Ordinal Numerals
Nouns and pronouns · one world map for each value
WALS codes 321 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “First, two-th, three-th”, covers 110 of them (34%); the least frequent, “One: No distinction of cardinal and ordinal numerals”, covers 3.
That value is most frequent in Africa (65% of the 66 languages coded there) and least frequent in South America (4% of 23).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Niger-Congo is the most uniform: 21 of 24 have “First, two-th, three-th”.
Sino-Tibetan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 3 of 9.
Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist33 languages · 10%
One: No distinction of cardinal and ordinal numerals3 languages · 1%
First, two, three12 languages · 4%
One-th, two-th, three-th41 languages · 13%
First/one-th, two-th, three-th54 languages · 17%
First, two-th, three-th110 languages · 34%
First, second, three-th61 languages · 19%
Variou-th: Other solutions7 languages · 2%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist | 1 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 3 | 9 |
| One: No distinction of cardinal and ordinal numerals | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| First, two, three | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| One-th, two-th, three-th | 4 | 23 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| First/one-th, two-th, three-th | 7 | 24 | 7 | 0 | 10 | 6 |
| First, two-th, three-th | 43 | 32 | 11 | 0 | 23 | 1 |
| First, second, three-th | 4 | 52 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| Variou-th: Other solutions | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| All values | 66 | 139 | 38 | 10 | 45 | 23 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 59 | First, second, three-th | 61% |
| Niger-Congo | 24 | First, two-th, three-th | 88% |
| Austronesian | 23 | First, two-th, three-th | 48% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 19 | First, two-th, three-th | 58% |
| Altaic | 18 | One-th, two-th, three-th | 56% |
| Uralic | 15 | First, second, three-th | 80% |
| Mayan | 12 | First, two-th, three-th | 75% |
| other | 11 | First, two-th, three-th | 36% |
| Oto-Manguean | 9 | First, two-th, three-th | 44% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 9 | One-th, two-th, three-th | 33% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 8 | Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist | 50% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist: Hixkaryana, Kayardild, Ngiyambaa, Tiwi, Mangarrayi, Martuthunira
- One: No distinction of cardinal and ordinal numerals: Krongo
- First, two, three: Tukang Besi, Lango, Nivkh, Warao, Iraqw, Mundari
- One-th, two-th, three-th: Mandarin, Japanese, Lezgian, Korean, Maori, Yaqui
- First/one-th, two-th, three-th: Turkish, Indonesian, Amele, Abkhaz, Persian, Kannada
- First, two-th, three-th: Georgian, Basque, German, Hausa, Tagalog, Malagasy
- First, second, three-th: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, Hungarian
- Variou-th: Other solutions: Vietnamese, Burmese, Kewa, Kilivila, Usan