Ewe
Niger-Congo family · Gbe branch · Africa
Ewe is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect, 9 of 10 other Niger-Congo languages coded have the value “No suppletion in tense or aspect”; Ewe has “Suppletion according to tense”.
Contrast Ewe with Gbeya Bossangoa or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Ewe, rarest first.
- Zero Marking of A and P ArgumentsZero-marking16 of 235
- Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsNo morphological type or compound type23 of 310
- Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
- Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsLabial-velars45 of 567
- Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number stem with a nominal plural affix22 of 261
Inside the Niger-Congo family
Ewe matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 69 of the 104 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (66%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks 14th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Ewe; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Ewe for 104 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 97 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Ewe shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately large | 94 of 563 |
| Tone | Simple tone system | 132 of 527 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, also initially | 147 of 469 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Average | 234 of 564 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 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 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing | 147 of 969 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P has no marking | 42 of 236 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 60 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is dependent-marked | 98 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Inconsistent marking or other type | 121 of 236 |
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal | 123 of 198 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 20
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Definite Articles | Demonstrative word used as marker of definiteness | 69 of 620 |
| Indefinite Articles | Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one' | 102 of 534 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Person marking for pronouns only | 83 of 378 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Identity | 76 of 322 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Generic-noun-based indefinites | 85 of 326 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | No morphological case-marking | 81 of 261 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No person marking at all | 70 of 200 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive suffixes | 355 of 902 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
| The Associative Plural | Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals | 104 of 236 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | 126 of 234 |
| 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 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 136 of 207 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Not both A and P in the same construction | 24 of 168 |
| Possessive Classification | Two classes | 94 of 243 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical | 103 of 234 |
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Morphological Imperative | No second-person imperatives | 122 of 548 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for either possibility or necessity | 66 of 207 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + special negative | 182 of 496 |
| The Past Tense | No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction | 88 of 222 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| The Future Tense | Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 110 of 222 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 121 of 222 |
| 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 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at end of sentence | 314 of 884 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem) | 562 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object follows verb (VO) | 705 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 Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| 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 21
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Negative Morphemes | Double negation | 119 of 1,157 |
| Predicative Possession | Locational Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding | 103 of 386 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat | 82 of 297 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Sequential type but no purposive type | 35 of 118 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy | 130 of 297 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Neutral | 79 of 172 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No zero realization of third person S forms | 181 of 380 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Neutral | 98 of 190 |
| Applicative Constructions | No applicative construction | 100 of 183 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No applicative construction | 100 of 183 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| 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 |
Complex sentences 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is expressed overtly | 72 of 283 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced | 84 of 174 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
Vocabulary 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |