Evenki

Altaic family · Tungusic branch · Eurasia

Evenki is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions, all 11 other Altaic languages coded have the value “Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial”; Evenki has “Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial”.

On Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Evenki as “Case + referentiality”, a value held by 6 of the 162 languages coded, Tagalog and Tukang Besi among them.

The order Evenki uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Evenki with Even or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Coding of EvidentialityPart of the tense system24 of 418
Utterance Complement ClausesDeranked11 of 143
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a pronominal plural affix23 of 261
Number of Cases10 or more case categories24 of 261
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesPossessor is double-marked22 of 236
Rhythm TypesIambic: right-hand syllable in the foot is strong31 of 323
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseSuffixal adverbial subordinators64 of 659

Inside the Altaic family

Evenki matches the most frequent Altaic value on 76 of the 108 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (70%). Among the 15 Altaic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 14th from the top.

Where Evenki breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Evenki	Most relatives
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication (5 of 5)

Closest profiles

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

Even Altaic39 of 42
Turkish Altaic90 of 131
Kirghiz Altaic30 of 40
Dagur Altaic34 of 46
Khalkha Altaic83 of 124

Outside the Altaic family, the best match is Nepali (Indo-European), with 37 of 52 features alike.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Evenki for 131 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 120 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Evenki shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 18

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
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
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
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
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
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
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 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	35 of 198
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
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 26

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
Ordinal Numerals	First, second, three-th	61 of 321
Person Marking on Adpositions	Person marking for pronouns only	83 of 378
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally similar, involving interrogative expression	43 of 116
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
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
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Possessive-Accusative	29 of 168
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Optative	Inflectional optative present	48 of 319
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Both direct and indirect evidentials	71 of 418
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
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 Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)	141 of 824
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
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 Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Negative Morphemes	Double negation	119 of 1,157
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In finiteness: Subtype A/Fin	40 of 297
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of only the A argument	73 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
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
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
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 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	'Want' is expressed as a desiderative verbal affix	45 of 283
Reason Clauses	Deranked	42 of 169
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Words derived from Sinitic cha	110 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593