Japanese

a family of its own in WALS · Eurasia

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

On Uvular Consonants, WALS codes Japanese as “Uvular continuants only”, a value held by 11 of the 567 languages coded, French and German among them.

The closest grammar profile to Japanese in the atlas belongs to Korean, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 97 of the 132 features both have coded.

Only 9 languages have more of the profile features coded than Japanese.

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

Contrast Japanese with Korean or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Politeness Distinctions in PronounsPronouns avoided for politeness7 of 207
Adjectives without NounsMarked by mixed or other strategies5 of 124
Action Nominal ConstructionsDouble-Possessive: All major arguments treated as possessors7 of 168
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative ClausesGenitives and adjectives collapsed8 of 138
Occurrence of Nominal PluralityPlural only in human nouns, optional20 of 291
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
Definite ArticlesNo definite article but indefinite article45 of 620
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a nominal plural affix19 of 261

Closest profiles

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

Mangghuer Altaic31 of 42
Khalkha Altaic80 of 123
Burmese Sino-Tibetan76 of 119
Nepali Indo-European34 of 50

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Japanese for 136 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 126 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Japanese shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Lateral Consonants	No laterals	95 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
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 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reduplication	Full reduplication only	35 of 368
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
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
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Cases	8-9 case categories	23 of 261
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different inflectional features	21 of 201
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	3rd person only, but also non-singular	42 of 378
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
Ordinal Numerals	One-th, two-th, three-th	41 of 321
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are obligatory	78 of 400
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally similar, involving interrogative expression	43 of 116
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
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
The Morphological Imperative	Second person number-neutral	89 of 548
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
Coding of Evidentiality	Verbal affix or clitic	131 of 418
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
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 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Oblique-object-verb (XOV)	48 of 500
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Final subordinator word	96 of 659
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)	141 of 824
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
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 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 Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Optional pronouns in subject position	61 of 711
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Predicative Possession	Locational Possessive	48 of 240
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
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding	103 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 of 1,157
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
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
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
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
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	'Want' is expressed as a desiderative verbal affix	45 of 283
Purpose Clauses	Balanced/deranked	30 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Basic Colour Categories	More than 10 categories	11 of 119
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories	6 categories	29 of 119
Green and Blue	Green and blue	30 of 120
M in Second Person Singular	m in second person singular	78 of 230
Hand and Arm	Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'	228 of 617
Tea	Words derived from Sinitic cha	110 of 230
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
Red and Yellow	Red and yellow	98 of 120
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

Other 1

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