Epena Pedee
Choco family · South America
Epena Pedee is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Absence of Common Consonants, WALS codes Epena Pedee as “No nasals”, a value held by 10 of the 567 languages coded, Pirahã and Quileute among them.
The closest grammar profile to Epena Pedee in the atlas belongs to Garo, a Sino-Tibetan language: the two agree on 51 of the 76 features both have coded.
On Order of Relative Clause and Noun, WALS codes Epena Pedee as “Internally-headed relative clause”, a value held by 24 of the 824 languages coded, Lakhota and Kutenai among them.
Contrast Epena Pedee with Garo or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Epena Pedee, rarest first.
- Adjectives without NounsMarked by mixed or other strategies5 of 124
- Applicative ConstructionsNon-benefactive object only; both bases9 of 183
- Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
- Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
- Expression of Pronominal SubjectsOptional pronouns in subject position61 of 711
- Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbObject-verb-oblique (OVX)45 of 500
- Number of Cases10 or more case categories24 of 261
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Epena Pedee; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Epena Pedee for 107 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 97 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Epena Pedee shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 17
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable | 65 of 500 |
| Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems | Long vowel: long vowels are heavy for stress | 65 of 500 |
| Lateral Consonants | No laterals | 95 of 567 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately low | 101 of 564 |
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately small | 122 of 563 |
| Vowel Nasalization | Contrastive nasal vowels present | 64 of 244 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| 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 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor has no marking | 32 of 236 |
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is never syncretic | 35 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is dependent-marked | 63 of 236 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | No subject person/number marking | 57 of 198 |
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 4-5 categories per word | 52 of 145 |
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
| Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives | Monoexponential case | 71 of 162 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Inconsistent marking or other type | 121 of 236 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
| Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives | Exclusively concatenative | 125 of 165 |
| Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection | monoexponential TAM | 127 of 160 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 19
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Different inflectional features | 21 of 201 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Postpositional clitics | 123 of 1,031 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural only in human nouns, obligatory | 40 of 291 |
| Indefinite Articles | No indefinite article but definite article | 98 of 534 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Symmetrical case-marking | 79 of 261 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally different | 40 of 116 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No person marking at all | 70 of 200 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | 100 of 225 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | 126 of 234 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| Number of Genders | None | 145 of 257 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | No gender system | 145 of 257 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | No gender system | 145 of 257 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | 260 of 400 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | Obligatorily possessed nouns exist | 43 of 244 |
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Highly differentiated | 77 of 138 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Coding of Evidentiality | Separate particle | 65 of 418 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 84 of 240 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + special negative | 182 of 496 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Only indirect evidentials | 166 of 418 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| 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 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant | 93 of 659 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 264 of 902 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | 355 of 884 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object precedes verb (OV) | 712 of 1,518 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Postpositions | 577 of 1,184 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 20
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Ergative - absolutive | 20 of 172 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Ergative - absolutive | 32 of 190 |
| Polar Questions | Interrogative verb morphology | 164 of 955 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy | 53 of 297 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No other roles (= Only benefactive) | 36 of 183 |
| Verbal Person Marking | No person marking of any argument | 82 of 378 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking) | 84 of 380 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No person marking of the S | 96 of 380 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Sequential type but no purposive type | 35 of 118 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding | 151 of 386 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 187 of 379 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Indirect-object construction | 189 of 378 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| Antipassive Constructions | No antipassive | 146 of 194 |
| Productivity of the Antipassive Construction | no antipassive | 146 of 186 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Obliques | Non-Reduction Strategy | 14 of 112 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Non-reduction | 24 of 166 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced | 84 of 174 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
| Purpose Clauses | Deranked | 102 of 170 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |