Tuvaluan

WALS coordinates: 8° 30′ S, 179° 10′ E

spoken in Tuvalu

Find examples here.

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Tuvalu
Routledge:
  • Tuvalu
Other:
  • Ellice
ISO 639-3:

Features

ID Feature Value Area References  
30A Number of Genders None Nominal Categories
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31A Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems No gender Nominal Categories
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32A Systems of Gender Assignment No gender Nominal Categories
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33A Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural word Nominal Categories
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34A Occurrence of Nominal Plurality All nouns, always obligatory Nominal Categories
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35A Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem + pronominal plural affix Nominal Categories
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36A The Associative Plural Unique periphrastic associative plural Nominal Categories
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examples
37A Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative Nominal Categories
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38A Indefinite Articles Indefinite word distinct from 'one' Nominal Categories
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41A Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives Three-way contrast Nominal Categories
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examples
42A Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives Identical Nominal Categories
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examples
43A Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Related to remote demonstratives Nominal Categories
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examples
46A Indefinite Pronouns Generic-noun-based Nominal Categories
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49A Number of Cases No morphological case-marking Nominal Categories
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50A Asymmetrical Case-Marking No case-marking Nominal Categories
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51A Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics Nominal Categories
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54A Distributive Numerals Marked by preceding word Nominal Categories
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55A Numeral Classifiers Optional Nominal Categories
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62A Action Nominal Constructions Mixed Nominal Syntax
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examples
64A Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation Nominal Syntax
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69A Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes No tense-aspect inflection Verbal Categories
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70A The Morphological Imperative Second singular Verbal Categories
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74A Situational Possibility Verbal constructions Verbal Categories
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75A Epistemic Possibility Other Verbal Categories
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76A Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking No overlap Verbal Categories
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81A Order of Subject, Object and Verb OVS Word Order
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82A Order of Subject and Verb VS Word Order
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83A Order of Object and Verb OV Word Order
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85A Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions Word Order
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86A Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive Word Order
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87A Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective Word Order
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88A Order of Demonstrative and Noun Noun-Demonstrative Word Order
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89A Order of Numeral and Noun Numeral-Noun Word Order
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90A Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause Word Order
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90C Postnominal relative clauses Noun-Relative clause (NRel) dominant Word Order
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92A Position of Polar Question Particles No question particle Word Order
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93A Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Mixed Word Order
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95A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase OV and Prepositions Word Order
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96A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun OV and NRel Word Order
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97A Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun OV and NAdj Word Order
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108A Antipassive Constructions No antipassive Simple Clauses
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108B Productivity of the Antipassive Construction no antipassive Simple Clauses
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109A Applicative Constructions No applicative construction Simple Clauses
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109B Other Roles of Applied Objects No applicative construction Simple Clauses
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110A Periphrastic Causative Constructions Both Simple Clauses
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111A Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound Simple Clauses
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examples
115A Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Negative existential construction Simple Clauses
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116A Polar Questions Interrogative intonation only Simple Clauses
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121A Comparative Constructions Locational Simple Clauses
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125A Purpose Clauses Deranked Complex Sentences
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126A 'When' Clauses Balanced/deranked Complex Sentences
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127A Reason Clauses Balanced/deranked Complex Sentences
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128A Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced Complex Sentences
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143A Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb NegV Word Order
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143E Preverbal Negative Morphemes NegV Word Order
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143F Postverbal Negative Morphemes None Word Order
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143G Minor morphological means of signaling negation None Word Order
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144A Position of Negative Word With Respect to Subject, Object, and Verb ONegVS Word Order
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144B Position of negative words relative to beginning and end of clause and with respect to adjacency to verb Immed preverbal Word Order
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144Y The Position of Negative Morphemes in Object-Initial Languages ONegVS Word Order
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