Sanuma

WALS coordinates: 4° 30′ N, 64° 40′ W

spoken in Brazil, Venezuela

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Sanuma
Routledge:
  • Sanemá
Other:
  • Sanima
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
Consonant Inventories Small
Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14)
Consonant-Vowel Ratio Low
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 No laterals
The Velar Nasal No velar nasal
Vowel Nasalization Contrast present
Front Rounded Vowels None
Syllable Structure Moderately complex
Tone No tones
Fixed Stress Locations Penultimate
Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
Rhythm Types Trochaic
Absence of Common Consonants All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
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 Head 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 Little affixation
Case Syncretism No case marking
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking No subject person/number marking
Nominal Categories
Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural word
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person stem + pronominal plural affix
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns Inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No person marking
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Three-way contrast
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns No gender distinctions
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
Person Marking on Adpositions No person marking
Number of Cases 2 cases
Asymmetrical Case-Marking Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical
Position of Case Affixes Postpositional clitics
Numeral Classifiers Optional
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
Possessive Classification Two classes
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses Highly differentiated
Action Nominal Constructions No action nominals
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Both expressed by juxtaposition
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
The Past Tense Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions
The Future Tense No inflectional future
The Perfect No perfect
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
Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
Epistemic Possibility Other
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking No overlap
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality Direct and indirect
Coding of Evidentiality Mixed
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 Genitive and Noun Genitive-Noun
Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
Order of Demonstrative and Noun Demonstrative-Noun
Order of Relative Clause and Noun Mixed
Order of Degree Word and Adjective Adjective-Degree word
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 Final subordinator word
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 Relative Clause and Noun Other
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun OV and NAdj
Simple Clauses
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Neutral
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Obligatory 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' Indirect-object construction
Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
Passive Constructions Present
Antipassive Constructions Oblique patient
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/Cat
Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only
Predicative Adjectives Verbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Identical
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Non-reduction
Purpose Clauses Deranked
'When' Clauses Deranked
Reason Clauses Deranked
Lexicon
M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns