Iraqw

Afro-Asiatic family · Southern Cushitic branch · Africa

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

On Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns, WALS codes Iraqw as “Gender distinctions in 1st or 2nd person but not 3rd”, a value held by 2 of the 378 languages coded.

On Weight-Sensitive Stress, WALS codes Iraqw as “Combined: Both Right-edge and unbounded”, a value held by 8 of the 500 languages coded, Alamblak and Carib among them.

The closest grammar profile to Iraqw in the atlas belongs to Nubian (Dongolese), an Eastern Sudanic language: the two agree on 44 of the 68 features both have coded.

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

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

Uncommon values

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

Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives and implosives14 of 567
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsPharyngeals21 of 567
Ordinal NumeralsFirst, two, three12 of 321
Distance Contrasts in DemonstrativesFour-way contrast9 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and HortativesA regular and a suppletive form alternate8 of 193
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative existential construction12 of 206
Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops only38 of 567
Lateral Consonants/l/ and lateral obstruents47 of 567

Inside the Afro-Asiatic family

Iraqw matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 64 of the 104 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (62%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 17th from the top.

Where Iraqw breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Iraqw	Most relatives
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	No velar nasal (21 of 22)

Closest profiles

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

Zulu Niger-Congo53 of 94
Oromo (Harar) Afro-Asiatic54 of 96
Margi Afro-Asiatic28 of 47
Kunama family of its own43 of 77

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Iraqw for 104 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 92 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Iraqw shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	Combined: two of the above factors determine weight	42 of 500
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	High	69 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
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	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198

Nouns and pronouns 23

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Cases	Exclusively borderline morphological case-marking	24 of 261
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Mixed	33 of 322
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different stems	37 of 201
Number of Genders	Two	50 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression	33 of 116
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Distributive Numerals	Marked by reduplication	85 of 251
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
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
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
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
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

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Not both A and P in the same construction	24 of 168
Adjectives without Nouns	Marked by preceding word	18 of 124
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
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
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
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
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
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 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 precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
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 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In finiteness: Subtype A/Fin	40 of 297
Polar Questions	Interrogative verb morphology	164 of 955
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
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
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding	103 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
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
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
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
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
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170

Vocabulary 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196