Asymmetrical Case-Marking
Nouns and pronouns · one world map for each value
WALS codes 261 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “No morphological case-marking”, covers 81 of them (31%); the least frequent, “Qualitatively asymmetrical case-marking”, covers 7.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (59% of the 44 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (6% of 16).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Niger-Congo is the most uniform: 14 of 15 have “No morphological case-marking”.
Afro-Asiatic is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 4 of 11.
No morphological case-marking81 languages · 31%
Symmetrical case-marking79 languages · 30%
Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking53 languages · 20%
Subtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking20 languages · 8%
Qualitatively asymmetrical case-marking7 languages · 3%
Syncretism in relevant NP-types21 languages · 8%
One map per value; each dot is a language WALS codes with that value.
By macro-area
| Value | Africa | Eurasia | Papunesia | Australia | North America | South America |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No morphological case-marking | 20 | 12 | 26 | 1 | 13 | 9 |
| Symmetrical case-marking | 9 | 31 | 5 | 1 | 16 | 17 |
| Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 4 | 21 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 4 |
| Subtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 6 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Qualitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| Syncretism in relevant NP-types | 2 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| All values | 41 | 83 | 44 | 16 | 45 | 32 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 32 | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 44% |
| Austronesian | 23 | No morphological case-marking | 83% |
| Niger-Congo | 15 | No morphological case-marking | 93% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 13 | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 46% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 11 | Symmetrical case-marking | 36% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 8 | Symmetrical case-marking | 62% |
| Uralic | 8 | Symmetrical case-marking | 50% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- No morphological case-marking: French, Indonesian, Mandarin, Amele, Hausa, Maori
- Symmetrical case-marking: Turkish, Hungarian, Japanese, Abkhaz, Korean, Persian
- Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking: English, Finnish, Spanish, Tagalog, Malagasy, Burushaski
- Subtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking: Georgian, Chukchi, Oromo (Harar), Kanuri, Awa Pit, Berber (Middle Atlas)
- Qualitatively asymmetrical case-marking: Ngiyambaa, Mangarrayi, Yidiny, Pitjantjatjara, Wambaya, Dyirbal
- Syncretism in relevant NP-types: Russian, Lezgian, Basque, German, Greek (Modern), Greenlandic (West)