Greenlandic (West)
Eskimo-Aleut family · Eskimo branch · Eurasia
Greenlandic (West) is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On M-T Pronouns, WALS codes Greenlandic (West) as “M-T pronouns, non-paradigmatic”, a value held by 3 of the 230 languages coded, the others being Yimas and Waskia.
On Fixed Stress Locations, all 5 other Eskimo-Aleut languages coded have the value “No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)”; Greenlandic (West) has “Ultimate: stress is on the ultimate (last) syllable”.
On Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Greenlandic (West) as “Case + number”, a value held by 8 of the 162 languages coded, Russian and Finnish among them.
Contrast Greenlandic (West) with Yup'ik (Central) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Greenlandic (West), rarest first.
- Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbObject-oblique-verb (OXV)27 of 500
- Order of Demonstrative and NounTwo or more of above types with none dominant67 of 1,225
- Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated to non-remote demonstratives14 of 225
- Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in fricatives alone38 of 567
- Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyConsistently double-marking16 of 236
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLong vowel + Coda: long vowels or closed syllables35 of 500
- Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSyncretism in relevant NP-types21 of 261
- Lateral Consonants/l/ and lateral obstruents47 of 567
Inside the Eskimo-Aleut family
Greenlandic (West) matches the most frequent Eskimo-Aleut value on 2 of the 10 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (20%).
| Feature | Greenlandic (West) | Most relatives |
|---|---|---|
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) | Left-edge: Stress is on the first or second syllable (4 of 5) |
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Greenlandic (West); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Greenlandic (West) for 128 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 115 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Greenlandic (West) shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 14
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Uvular Consonants | Uvular stops and continuants | 48 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Undetermined: no clear foot type | 37 of 323 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Small vowel inventory (2-4) | 93 of 564 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, but not initially | 87 of 469 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| 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 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only | 18 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is double-marked | 22 of 236 |
| 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 |
| 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 23
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Cases | 8-9 case categories | 23 of 261 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| The Associative Plural | Special bound associative plural marker | 48 of 236 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Person marking for pronouns only | 83 of 378 |
| Definite Articles | Neither definite nor indefinite article | 198 of 620 |
| Indefinite Articles | Neither indefinite nor definite | 198 of 534 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Three-way contrast | 88 of 234 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive suffixes | 355 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 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Not both A and P in the same construction | 24 of 168 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical | 103 of 234 |
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 17
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Situational Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 63 of 234 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | Verbal affix or clitic | 131 of 418 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 84 of 240 |
| The Past Tense | No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction | 88 of 222 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Only indirect evidentials | 166 of 418 |
| The Future Tense | Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 110 of 222 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| 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 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 121 of 222 |
| 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 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | 355 of 884 |
| 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 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 25
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | Instrument | 17 of 183 |
| Productivity of the Antipassive Construction | productive | 24 of 186 |
| Antipassive Constructions | Oblique patient | 30 of 194 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Ergative - absolutive | 32 of 190 |
| Polar Questions | Interrogative verb morphology | 164 of 955 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Secondary-object construction | 65 of 378 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy | 53 of 297 |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Identical to reflexive | 44 of 175 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| Predicative Possession | Have-Possessive | 63 of 240 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding | 103 of 386 |
| Applicative Constructions | Benefactive and other; both bases | 49 of 183 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat | 82 of 297 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Neutral | 79 of 172 |
| 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 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| 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 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 18 of 143 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Numeral Bases | Hybrid vigesimal-decimal | 22 of 196 |
| M in First Person Singular | m in first person singular | 53 of 230 |
| M in Second Person Singular | m in second person singular | 78 of 230 |
| N-M Pronouns | No N-M pronouns | 194 of 230 |