1. Family: Niger-Congo
  2. Subfamily: Mande
  3. Genus: Western Mande

Vai

WALS coordinates: 6° 55′ 12.00″ N, 11° 15′ W

spoken in Sierra Leone, Liberia

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Vai
Routledge:
    Other:
    • Vai (Mande)
    ISO 639-3:

    Features

    Feature Value References
    Phonology
    The Velar Nasal Initial velar nasal
    Morphology
    Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Little affixation
    Nominal Categories
    Coding of Nominal Plurality Plural word
    Definite Articles Definite word distinct from demonstrative
    Indefinite Articles No indefinite, but definite article
    Position of Case Affixes No case affixes or adpositional clitics
    Comitatives and Instrumentals Differentiation
    Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes No possessive affixes
    Verbal Categories
    Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type
    The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
    The Prohibitive Special imperative + normal negative
    Imperative-Hortative Systems Minimal system
    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 OVX
    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 Noun-Demonstrative
    Order of Numeral and Noun Noun-Numeral
    Order of Relative Clause and Noun Correlative
    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 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
    Expression of Pronominal Subjects Obligatory pronouns in subject position
    Periphrastic Causative Constructions Purposive but no sequential
    Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Neither
    Predicative Adjectives Mixed
    Nominal and Locational Predication Different
    Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Impossible
    Complex Sentences
    Purpose Clauses Deranked
    'When' Clauses Deranked
    Reason Clauses Deranked
    Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced