Catalan
Indo-European family · Romance branch · Eurasia
Catalan is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
Within the Romance branch, all 5 other languages coded for Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking have the value “Overlap for both possibility and necessity”; Catalan has “Overlap for either possibility or necessity”.
Of its word-order pairings, the one Catalan shares with the fewest languages is Order of Subject and Verb: “Both orders with neither order dominant”, the value of 110 of the 1,496 languages coded.
The least common value coded for Catalan is “Lexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight” on Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems, held by 38 of the 500 languages coded.
Its closest grammar profile in the atlas is that of Romanian: the two agree on 36 of the 42 features both have coded.
Contrast Catalan with Romanian or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Catalan, rarest first.
- The Morphological ImperativeSecond singular43 of 548
Inside the Indo-European family
Catalan matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 30 of the 47 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (64%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 30th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Catalan; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Chinantec (Lealao) (Oto-Manguean), with 25 of 42 features alike.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Catalan for 47 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 42 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Catalan shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 16
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable | 65 of 500 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Absent: no rhythmic stress | 98 of 323 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Average | 234 of 564 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| 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 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Reduplication | No productive reduplication | 55 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 53 of 261 |
| Indefinite Articles | Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article | 112 of 534 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Identity | 76 of 322 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + normal negative | 55 of 496 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
Word order 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Noun-genitive (NGen) | 468 of 1,249 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | 355 of 884 |
| 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 precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 of 1,518 |
| 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 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Polar Questions | Interrogative intonation only | 173 of 955 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
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 |