Basque

a family of its own in WALS · Eurasia

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

On Position of Polar Question Particles, WALS codes Basque as “Question particle with other position”, a value held by 8 of the 884 languages coded, Hmong Njua and Somali among them.

On Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns, WALS codes Basque as “Active - inactive”, a value held by 3 of the 172 languages coded, the others being Imonda and Drehu.

The closest grammar profile to Basque in the atlas belongs to Nara (in Ethiopia), an Eastern Sudanic language: the two agree on 31 of the 44 features both have coded.

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

Contrast Basque with Nara (in Ethiopia) or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun PhrasesActive - inactive4 of 190
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingErgative alignment19 of 380
Productivity of the Antipassive Constructionpartially productive14 of 186
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSyncretism in relevant NP-types21 of 261
Relativization on ObliquesNot possible10 of 112
Case SyncretismInflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only18 of 198
Number of Cases10 or more case categories24 of 261

Closest profiles

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

Nepali Indo-European33 of 50
Tibetan (Standard Spoken) Sino-Tibetan37 of 57
Awa Pit Barbacoan69 of 115
Turkish Altaic79 of 134

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Basque for 134 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 123 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Basque shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately high	102 of 564
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
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
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	147 of 969
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is double-marked	58 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
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 25

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
The Associative Plural	Special non-bound associative plural marker	47 of 236
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
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
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
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 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Sentential	25 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 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 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary	146 of 1,131
Coding of Evidentiality	Separate particle	65 of 418
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for both possibility and necessity	36 of 207
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion according to tense	36 of 193
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
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 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 in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
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
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
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)	141 of 824
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
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 Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
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 Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 22

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Comparative Constructions	Particle Comparative	22 of 167
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	P precedes A	57 of 379
Antipassive Constructions	Oblique patient	30 of 194
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Predicative Possession	Have-Possessive	63 of 240
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
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
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
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
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 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reason Clauses	Balanced/deranked	37 of 169
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Hybrid vigesimal-decimal	22 of 196
Tea	Words derived from Sinitic cha	110 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
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
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593