Comparative Constructions
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 167 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Locational Comparative”, covers 78 of them (47%); the least frequent, “Particle Comparative”, covers 22.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (67% of the 60 languages coded there) and least frequent in Papunesia (23% of 22).
All 19 Niger-Congo languages coded have “Exceed Comparative”.
Austronesian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 7 of 17.
Locational Comparative78 languages · 47%
Exceed Comparative33 languages · 20%
Conjoined Comparative34 languages · 20%
Particle Comparative22 languages · 13%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Locational Comparative | 14 | 40 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 10 |
| Exceed Comparative | 24 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Conjoined Comparative | 0 | 1 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 11 |
| Particle Comparative | 1 | 13 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| All values | 39 | 60 | 22 | 5 | 17 | 24 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger-Congo | 19 | Exceed Comparative | 100% |
| Austronesian | 17 | Conjoined Comparative | 41% |
| Indo-European | 17 | Particle Comparative | 59% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 13 | Locational Comparative | 85% |
| Altaic | 8 | Locational Comparative | 100% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.