Vowel Nasalization
Sounds · one world map for each value
WALS codes 244 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Contrastive nasal vowels absent”, covers 180 of them (74%); the least frequent, “Contrastive nasal vowels present”, covers 64.
That value is most frequent in Papunesia (97% of the 33 languages coded there) and least frequent in South America (52% of 29).
All 15 Austronesian languages coded have “Contrastive nasal vowels absent”.
Niger-Congo is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 23 of 44.
Contrastive nasal vowels present64 languages · 26%
Contrastive nasal vowels absent180 languages · 74%
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contrastive nasal vowels present | 31 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 11 | 14 |
| Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 44 | 48 | 32 | 14 | 27 | 15 |
| All values | 75 | 55 | 33 | 14 | 38 | 29 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niger-Congo | 44 | Contrastive nasal vowels present | 52% |
| Austronesian | 15 | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 100% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 13 | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 92% |
| Indo-European | 11 | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 82% |
| Trans-New Guinea | 9 | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 100% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 8 | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 88% |