Number of Cases
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 100 of them (38%); 2 values tie for least frequent, with 9 languages each.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (70% of the 44 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (12% of 16).
All 23 Austronesian languages coded have “No morphological case-marking”.
Indo-European is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 8 of 32.
No morphological case-marking100 languages · 38%
2 case categories23 languages · 9%
3 case categories9 languages · 3%
4 case categories9 languages · 3%
5 case categories12 languages · 5%
6-7 case categories37 languages · 14%
8-9 case categories23 languages · 9%
10 or more case categories24 languages · 9%
Exclusively borderline morphological case-marking24 languages · 9%
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 | 23 | 18 | 31 | 2 | 17 | 9 |
| 2 case categories | 4 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 case categories | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 case categories | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 case categories | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6-7 case categories | 7 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 5 |
| 8-9 case categories | 0 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| 10 or more case categories | 0 | 15 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| Exclusively borderline morphological case-marking | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 6 |
| All values | 41 | 83 | 44 | 16 | 45 | 32 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 32 | No morphological case-marking | 25% |
| Austronesian | 23 | No morphological case-marking | 100% |
| Niger-Congo | 15 | No morphological case-marking | 93% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 13 | No morphological case-marking | 38% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 11 | No morphological case-marking | 27% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 8 | No morphological case-marking | 25% |
| Uralic | 8 | 10 or more case categories | 62% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- No morphological case-marking: French, Spanish, Indonesian, Mandarin, Amele, Hausa
- 2 case categories: English, Abkhaz, Persian, Mapudungun, Yaqui, Maybrat
- 3 case categories: Greek (Modern), Paumarí, Karok, Comanche, Semelai, Somali
- 4 case categories: German, Suena, Murle, Bawm, Fur, Albanian
- 5 case categories: Ngiyambaa, Imonda, Warao, Latvian, Armenian (Eastern), Trumai
- 6-7 case categories: Russian, Turkish, Georgian, Korean, Kannada, Oromo (Harar)
- 8-9 case categories: Japanese, Khalkha, Greenlandic (West), Burushaski, Burmese, Mangarrayi
- 10 or more case categories: Finnish, Hungarian, Lezgian, Basque, Evenki, Chukchi
- Exclusively borderline morphological case-marking: Supyire, Pirahã, Ainu, Apurinã, Yagua, Yimas