1. Family: Altaic
  2. Genus: Turkic

Tuvan

WALS coordinates: 52° N, 95° E

spoken in Russia, Mongolia

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Tuva
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Tyvan,
    • Tuvinian
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    Consonant Inventories Average
    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 None missing in /p t k b d g/
    Uvular Consonants None
    Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
    Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
    The Velar Nasal No initial velar nasal
    Front Rounded Vowels High and mid
    Syllable Structure Complex
    Tone No tones
    Absence of Common Consonants All present
    Presence of Uncommon Consonants None
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Strongly suffixing
    Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural suffix
    Definite Articles No definite or indefinite article
    Indefinite Articles No definite or indefinite article
    Indefinite Pronouns Interrogative-based
    Position of Case Affixes Case suffixes
    Ordinal Numerals One-th, two-th, three-th
    Distributive Numerals Marked by reduplication
    Numeral Classifiers Absent
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
    Nominal Syntax
    Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
    Possessive Classification No possessive classification
    Action Nominal Constructions Possessive-Accusative
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Tense-aspect suffixes
    The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
    The Prohibitive Normal imperative + special negative
    The Optative Inflectional optative absent
    Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
    Epistemic Possibility Verbal constructions
    Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking Overlap for both possibility and necessity
    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
    Position of Polar Question Particles Final
    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
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
    Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
    Negative Morphemes Negative affix
    Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
    Polar Questions Question particle
    Comparative Constructions Locational
    Lexicon
    M-T Pronouns M-T pronouns, paradigmatic
    N-M Pronouns No N-M pronouns
    Tea Words derived from Sinitic cha