Arabic (Egyptian)
Afro-Asiatic family · Semitic branch · Africa
Arabic (Egyptian) is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Presence of Uncommon Consonants, WALS codes Arabic (Egyptian) as “Pharyngeals”, a value held by 21 of the 567 languages coded, Berber (Middle Atlas) and Iraqw among them.
On Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection, WALS codes Arabic (Egyptian) as “TAM+agreement+diathesis”, a value held by 4 of the 160 languages coded, Hebrew (Modern) and Greek (Modern) among them.
Of its word-order pairings, the one Arabic (Egyptian) shares with the fewest languages is Order of Numeral and Noun: “Both orders of numeral and noun with neither order dominant”, the value of 65 of the 1,154 languages coded.
The least common value coded for Arabic (Egyptian) is “Ablaut/concatenative” on Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives, held by 5 of the 165 languages coded.
Contrast Arabic (Egyptian) with Hebrew (Modern) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Arabic (Egyptian), rarest first.
- Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsGender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person18 of 378
- Weight-Sensitive StressRight-oriented: The antepenultimate is involved27 of 500
- Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
- Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
- Action Nominal ConstructionsMixed: Several patterns in the same language14 of 168
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsCombined: two of the above factors determine weight42 of 500
- Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops and continuants48 of 567
Inside the Afro-Asiatic family
Arabic (Egyptian) matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 92 of the 128 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (72%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks fourth from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Arabic (Egyptian); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Arabic (Egyptian) for 128 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 116 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Arabic (Egyptian) shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 14
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately large | 94 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| 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 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Moderate preference for suffixing | 123 of 969 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor has no marking | 32 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P has no marking | 42 of 236 |
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 6-7 categories per word | 31 of 145 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 60 of 198 |
| 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 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 24
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Related by gender markers | 24 of 225 |
| Definite Articles | Definite affix on noun | 92 of 620 |
| The Associative Plural | Associative plural absent | 37 of 236 |
| Indefinite Articles | No indefinite article but definite article | 98 of 534 |
| Number of Genders | Two | 50 of 257 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Person marking for pronouns only | 83 of 378 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic and formal assignment | 59 of 257 |
| Distributive Numerals | No distributive numerals | 62 of 251 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Generic-noun-based indefinites | 85 of 326 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | No morphological case-marking | 81 of 261 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| 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 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | 126 of 234 |
| 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 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 17
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + normal negative | 55 of 496 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary | 146 of 1,131 |
| Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | Imperative | 29 of 193 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 of 222 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 101 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 110 of 222 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | No suppletion in tense or aspect | 123 of 193 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| Verbal Number and Suppletion | No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples | 159 of 193 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at beginning of sentence | 129 of 884 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Noun-genitive (NGen) | 468 of 1,249 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg) | 192 of 481 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | Verb-object-oblique (VOX) | 210 of 500 |
| 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 Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
| 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 |
| 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 25
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Mixed | 40 of 378 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | Zero realization of all third person singular S forms | 45 of 380 |
| Predicative Possession | Locational Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Symmetric standard negation only: Type Sym | 114 of 297 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | Non-assignable (no asymmetry found) | 114 of 297 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Neutral | 79 of 172 |
| 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 |
| Applicative Constructions | No applicative construction | 100 of 183 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No applicative construction | 100 of 183 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Distinct from reflexive | 99 of 175 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Purposive type but no sequential type | 68 of 118 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| 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 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Obliques | Pronoun-Retention Strategy | 20 of 112 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is expressed overtly | 72 of 283 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
Vocabulary 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Sinitic cha | 110 of 230 |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |
| 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 |