The Prohibitive
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence · one world map for each value
WALS codes 496 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Normal imperative + special negative”, covers 182 of them (37%); the least frequent, “Special imperative + normal negative”, covers 55.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (50% of the 78 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (25% of 28).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Austro-Asiatic is the most uniform: 7 of 10 have “Normal imperative + special negative”.
Uto-Aztecan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 3 of 12.
Normal imperative + normal negative113 languages · 23%
Normal imperative + special negative182 languages · 37%
Special imperative + normal negative55 languages · 11%
Special imperative + special negative146 languages · 29%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Normal imperative + normal negative | 21 | 38 | 16 | 7 | 16 | 15 |
| Normal imperative + special negative | 37 | 63 | 39 | 7 | 16 | 20 |
| Special imperative + normal negative | 18 | 17 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 6 |
| Special imperative + special negative | 43 | 40 | 23 | 9 | 20 | 11 |
| All values | 119 | 158 | 78 | 28 | 61 | 52 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger-Congo | 58 | Special imperative + special negative | 38% |
| Austronesian | 54 | Normal imperative + special negative | 61% |
| Indo-European | 47 | Normal imperative + normal negative | 45% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 29 | Special imperative + special negative | 38% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 26 | Normal imperative + special negative | 62% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 19 | Normal imperative + normal negative | 37% |
| Altaic | 14 | Normal imperative + normal negative | 57% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 14 | Special imperative + special negative | 43% |
| Uralic | 13 | Normal imperative + special negative | 38% |
| Nakh-Daghestanian | 12 | Special imperative + special negative | 58% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 12 | Normal imperative + normal negative | 25% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 10 | Normal imperative + special negative | 70% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 8 | Special imperative + special negative | 50% |
| Oto-Manguean | 8 | Normal imperative + special negative | 50% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Normal imperative + normal negative: English, French, Russian, Turkish, Basque, German
- Normal imperative + special negative: Finnish, Indonesian, Mandarin, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean
- Special imperative + normal negative: Spanish, Abkhaz, Arabic (Egyptian), Martuthunira, Jakaltek, Gooniyandi
- Special imperative + special negative: Lezgian, Amele, Greek (Modern), Hausa, Kannada, Malagasy