Order of Person Markers on the Verb
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 379 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb”, covers 187 of them (49%); the least frequent, “Both orders of A and P occur”, covers 19.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (73% of the 77 languages coded there) and least frequent in North America (25% of 72).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Austro-Asiatic is the most uniform: 9 of 10 have “A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb”.
Uto-Aztecan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 3 of 8.
A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb187 languages · 49%
A precedes P96 languages · 25%
P precedes A57 languages · 15%
Both orders of A and P occur19 languages · 5%
A and P are fused20 languages · 5%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 40 | 56 | 37 | 10 | 18 | 26 |
| A precedes P | 24 | 11 | 28 | 5 | 12 | 16 |
| P precedes A | 5 | 8 | 14 | 1 | 24 | 5 |
| Both orders of A and P occur | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 0 |
| A and P are fused | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 4 |
| All values | 73 | 77 | 80 | 26 | 72 | 51 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 42 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 52% |
| Niger-Congo | 24 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 50% |
| Indo-European | 19 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 63% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 18 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 67% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 18 | P precedes A | 50% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 14 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 79% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 10 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 90% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 10 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 80% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 9 | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 44% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 8 | A precedes P | 38% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, Indonesian
- A precedes P: Persian, Arabic (Egyptian), Greenlandic (West), Hixkaryana, Swahili, Tukang Besi
- P precedes A: Spanish, Georgian, Amele, Basque, Greek (Modern), Abkhaz
- Both orders of A and P occur: Kanuri, Ngiyambaa, Tiwi, Mangarrayi, Lakhota, Yimas
- A and P are fused: Hungarian, Guaraní, Gooniyandi, Maricopa, Nunggubuyu, Acoma