Haida

a family of its own in WALS · North America

Haida 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, WALS codes Haida as “Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not”, a value held by 23 of the 902 languages coded, Indonesian and Hausa among them.

The closest grammar profile to Haida in the atlas belongs to Uradhi, a Pama-Nyungan language: the two agree on 28 of the 41 features both have coded.

On Order of Relative Clause and Noun, WALS codes Haida as “Internally-headed relative clause”, a value held by 24 of the 824 languages coded, Lakhota and Kutenai among them.

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

Contrast Haida with Uradhi or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives and glottalized resonants20 of 567
Coding of EvidentialityPart of the tense system24 of 418
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in second position in sentence52 of 884
Zero Marking of A and P ArgumentsZero-marking16 of 235
Lateral Consonants/l/ and lateral obstruents47 of 567
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number stem with a nominal plural affix22 of 261
Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops and continuants48 of 567
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbOblique-object-verb (XOV)48 of 500

Closest profiles

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

Zuni family of its own39 of 60
Qawasqar Alacalufan30 of 46
Awa Pit Barbacoan52 of 88
Shipibo-Konibo Pano-Tacanan45 of 77

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Haida for 94 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 83 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Haida shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Large	57 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	High	69 of 564
Vowel Quality Inventories	Small vowel inventory (2-4)	93 of 564
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
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
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	8-9 categories per word	24 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P has no marking	42 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
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
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160

Nouns and pronouns 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Mixed	33 of 322
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
Definite Articles	Definite affix on noun	92 of 620
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are optional	62 of 400
Indefinite Articles	No indefinite article but definite article	98 of 534
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking	53 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
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
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Morphological Imperative	Second person number-neutral	89 of 548
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Both direct and indirect evidentials	71 of 418
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
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
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Final subordinator word	96 of 659
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
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
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 15

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
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
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
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
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
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
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

Vocabulary 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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
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
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593