Greek (Modern)

Indo-European family · Greek branch · Eurasia

WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Greek (Modern), a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.

On Fixed Stress Locations, WALS codes Greek (Modern) as “Antepenultimate”, a value held by 12 of the 502 languages coded, Georgian and Cree (Plains) among them.

On Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection, WALS codes Greek (Modern) as “TAM+agreement+diathesis”, a value held by 4 of the 160 languages coded, Arabic (Egyptian) and Hebrew (Modern) among them.

On Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases, 9 of 10 other Indo-European languages coded have the value “Possessor is dependent-marked”; Greek (Modern) has “Possessor is double-marked”.

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

Contrast Greek (Modern) with Bulgarian or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Greek (Modern), rarest first.

The PerfectFrom possessive7 of 222
Number of Cases3 case categories9 of 261
Exponence of Selected Inflectional FormativesCase + number8 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyConsistently double-marking16 of 236
Presence of Uncommon Consonants'Th' sounds40 of 567
Relativization on SubjectsRelative pronoun12 of 166
Order of Subject and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant110 of 1,496
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsNo morphological type or compound type23 of 310

Inside the Indo-European family

Greek (Modern) matches the most frequent Indo-European value on 101 of the 134 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (75%). Among the 39 Indo-European languages profiled here, that rate ranks third from the top.

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Greek (Modern); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Bulgarian Indo-European54 of 67
Russian Indo-European99 of 134
Albanian Indo-European55 of 72
Spanish Indo-European97 of 133
Ukrainian Indo-European32 of 41

Outside the Indo-European family, the best match is Hungarian (Uralic), with 81 of 132 features alike.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Greek (Modern) for 134 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 122 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Greek (Modern) shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	Lexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight	38 of 500
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Rhythm Types	Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong	153 of 323
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)	281 of 500
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
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 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Case Syncretism	Core and non-core	22 of 198
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	55 of 368
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is double-marked	58 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
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
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Syncretism in relevant NP-types	21 of 261
Distributive Numerals	Marked by preceding word	21 of 251
Number of Genders	Three	26 of 257
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
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Ordinal Numerals	First, second, three-th	61 of 321
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
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
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Ergative-Possessive	21 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 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 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion in both tense and aspect	24 of 193
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	Imperative	29 of 193
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for both possibility and necessity	36 of 207
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
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 beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
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 Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
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

Simple clauses 25

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reciprocal Constructions	Mixed	16 of 175
Comparative Constructions	Particle Comparative	22 of 167
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	P precedes A	57 of 379
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
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
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
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
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
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
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Purposive type but no sequential type	68 of 118
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Relative Pronoun Strategy	13 of 112
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M-T Pronouns	M-T pronouns, paradigmatic	27 of 230
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
Tea	Words derived from Sinitic cha	110 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express logical meanings ('yes' and/or 'no')	47 of 143