Order of Adjective and Noun
Word order · one world map for each value
WALS codes 1,367 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)”, covers 879 of them (64%); the least frequent, “Only internally-headed relative clauses”, covers 5.
That value is most frequent in Africa (85% of the 358 languages coded there) and least frequent in Eurasia (39% of 337).
All 16 Mande languages coded have “Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)”.
Hokan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 5 of 10.
Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)373 languages · 27%
Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)879 languages · 64%
No dominant order110 languages · 8%
Only internally-headed relative clauses5 languages · under 1%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 40 | 187 | 36 | 21 | 59 | 30 |
| Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 303 | 130 | 245 | 59 | 67 | 75 |
| No dominant order | 15 | 20 | 26 | 18 | 15 | 16 |
| Only internally-headed relative clauses | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| All values | 358 | 337 | 307 | 98 | 146 | 121 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger-Congo | 179 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 88% |
| Austronesian | 172 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 85% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 123 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 50% |
| Indo-European | 75 | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 73% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 72 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 75% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 61 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 74% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 51 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 59% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 38 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 97% |
| Altaic | 27 | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 96% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 26 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 69% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 26 | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 54% |
| Oto-Manguean | 22 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 91% |
| Central Sudanic | 21 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 71% |
| Arawakan | 16 | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 69% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN): English, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, Mandarin, Hungarian
- Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj): French, Spanish, Indonesian, Amele, Basque, Abkhaz
- No dominant order: Tagalog, Ngiyambaa, Meithei, Yimas, Nunggubuyu, Shipibo-Konibo
- Only internally-headed relative clauses: Kutenai, Diegueño (Mesa Grande), Tiipay (Jamul), Choctaw