Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology

Word structure · one world map for each value

WALS codes 969 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Predominantly suffixing”, covers 406 of them (42%); the least frequent, “Predominantly prefixing”, covers 58.

That value is most frequent in Australia (68% of the 79 languages coded there) and least frequent in Africa (27% of 210).

All 27 Altaic languages coded have “Predominantly suffixing”.

Central Sudanic is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 5 of 19.

Little or no inflectional morphology141 languages · 15%

Predominantly suffixing406 languages · 42%

Moderate preference for suffixing123 languages · 13%

Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing147 languages · 15%

Moderate preference for prefixing94 languages · 10%

Predominantly prefixing58 languages · 6%

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
Little or no inflectional morphology	29	37	59	3	6	7
Predominantly suffixing	57	151	57	54	41	46
Moderate preference for suffixing	34	30	21	2	19	17
Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	30	9	27	10	47	24
Moderate preference for prefixing	27	3	29	9	20	6
Predominantly prefixing	33	2	10	1	11	1
All values	210	232	203	79	144	101

Inside the largest families

Family	Coded	Most frequent value	Share
Austronesian	108	Little or no inflectional morphology	49%
Niger-Congo	77	Predominantly prefixing	39%
Sino-Tibetan	67	Predominantly suffixing	48%
Afro-Asiatic	53	Predominantly suffixing	49%
Indo-European	53	Predominantly suffixing	85%
Pama-Nyungan	49	Predominantly suffixing	98%
Trans-New Guinea	47	Predominantly suffixing	77%
Eastern Sudanic	32	Predominantly suffixing	28%
Altaic	27	Predominantly suffixing	100%
Uto-Aztecan	24	Predominantly suffixing	50%
Central Sudanic	19	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	26%
Oto-Manguean	17	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	47%
Austro-Asiatic	16	Little or no inflectional morphology	56%
Penutian	15	Predominantly suffixing	73%

Languages to explore

The most fully coded languages with each value.

Little or no inflectional morphology: Hausa, Tagalog, Malagasy, Maori, Vietnamese, Chamorro
Predominantly suffixing: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, Turkish
Moderate preference for suffixing: Georgian, Persian, Supyire, Arabic (Egyptian), Burushaski, Chukchi
Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing: Basque, Abkhaz, Hixkaryana, Lango, Mangarrayi, Ainu
Moderate preference for prefixing: Swahili, Tukang Besi, Krongo, Lakhota, Gooniyandi, Ket
Predominantly prefixing: Slave, Zulu, Maybrat, Guaraní, Tiwi, Jakaltek