Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking
Word structure · one world map for each value
WALS codes 198 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Subject person/number marking is never syncretic”, covers 81 of them (41%); the least frequent, “No subject person/number marking”, covers 57.
That value is most frequent in North America (75% of the 36 languages coded there) and least frequent in Africa (23% of 35).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Trans-New Guinea is the most uniform: 10 of 11 have “Subject person/number marking is syncretic”.
Austronesian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 8 of 15.
No subject person/number marking57 languages · 29%
Subject person/number marking is syncretic60 languages · 30%
Subject person/number marking is never syncretic81 languages · 41%
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 subject person/number marking | 9 | 17 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 12 |
| Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 18 | 16 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Subject person/number marking is never syncretic | 8 | 18 | 12 | 7 | 27 | 9 |
| All values | 35 | 51 | 33 | 14 | 36 | 29 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 15 | Subject person/number marking is never syncretic | 53% |
| Niger-Congo | 13 | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 54% |
| Indo-European | 11 | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 64% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 11 | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 91% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 8 | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 62% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 8 | No subject person/number marking | 88% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.