Breton
Indo-European family · Celtic branch · Eurasia
Breton is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
The closest grammar profile to Breton in the atlas belongs to Hebrew (Modern), an Afro-Asiatic language: the two agree on 31 of the 41 features both have coded.
Within the Celtic branch, all 5 other languages coded for Negative Morphemes have the value “Negative particle”; Breton has “Double negation”.
On Front Rounded Vowels, WALS codes Breton as “High and mid”, a value held by 23 of the 562 languages coded, French and German among them.
Contrast Breton with Hebrew (Modern) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Breton, rarest first.
- Position of Case AffixesPrepositional clitics17 of 1,031
Inside the Indo-European family
Breton matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 33 of the 54 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (61%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 33rd from the top.
| Feature | Breton | Most relatives |
|---|---|---|
| Indefinite Articles | Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one' | No indefinite article but definite article (4 of 4, Celtic branch) |
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Breton; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Breton 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 Breton shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 15
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Stress Locations | Penultimate | 110 of 502 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Average | 234 of 564 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| 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 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Moderate preference for suffixing | 123 of 969 |
Nouns and pronouns 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Identity | 76 of 322 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive suffixes | 355 of 902 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
Noun phrases 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
Word order 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Both orders occur with neither order dominant | 62 of 481 |
| 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 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 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
Simple clauses 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Predicative Possession | Locational Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Comparative Constructions | Locational Comparative | 78 of 167 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
Vocabulary 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| Finger and Hand | Different | 521 of 593 |