Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives
Nouns and pronouns · one world map for each value
WALS codes 225 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Unrelated”, covers 100 of them (44%); the least frequent, “Related to non-remote demonstratives”, covers 14.
That value is most frequent in North America (57% of the 40 languages coded there) and least frequent in South America (28% of 25).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Niger-Congo is the most uniform: 10 of 16 have “Related by gender markers”.
Pama-Nyungan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 3 of 8.
Unrelated100 languages · 44%
Related for all demonstratives52 languages · 23%
Related to remote demonstratives18 languages · 8%
Related to non-remote demonstratives14 languages · 6%
Related by gender markers24 languages · 11%
Related for non-human reference17 languages · 8%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unrelated | 20 | 26 | 19 | 5 | 23 | 7 |
| Related for all demonstratives | 1 | 16 | 9 | 7 | 12 | 7 |
| Related to remote demonstratives | 0 | 9 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Related to non-remote demonstratives | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Related by gender markers | 13 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Related for non-human reference | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| All values | 36 | 66 | 42 | 16 | 40 | 25 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 26 | Unrelated | 50% |
| Niger-Congo | 16 | Related by gender markers | 62% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 16 | Unrelated | 56% |
| Indo-European | 13 | Related for all demonstratives | 38% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 12 | Unrelated | 50% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 8 | Unrelated | 62% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 8 | Unrelated | 38% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Unrelated: Finnish, Spanish, Indonesian, Japanese, Amele, Korean
- Related for all demonstratives: English, Basque, Khalkha, Supyire, Hindi, Hixkaryana
- Related to remote demonstratives: Turkish, Georgian, Kannada, Maori, Vietnamese, Burushaski
- Related to non-remote demonstratives: Lezgian, Greenlandic (West), Mapudungun, Warao, Asmat, Arapesh (Mountain)
- Related by gender markers: French, German, Arabic (Egyptian), Zulu, Maybrat, Alamblak
- Related for non-human reference: Mandarin, Hungarian, Persian, Slave, Kayardild, Awa Pit