Berber (Middle Atlas)

Afro-Asiatic family · Berber branch · Africa

Berber (Middle Atlas) puts its words in verb-subject-object order (VSO), one of only 95 with that basic order among the 1,376 languages WALS codes for this feature.

On N-M Pronouns, all 7 other Afro-Asiatic languages coded have the value “No N-M pronouns”; Berber (Middle Atlas) has “N-M pronouns, non-paradigmatic”.

On Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases, WALS codes Berber (Middle Atlas) as “Nominative - accusative (marked nominative)”, a value held by 6 of the 190 languages coded, Oromo (Harar) and Maricopa among them.

On Position of Case Affixes, WALS codes Berber (Middle Atlas) as “Case prefixes”, a value held by 38 of the 1,031 languages coded, Tashlhiyt and Zulu among them.

The order Berber (Middle Atlas) uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Berber (Middle Atlas) with Arabic (Egyptian) or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Berber (Middle Atlas), rarest first.

Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesAblaut/concatenative5 of 165
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsPharyngeals21 of 567
Suppletion in Imperatives and HortativesA regular and a suppletive form alternate8 of 193
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsGender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person18 of 378
Order of Demonstrative and NounTwo or more of above types with none dominant67 of 1,225
Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops only38 of 567

Inside the Afro-Asiatic family

Berber (Middle Atlas) matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 67 of the 115 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (58%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 19th from the top.

Where Berber (Middle Atlas) breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Berber (Middle Atlas)	Most relatives
M in Second Person Singular	m in second person singular	No m in second person singular (7 of 7)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Berber (Middle Atlas); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Arabic (Egyptian) Afro-Asiatic70 of 110
Gaelic (Scots) Indo-European26 of 40
Kurdish (Central) Indo-European26 of 41
Ik Eastern Sudanic28 of 45
Turkana Eastern Sudanic26 of 42

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Berber (Middle Atlas) for 115 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 102 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Berber (Middle Atlas) shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Fixed Stress Locations	Ultimate: stress is on the ultimate (last) syllable	51 of 502
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	High	69 of 564
Vowel Quality Inventories	Small vowel inventory (2-4)	93 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	No weight, or weight factor unknown	261 of 500
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)	281 of 500
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 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: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
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
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
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 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Subtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking	20 of 261
Number of Cases	2 case categories	23 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
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
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 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
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
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
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 12

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
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
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 Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
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
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 23

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	A/Fin and A/Cat	21 of 297
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A precedes P	96 of 379
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
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
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
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
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
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
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 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced/deranked	18 of 143
Purpose Clauses	Balanced/deranked	30 of 170
Reason Clauses	Balanced/deranked	37 of 169
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Others	36 of 230
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230