Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
Word order · one world map for each value
WALS codes 902 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial”, covers 615 of them (68%); the least frequent, “Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not”, covers 23.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (86% of the 218 languages coded there) and least frequent in South America (18% of 87).
All 85 Sino-Tibetan languages coded have “Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial”.
Pama-Nyungan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 21 of 39.
Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial264 languages · 29%
Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial615 languages · 68%
Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not23 languages · 3%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 28 | 27 | 28 | 33 | 78 | 70 |
| Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 182 | 188 | 167 | 28 | 34 | 16 |
| Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not | 7 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| All values | 217 | 218 | 204 | 63 | 113 | 87 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 111 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 66% |
| Niger-Congo | 105 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 88% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 85 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 100% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 49 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 73% |
| Indo-European | 46 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 59% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 39 | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 54% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 39 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 97% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 25 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 88% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 24 | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 54% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 21 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 81% |
| Oto-Manguean | 21 | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 95% |
| Central Sudanic | 14 | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 93% |
| Tupian | 14 | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 93% |
| Arawakan | 13 | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 85% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, German
- Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial: Turkish, Mandarin, Hungarian, Japanese, Georgian, Lezgian
- Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not: Indonesian, Hausa, Supyire, Tukang Besi, Chamorro, Tiwi