Igbo

Niger-Congo family · Igboid branch · Africa

Igbo is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns, WALS codes Igbo as “Nominative - accusative (marked nominative)”, a value held by 3 of the 172 languages coded, the others being Maricopa and Aymara (Central).

The closest grammar profile to Igbo in the atlas belongs to Bambara, a Mande language: the two agree on 45 of the 65 features both have coded.

On Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases, all 12 other Niger-Congo languages coded have the value “Neutral”; Igbo has “Nominative - accusative (marked nominative)”.

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

Contrast Igbo with Bambara or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsLabial-velars45 of 567
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsSubject pronouns in different position67 of 711

Inside the Niger-Congo family

Igbo matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 62 of the 91 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (68%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks 13th from the top.

Where Igbo breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Igbo	Most relatives
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical (21 of 21)

Closest profiles

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

Ndyuka Creoles and Pidgins53 of 79
Yoruba Niger-Congo57 of 86
Luo Eastern Sudanic29 of 41
Mumuye Niger-Congo29 of 41

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Igbo for 91 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 84 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Igbo shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Syllable Structure	Simple syllable structure	61 of 486
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
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 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368

Nouns and pronouns 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
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
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
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
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

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
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
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
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 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
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 Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
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 20

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Polar Questions	Interrogative intonation only	173 of 955
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No other roles (= Only benefactive)	36 of 183
Comparative Constructions	Exceed Comparative	33 of 167
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
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Double-object construction	84 of 378
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
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
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
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
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reason Clauses	Deranked	42 of 169
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Pure vigesimal	20 of 196
Hand and Arm	Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'	228 of 617
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143