Ju|'hoan

Kxa family · Ju-Kung branch · Africa

Ju|'hoan is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Presence of Uncommon Consonants, WALS codes Ju|'hoan as “Clicks”, a value held by 9 of the 567 languages coded, Zulu and Nama among them.

On Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology, WALS codes Ju|'hoan as “Consistently zero-marking”, a value held by 6 of the 236 languages coded, Indonesian and Vietnamese among them.

The closest grammar profile to Ju|'hoan in the atlas belongs to Babungo, a Niger-Congo language: the two agree on 31 of the 42 features both have coded.

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

Contrast Ju|'hoan with Babungo or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Ju|'hoan, rarest first.

Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsCompound type but no morphological type9 of 310
Applicative ConstructionsNon-benefactive object only; both bases9 of 183
'Want' Complement SubjectsBoth construction types exist14 of 283
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in second position in sentence52 of 884
Negative MorphemesNegative word, unclear if verb or particle73 of 1,157
Zero Marking of A and P ArgumentsZero-marking16 of 235
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
Possessive ClassificationThree to five classes20 of 243

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Ju|'hoan; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Hmong Njua Hmong-Mien60 of 90
Drehu Austronesian49 of 77
Ndyuka Creoles and Pidgins47 of 76
Mumuye Niger-Congo29 of 46

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Ju|'hoan for 106 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 95 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Ju|'hoan shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Large	57 of 563
Glottalized Consonants	Ejectives only	58 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	High	69 of 564
Syllable Structure	Simple syllable structure	61 of 486
Tone	Complex tone system	88 of 527
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, but not initially	87 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
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
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
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 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor has no marking	32 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969
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
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198

Nouns and pronouns 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Genders	Five or more	24 of 257
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related by gender markers	24 of 225
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Non-sex-based gender system	28 of 257
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	3rd person only, but also non-singular	42 of 378
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
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
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
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
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
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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 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 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 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Other Roles of Applied Objects	Locative	18 of 183
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Secondary-object construction	65 of 378
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
Predicative Possession	Have-Possessive	63 of 240
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
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
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
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
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
Tea	Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te	84 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 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