Amele

Trans-New Guinea family · Mabuso branch · Papunesia

Amele is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Possessive Classification, WALS codes Amele as “More than five classes”, a value held by 4 of the 243 languages coded, Cayuvava among them.

The closest grammar profile to Amele in the atlas belongs to Sentani, a Sentanic language: the two agree on 54 of the 75 features both have coded.

On Presence of Uncommon Consonants, all 22 other Trans-New Guinea languages coded have the value “None”; Amele has “Labial-velars”.

The order Amele uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Amele with Sentani or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Amele, rarest first.

Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsCoda consonant: closed syllables are heavy for stress18 of 500
Situational PossibilityOther kinds of markers13 of 234
Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Verbal Number and SuppletionSingular-plural pairs, no suppletion12 of 193
Definite ArticlesNo definite article but indefinite article45 of 620
Applicative ConstructionsBenefactive object only; both bases16 of 183
Reciprocal ConstructionsThere are no non-iconic reciprocal constructions.16 of 175

Inside the Trans-New Guinea family

Amele matches the most frequent Trans-New Guinea value on 77 of the 126 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (61%). Among the 16 Trans-New Guinea languages profiled here, that rate ranks 12th from the top.

Where Amele breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Amele	Most relatives
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	Second singular and second plural (13 of 15)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Amele; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Nara (in Ethiopia) Eastern Sudanic33 of 44
Waskia Trans-New Guinea32 of 43
Daga Trans-New Guinea63 of 94
Uradhi Pama-Nyungan31 of 45

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Amele for 134 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 122 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Amele shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Unbounded: Stress can be anywhere in the word	54 of 500
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 26

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural only in human nouns, obligatory	40 of 291
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Ordinal Numerals	First/one-th, two-th, three-th	54 of 321
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Distributive Numerals	No distributive numerals	62 of 251
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression	33 of 116
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Number of Genders	None	145 of 257
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	No gender system	145 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	No gender system	145 of 257
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Possessive-Accusative	29 of 168
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed	33 of 138
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Perfect	Perfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'	21 of 222
The Past Tense	Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions	38 of 222
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Oblique-object-verb (XOV)	48 of 500
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Final subordinator word	96 of 659
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 22

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	P precedes A	57 of 379
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No other roles (= Only benefactive)	36 of 183
Comparative Constructions	Exceed Comparative	33 of 167
Predicative Possession	Conjunctional Possessive	59 of 240
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
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
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Non-Reduction Strategy	14 of 112
Relativization on Subjects	Non-reduction	24 of 166
Purpose Clauses	Balanced/deranked	30 of 170
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143