Fur

a family of its own in WALS · Africa

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

WALS lists no other language in the family it assigns to Fur.

Scored by how often each of its values recurs in the atlas, Fur has the sixth most ordinary profile of the 409 languages compared on this measure.

The closest grammar profile to Fur in the atlas belongs to Nubian (Dongolese), an Eastern Sudanic language: the two agree on 39 of the 53 features both have coded.

The order Fur uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Fur with Nubian (Dongolese) or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Number of Cases4 case categories9 of 261
Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSubtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking20 of 261

Closest profiles

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

Brahui Dravidian45 of 67
Kewa Trans-New Guinea47 of 72
Quechua (Imbabura) Quechuan42 of 64
Beja Afro-Asiatic40 of 62

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Fur for 78 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 73 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Fur shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
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
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 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for suffixing	123 of 969
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
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
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Person Marking on Adpositions	Person marking for pronouns only	83 of 378
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
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 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion according to tense	36 of 193
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 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
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 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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
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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Negative Morphemes	Double negation	119 of 1,157
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
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric standard negation only: Type Sym	114 of 297
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	Non-assignable (no asymmetry found)	114 of 297
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
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711

Complex sentences 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230