Dutch
Indo-European family · Germanic branch · Eurasia
WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Dutch, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.
On Polar Questions, WALS codes Dutch as “Interrogative word order”, a value held by 13 of the 955 languages coded, English and Spanish among them.
On Coding of Evidentiality, WALS codes Dutch as “Modal morpheme”, a value held by 7 of the 418 languages coded, French and German among them.
Of its word-order pairings, the one Dutch shares with the fewest languages is Order of Object and Verb: “Both orders with neither order dominant”, the value of 101 of the 1,518 languages coded.
The least common value coded for Dutch is “Coda consonant: closed syllables are heavy for stress” on Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems, held by 18 of the 500 languages coded.
Contrast Dutch with German or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Dutch, rarest first.
- Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites preclude predicate negation11 of 206
- Weight-Sensitive StressRight-oriented: The antepenultimate is involved27 of 500
- Indefinite PronounsSpecial indefinites22 of 326
Inside the Indo-European family
Dutch matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 45 of the 66 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (68%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks 21st from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Dutch; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Finnish (Uralic), with 36 of 66 features alike.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Dutch for 66 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 58 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Dutch shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
Nouns and pronouns 16
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Associative Plural | Associative plural absent | 37 of 236 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only | 61 of 378 |
| Indefinite Articles | Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one' | 102 of 534 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 53 of 261 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Distributive Numerals | No distributive numerals | 62 of 251 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression | 33 of 116 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 94 of 168 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Ergative-Possessive | 21 of 168 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Morphological Imperative | Second person number-neutral | 89 of 548 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion according to tense | 36 of 193 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | 113 of 496 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Only indirect evidentials | 166 of 418 |
| 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 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material) | 153 of 193 |
| Verbal Number and Suppletion | No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples | 159 of 193 |
Word order 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | More than one order with none dominant | 167 of 500 |
| 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 Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Obligatory pronouns in subject position | 82 of 711 |
| Comparative Constructions | Particle Comparative | 22 of 167 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of only the A argument | 73 of 378 |
| Predicative Possession | Have-Possessive | 63 of 240 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No zero realization of third person S forms | 181 of 380 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 187 of 379 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
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 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings | 71 of 143 |