Reduplication
Word structure · one world map for each value
WALS codes 368 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Productive full and partial reduplication”, covers 278 of them (76%); the least frequent, “Full reduplication only”, covers 35.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (93% of the 74 languages coded there) and least frequent in South America (55% of 31).
All 18 Salishan languages coded have “Productive full and partial reduplication”.
Hokan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 4 of 8.
Productive full and partial reduplication278 languages · 76%
Full reduplication only35 languages · 10%
No productive reduplication55 languages · 15%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Productive full and partial reduplication | 39 | 40 | 69 | 40 | 73 | 17 |
| Full reduplication only | 6 | 8 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 2 |
| No productive reduplication | 3 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 19 | 12 |
| All values | 48 | 69 | 74 | 49 | 97 | 31 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 57 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 93% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 27 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 74% |
| Niger-Congo | 23 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 78% |
| Indo-European | 20 | No productive reduplication | 60% |
| Salishan | 18 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 100% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 17 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 100% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 12 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 92% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 10 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 100% |
| Mayan | 10 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 90% |
| Penutian | 9 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 78% |
| Hokan | 8 | Productive full and partial reduplication | 50% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.