Babungo
Niger-Congo family · Wide Grassfields branch · Africa
Babungo is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
The closest grammar profile to Babungo in the atlas belongs to Ju|'hoan, a Kxa language: the two agree on 31 of the 42 features both have coded.
On Relativization on Subjects, WALS codes Babungo as “Pronoun-retention”, a value held by 5 of the 166 languages coded, Yoruba and Kayah Li (Eastern) among them.
Contrast Babungo with Ju|'hoan or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Babungo, rarest first.
- Number of GendersFive or more24 of 257
Inside the Niger-Congo family
Babungo matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 37 of the 51 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (73%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks eighth from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Babungo; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Babungo for 51 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 48 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Babungo shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Nouns and pronouns 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Related by gender markers | 24 of 225 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Non-sex-based gender system | 28 of 257 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | 3rd person only, but also non-singular | 42 of 378 |
| Indefinite Articles | No indefinite article but definite article | 98 of 534 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic and formal assignment | 59 of 257 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Generic-noun-based indefinites | 85 of 326 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 136 of 207 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Other | 91 of 240 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | No overlap | 105 of 207 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
Word order 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at end of sentence | 314 of 884 |
| 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 Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj) | 227 of 481 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| 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 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 16
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Negative Morphemes | Double negation | 119 of 1,157 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Mixed | 40 of 378 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Obligatory pronouns in subject position | 82 of 711 |
| Verbal Person Marking | No person marking of any argument | 82 of 378 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking) | 84 of 380 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No person marking of the S | 96 of 380 |
| Predicative Possession | Have-Possessive | 63 of 240 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding | 103 of 386 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Sequential type but no purposive type | 35 of 118 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 187 of 379 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| 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 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Obliques | Pronoun-Retention Strategy | 20 of 112 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
Vocabulary 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| Finger and Hand | Different | 521 of 593 |