Bororo
Bororoan family · South America
WALS lists no other language in the family it assigns to Bororo.
On Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection, WALS codes Bororo as “no TAM”, a value held by 4 of the 160 languages coded, Maybrat and Tiwi among them.
The closest grammar profile to Bororo in the atlas belongs to Cayuvava, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 27 of the 45 features both have coded.
Contrast Bororo with Cayuvava or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Bororo, rarest first.
- Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingZero realization of some third person singular forms21 of 380
- Person Marking on AdpositionsPerson marking for pronouns and nouns23 of 378
- Possessive ClassificationThree to five classes20 of 243
- Absence of Common ConsonantsNo fricatives48 of 567
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Bororo; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Bororo for 54 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 49 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Bororo shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Low | 58 of 564 |
| Syllable Structure | Simple syllable structure | 61 of 486 |
| Consonant Inventories | Small | 89 of 563 |
| Lateral Consonants | No laterals | 95 of 567 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Moderate preference for suffixing | 123 of 969 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is head-marked | 71 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is head-marked | 78 of 236 |
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 4-5 categories per word | 52 of 145 |
| Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives | No case | 75 of 162 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Inconsistent marking or other type | 121 of 236 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive prefixes | 255 of 902 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Morphological Imperative | No second-person imperatives | 122 of 548 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
Word order 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 264 of 902 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | More than one order with none dominant | 167 of 500 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
Simple clauses 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Predicative Possession | Topic Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat | 82 of 297 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding | 151 of 386 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| 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 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| 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 |
Vocabulary 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| M in First Person Singular | m in first person singular | 53 of 230 |
| M in Second Person Singular | No m in second person singular | 152 of 230 |
| N-M Pronouns | No N-M pronouns | 194 of 230 |
| M-T Pronouns | No M-T pronouns | 200 of 230 |