Verbal Person Marking
Simple clauses · one world map for each value
WALS codes 378 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Person marking of both the A and P arguments”, covers 193 of them (51%); the least frequent, “Person marking of the A or P argument”, covers 6.
That value is most frequent in North America (75% of the 72 languages coded there) and least frequent in Eurasia (28% of 76).
Among families with at least eight coded languages, Uto-Aztecan is the most uniform: 7 of 8 have “Person marking of both the A and P arguments”.
Afro-Asiatic is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 6 of 17.
No person marking of any argument82 languages · 22%
Person marking of only the A argument73 languages · 19%
Person marking of only the P argument24 languages · 6%
Person marking of the A or P argument6 languages · 2%
Person marking of both the A and P arguments193 languages · 51%
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 any argument | 23 | 22 | 13 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Person marking of only the A argument | 9 | 30 | 17 | 0 | 9 | 8 |
| Person marking of only the P argument | 7 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Person marking of the A or P argument | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 33 | 21 | 43 | 16 | 54 | 26 |
| All values | 72 | 76 | 80 | 26 | 72 | 52 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Austronesian | 42 | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 48% |
| Niger-Congo | 24 | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 50% |
| Indo-European | 19 | Person marking of only the A argument | 63% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 18 | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 67% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 17 | Person marking of only the A argument | 35% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 14 | No person marking of any argument | 57% |
| Austro-Asiatic | 10 | No person marking of any argument | 50% |
| Pama-Nyungan | 10 | No person marking of any argument | 60% |
| Eastern Sudanic | 9 | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 56% |
| Uto-Aztecan | 8 | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 88% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- No person marking of any argument: Mandarin, Japanese, Lezgian, Korean, Hausa, Tagalog
- Person marking of only the A argument: English, French, Russian, Finnish, Turkish, German
- Person marking of only the P argument: Indonesian, Nama, Canela, Warao, Trumai, Batak (Karo)
- Person marking of the A or P argument: Awa Pit, Kiowa, Kalkatungu
- Person marking of both the A and P arguments: Spanish, Hungarian, Georgian, Amele, Basque, Greek (Modern)