arguments
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking Zero in all 3sg forms
Order of Person Markers on the Verb A precedes P
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Indirect-object construction
Passive Constructions Absent
Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
Periphrastic Causative Constructions Sequential but no purposive
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Neither
Negative Morphemes Negative affix
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Both
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Cat
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only
Predicative Adjectives Mixed
Nominal and Locational Predication Different
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Gap
Relativization on Obliques Pronoun-retention
'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is expressed overtly
'When' Clauses Balanced
Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced
Other
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks Affective meanings