Position of Polar Question Particles
Word order · one world map for each value
WALS codes 884 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “No question particle”, covers 355 of them (40%); the least frequent, “Question particle with other position”, covers 8.
That value is most frequent in South America (59% of the 85 languages coded there) and least frequent in Africa (29% of 213).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Tucanoan is the most uniform: 7 of 8 have “No question particle”.
Mayan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 3 of 8.
Question particle at beginning of sentence129 languages · 15%
Question particle at end of sentence314 languages · 36%
Question particle in second position in sentence52 languages · 6%
Question particle with other position8 languages · 1%
Question particle in either of two positions26 languages · 3%
No question particle355 languages · 40%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Question particle at beginning of sentence | 18 | 27 | 22 | 16 | 31 | 15 |
| Question particle at end of sentence | 116 | 88 | 70 | 6 | 22 | 12 |
| Question particle in second position in sentence | 3 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 23 | 8 |
| Question particle with other position | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Question particle in either of two positions | 12 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| No question particle | 62 | 95 | 85 | 22 | 41 | 50 |
| All values | 213 | 222 | 191 | 51 | 122 | 85 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 105 | No question particle | 42% |
| Niger-Congo | 95 | Question particle at end of sentence | 61% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 80 | Question particle at end of sentence | 56% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 56 | Question particle at end of sentence | 45% |
| Indo-European | 52 | No question particle | 42% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 43 | No question particle | 51% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 31 | No question particle | 48% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 20 | Question particle in second position in sentence | 40% |
| Altaic | 19 | No question particle | 58% |
| Oto-Manguean | 19 | Question particle at beginning of sentence | 53% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 18 | Question particle at end of sentence | 67% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 18 | No question particle | 56% |
| Central Sudanic | 16 | Question particle at end of sentence | 81% |
| Hokan | 10 | No question particle | 70% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Question particle at beginning of sentence: French, Greek (Modern), Persian, Hindi, Arabic (Egyptian), Swahili
- Question particle at end of sentence: Turkish, Mandarin, Japanese, Amele, Evenki, Hausa
- Question particle in second position in sentence: Russian, Finnish, Tagalog, Ngiyambaa, Nama, Yagua
- Question particle with other position: Basque, Hmong Njua, Somali, Sedang
- Question particle in either of two positions: Indonesian, Malagasy, Nunggubuyu, Koyraboro Senni, Navajo, Ngiti
- No question particle: English, Spanish, Georgian, Lezgian, German, Abkhaz