Possessive Classification
Noun phrases · one world map for each value
WALS codes 243 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “No possessive classification”, covers 125 of them (51%); the least frequent, “More than five classes”, covers 4.
That value is most frequent in Eurasia (90% of the 49 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (16% of 25).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Indo-European is the most uniform: 9 of 10 have “No possessive classification”.
Trans-New Guinea is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 9 of 17.
No possessive classification125 languages · 51%
Two classes94 languages · 39%
Three to five classes20 languages · 8%
More than five classes4 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No possessive classification | 20 | 44 | 24 | 4 | 19 | 14 |
| Two classes | 20 | 3 | 29 | 19 | 19 | 4 |
| Three to five classes | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 5 |
| More than five classes | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| All values | 41 | 49 | 59 | 25 | 45 | 24 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trans-New Guinea | 17 | Two classes | 53% |
| Austronesian | 15 | No possessive classification | 53% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 11 | Two classes | 55% |
| Niger-Congo | 11 | No possessive classification | 55% |
| Indo-European | 10 | No possessive classification | 90% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 9 | Two classes | 78% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.