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Doyayo

Niger-Congo family · Samba-Duru branch · Africa

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

On Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes, WALS codes Doyayo as “Tense-aspect tone”, a value held by 13 of the 1,131 languages coded, Kisi and Lango among them.

On Occurrence of Nominal Plurality, 20 of 23 other Niger-Congo languages coded have the value “Plural in all nouns, always obligatory”; Doyayo has “Plural in all nouns, optional in inanimates”.

On Expression of Pronominal Subjects, WALS codes Doyayo as “More than one of the above types with none dominant”, a value held by 32 of the 711 languages coded, Finnish and Hebrew (Modern) among them.

Doyayo: order of head and dependent in 7 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 phrasenoun phraseno dominant order49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: More than one adposition type with none dominant. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Genitive-noun (GenN). 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.nounnumeral42%53%Order of Numeral and Noun: Numeral follows noun (NNum). 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 Doyayo uses in 7 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Doyayo with Ewe or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Inside the Niger-Congo family

Doyayo matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 30 of the 46 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (65%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks 17th from the top.

Closest profiles

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

  • Ewe Niger-Congo28 of 41
  • Bagirmi Central Sudanic28 of 45
  • Mumuye Niger-Congo24 of 40
  • Koromfe Niger-Congo27 of 46
  • Grebo Niger-Congo25 of 44

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Doyayo for 46 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 39 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Doyayo shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 12

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
ToneComplex tone system88 of 527
Vowel NasalizationContrastive nasal vowels present64 of 244
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives158 of 567
Syllable StructureComplex syllable structure151 of 486
Vowel Quality InventoriesLarge vowel inventory (7-14)184 of 564
Consonant InventoriesAverage201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel RatioAverage234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems/p t k b d g/255 of 567
Lateral Consonants/l/, no obstruent laterals388 of 567
Uvular ConsonantsNo uvulars470 of 567
Absence of Common ConsonantsAll present503 of 567
Front Rounded VowelsNone525 of 562

Word structure 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly suffixing406 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 8

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Definite ArticlesDemonstrative word used as marker of definiteness69 of 620
Indefinite ArticlesNo indefinite article but definite article98 of 534
Indefinite PronounsGeneric-noun-based indefinites85 of 326
Position of Case AffixesNeither case affixes nor adpositional clitics379 of 1,031
Position of Pronominal Possessive AffixesPossessive suffixes355 of 902
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural suffix513 of 1,066
Person Marking on AdpositionsAdpositions without person marking209 of 378
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsNo gender distinctions254 of 378

Noun phrases 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionNominal and verbal conjunction are different125 of 301

Word order 8

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle at end of sentence314 of 884
Order of Object and VerbObject follows verb (VO)705 of 1,518
Order of Numeral and NounNumeral follows noun (NNum)608 of 1,154
Order of Genitive and NounGenitive-noun (GenN)685 of 1,249
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 9

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Negative MorphemesDouble negation119 of 1,157
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingZero realization of all third person singular S forms45 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'Double-object construction84 of 378
Order of Person Markers on the VerbA precedes P96 of 379
Passive ConstructionsThere is a passive construction162 of 373
Verbal Person MarkingPerson marking of both the A and P arguments193 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingAccusative alignment212 of 380
Polar QuestionsQuestion particle585 of 955
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsMorphological type but no compound type254 of 310