1. Family: Niger-Congo
  2. Subfamily: Atlantic
  3. Genus: Southern Atlantic

Temne

WALS coordinates: 8° 40′ 12.00″ N, 13° 4′ 48.00″ W

spoken in Sierra Leone

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Temne
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Timne,
    • Temen
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Moderately small
    Vowel Quality Inventories Large (7-14)
    Consonant-Vowel Ratio Moderately low
    Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In plosives alone
    Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Missing /g/
    Uvular Consonants None
    Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
    Vowel Nasalization Contrast present
    Front Rounded Vowels None
    Syllable Structure Complex
    Tone Simple tone system
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants Labial-velars
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Equal prefixing and suffixing
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural prefix
    Definite Articles Definite affix
    Indefinite Articles Indefinite affix
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' identical to 'with'
    Verbal Categories
    Perfective/Imperfective Aspect No grammatical marking
    The Past Tense Present, no remoteness distinctions
    The Future Tense Inflectional future exists
    The Perfect From 'finish', 'already'
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type
    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 Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative
    Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
    Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
    Position of Polar Question Particles Final
    Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions 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
    Negative Morphemes Negative affix
    Polar Questions Question particle
    Predicative Possession Topic
    Predicative Adjectives Mixed
    Nominal and Locational Predication Different
    Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible