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Coptic

Afro-Asiatic family · Egyptian-Coptic branch · Africa

Coptic is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Position of Case Affixes, WALS codes Coptic as “Prepositional clitics”, a value held by 17 of the 1,031 languages coded, Hebrew (Modern) and French among them.

On Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns, WALS codes Coptic as “Gender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person”, a value held by 18 of the 378 languages coded, Hausa and Arabic (Egyptian) among them.

Coptic: order of head and dependent in 8 constructions← beforeafter →verbsubject80%13%Order of Subject and Verb: Subject precedes verb (SV). Of 1,496 languages coded, 1,192 put the subject before the verb and 194 after it.verbobject47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Object follows verb (VO). Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.adpositionnoun phrase49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: Prepositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Noun-genitive (NGen). Of 1,249 languages coded, 685 put the genitive before the noun and 468 after it.nounadjective27%64%Order of Adjective and Noun: Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj). Of 1,367 languages coded, 373 put the adjective before the noun and 879 after it.noundemonstrativedemonstrativeMixed45%48%Order of Demonstrative and Noun: Two or more of above types with none dominant. Of 1,225 languages coded, 551 put the demonstrative before the noun and 590 after it.nounnumeral42%53%Order of Numeral and Noun: Numeral precedes noun (NumN). Of 1,154 languages coded, 479 put the numeral before the noun and 608 after it.nounrelative clause17%70%Order of Relative Clause and Noun: Relative clause follows noun (NRel). Of 824 languages coded, 141 put the relative clause before the noun and 579 after it.
The order Coptic uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Coptic with Hebrew (Modern) or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Inside the Afro-Asiatic family

Coptic matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 28 of the 41 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (68%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks tenth from the top.

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Coptic for 41 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 35 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Coptic shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Nouns and pronouns 6

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Indefinite ArticlesIndefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'102 of 534
Person Marking on AdpositionsPerson marking for pronouns only83 of 378
Ordinal NumeralsFirst, two-th, three-th110 of 321
Definite ArticlesDefinite word distinct from demonstrative216 of 620
Occurrence of Nominal PluralityPlural in all nouns, always obligatory133 of 291
Politeness Distinctions in PronounsSecond person pronouns encode no politeness distinction136 of 207

Noun phrases 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionNominal and verbal conjunction are different125 of 301
Noun Phrase ConjunctionWITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical103 of 234

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect AffixesNo tense-aspect inflection152 of 1,131
Imperative-Hortative SystemsThe language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system201 of 375

Word order 11

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle at beginning of sentence129 of 884
Order of Genitive and NounNoun-genitive (NGen)468 of 1,249
Order of Numeral and NounNumeral precedes noun (NumN)479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbVerb-object-oblique (VOX)210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePrepositions511 of 1,184
Order of Object and VerbObject follows verb (VO)705 of 1,518
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseInitial subordinator word398 of 659
Order of Adjective and NounModifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content QuestionsInterrogative phrases not obligatorily initial615 of 902
Order of Relative Clause and NounRelative clause follows noun (NRel)579 of 824
Order of Subject and VerbSubject precedes verb (SV)1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 13

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Verbal Person MarkingPerson marking of only the A argument73 of 378
Predicative PossessionLocational Possessive48 of 240
Predicative AdjectivesPredicative adjectives have mixed encoding103 of 386
Negative MorphemesNegative affix395 of 1,157
Passive ConstructionsThere is a passive construction162 of 373
Zero Copula for Predicate NominalsZero copula is possible175 of 386
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingNo zero realization of third person S forms181 of 380
Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P do not or do not both occur on the verb187 of 379
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'Indirect-object construction189 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingAccusative alignment212 of 380
Polar QuestionsQuestion particle585 of 955
Nominal and Locational PredicationDifferent269 of 386
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation170 of 206

Complex sentences 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
'Want' Complement SubjectsThe complement subject is left implicit144 of 283