Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 380 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “No zero realization of third person S forms”, covers 181 of them (48%); the least frequent, “Zero realization only of third person non-singular”, is recorded for a single language.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (71% of the 80 languages coded there) and least frequent in Australia (31% of 26).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Trans-New Guinea is the most uniform: 16 of 18 have “No zero realization of third person S forms”.
Uto-Aztecan is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 3 of 8.
No person marking of the S96 languages · 25%
No zero realization of third person S forms181 languages · 48%
Zero realization of some third person singular forms21 languages · 6%
Zero realization of all third person singular S forms45 languages · 12%
Zero in all 3rd person forms36 languages · 9%
Zero realization only of third person non-singular1 language · under 1%
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 person marking of the S | 31 | 25 | 14 | 9 | 8 | 9 |
| No zero realization of third person S forms | 32 | 34 | 57 | 8 | 27 | 23 |
| Zero realization of some third person singular forms | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 7 |
| Zero realization of all third person singular S forms | 3 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 15 | 5 |
| Zero in all 3rd person forms | 5 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 17 | 7 |
| Zero realization only of third person non-singular | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| All values | 73 | 77 | 80 | 26 | 72 | 52 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 42 | No zero realization of third person S forms | 64% |
| Niger-Congo | 24 | No person marking of the S | 50% |
| Indo-European | 19 | No zero realization of third person S forms | 74% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 18 | No zero realization of third person S forms | 50% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 18 | No zero realization of third person S forms | 89% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 14 | No person marking of the S | 64% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 10 | No person marking of the S | 50% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 10 | No person marking of the S | 70% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 9 | No zero realization of third person S forms | 44% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 8 | Zero in all 3rd person forms | 38% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- No person marking of the S: Mandarin, Japanese, Lezgian, Korean, Hausa, Tagalog
- No zero realization of third person S forms: English, French, Russian, Spanish, Indonesian, Hungarian
- Zero realization of some third person singular forms: Lango, Oromo (Harar), Quechua (Imbabura), Brahui, Urubú-Kaapor, Cayuvava
- Zero realization of all third person singular S forms: Finnish, Turkish, Persian, Arabic (Egyptian), Slave, Hebrew (Modern)
- Zero in all 3rd person forms: Guaraní, Lakhota, Ainu, Kutenai, Maricopa, Wichí
- Zero realization only of third person non-singular: Barasano