Acehnese
Austronesian family · Malayo-Sumbawan branch · Eurasia
WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Acehnese, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.
On Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions, WALS codes Acehnese as “Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not”, a value held by 23 of the 902 languages coded, Indonesian and Tukang Besi among them.
On Position of Polar Question Particles, WALS codes Acehnese as “Question particle in either of two positions”, a value held by 26 of the 884 languages coded, Indonesian and Malagasy among them.
Contrast Acehnese with Fijian or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Acehnese, rarest first.
- Order of Object and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant101 of 1,518
- Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingActive alignment26 of 380
- Order of Subject and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant110 of 1,496
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsProminence: other factors are heavy for stress41 of 500
- Coding of Nominal PluralityNo plural98 of 1,066
- Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingZero in all 3rd person forms36 of 380
- Occurrence of Nominal PluralityNo nominal plural28 of 291
Inside the Austronesian family
Acehnese matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 42 of the 67 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (63%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 28th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Acehnese; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Acehnese for 67 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 57 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Acehnese shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Stress Locations | Ultimate: stress is on the ultimate (last) syllable | 51 of 502 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) | 281 of 500 |
Word structure 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Little or no inflectional morphology | 141 of 969 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Consistently head-marking | 47 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is head-marked | 71 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is head-marked | 78 of 236 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Definite Articles | Neither definite nor indefinite article | 198 of 620 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Indefinite Articles | Neither indefinite nor definite | 198 of 534 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Three-way contrast | 88 of 234 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical | 103 of 234 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | No tense-aspect inflection | 152 of 1,131 |
| The Morphological Imperative | No second-person imperatives | 122 of 548 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for either possibility or necessity | 66 of 207 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + special negative | 182 of 496 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
Word order 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Both orders occur with neither order dominant | 62 of 481 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | More than one order with none dominant | 167 of 500 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Noun-genitive (NGen) | 468 of 1,249 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral precedes noun (NumN) | 479 of 1,154 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | 511 of 1,184 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem) | 562 of 1,225 |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
Simple clauses 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Mixed | 40 of 378 |
| Predicative Possession | Topic Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding | 151 of 386 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose Clauses | Balanced | 38 of 170 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced | 84 of 174 |
| Relativization on Obliques | Gap Strategy | 55 of 112 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |
Vocabulary 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |
| M in Second Person Singular | No m in second person singular | 152 of 230 |
| M in First Person Singular | No m in first person singular | 177 of 230 |
| N-M Pronouns | No N-M pronouns | 194 of 230 |
| M-T Pronouns | No M-T pronouns | 200 of 230 |