Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns
Nouns and pronouns · one world map for each value
WALS codes 168 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical”, covers 94 of them (56%); the least frequent, “Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated”, covers 74.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (70% of the 74 languages coded there) and least frequent in North America (21% of 19).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Afro-Asiatic is the most uniform: 8 of 10 have “Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical”.
Austronesian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 5 of 10.
Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical94 languages · 56%
Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated74 languages · 44%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 17 | 52 | 12 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
| Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 16 | 22 | 6 | 4 | 15 | 11 |
| All values | 33 | 74 | 18 | 9 | 19 | 15 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 34 | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 53% |
| Niger-Congo | 13 | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 69% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 10 | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 80% |
| Austronesian | 10 | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 50% |