Syllable Structure
Sounds · one world map for each value
WALS codes 486 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Moderately complex syllable structure”, covers 274 of them (56%); the least frequent, “Simple syllable structure”, covers 61.
That value is most frequent in Africa (68% of the 119 languages coded there) and least frequent in North America (45% of 64).
All 8 Tai-Kadai languages coded have “Moderately complex syllable structure”.
Uralic is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 4 of 8.
Simple syllable structure61 languages · 13%
Moderately complex syllable structure274 languages · 56%
Complex syllable structure151 languages · 31%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simple syllable structure | 18 | 1 | 20 | 0 | 2 | 20 |
| Moderately complex syllable structure | 81 | 61 | 49 | 20 | 29 | 34 |
| Complex syllable structure | 20 | 68 | 11 | 10 | 33 | 9 |
| All values | 119 | 130 | 80 | 30 | 64 | 63 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger-Congo | 50 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 60% |
| Austronesian | 39 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 62% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 26 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 58% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 25 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 84% |
| Indo-European | 24 | Complex syllable structure | 83% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 21 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 57% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 17 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 53% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 15 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 93% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 15 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 87% |
| Altaic | 13 | Complex syllable structure | 62% |
| Nakh-Daghestanian | 8 | Complex syllable structure | 88% |
| Tai-Kadai | 8 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 100% |
| Uralic | 8 | Moderately complex syllable structure | 50% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.