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Kabardian

Northwest Caucasian family · Eurasia

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

On Presence of Uncommon Consonants, WALS codes Kabardian as “Pharyngeals and 'th'”, a value held by 2 of the 567 languages coded, the other being Nenets.

On Polar Questions, WALS codes Kabardian as “Absence of declarative morphemes”, a value held by 4 of the 955 languages coded, Dinka among them.

Scored by how often each of its values recurs in the atlas, Kabardian has the tenth least common profile of the 409 languages compared on this measure.

Kabardian: order of head and dependent in 6 constructions← beforeafter →verbsubject80%13%Order of Subject and Verb: Subject precedes verb (SV). Of 1,496 languages coded, 1,192 put the subject before the verb and 194 after it.verbobject47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Object precedes verb (OV). Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.adpositionnoun phrase49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: Postpositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Genitive-noun (GenN). Of 1,249 languages coded, 685 put the genitive before the noun and 468 after it.noundemonstrative45%48%Order of Demonstrative and Noun: Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN). Of 1,225 languages coded, 551 put the demonstrative before the noun and 590 after it.nounrelative clause17%70%Order of Relative Clause and Noun: Relative clause precedes noun (RelN). Of 824 languages coded, 141 put the relative clause before the noun and 579 after it.
The order Kabardian uses in 6 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Kabardian with Abkhaz or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Inside the Northwest Caucasian family

Kabardian matches the most frequent Northwest Caucasian value on 11 of the 12 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (92%).

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Kabardian for 45 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 38 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Kabardian shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 10

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Consonant InventoriesLarge57 of 563
Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives only58 of 567
Consonant-Vowel RatioHigh69 of 564
Vowel Quality InventoriesSmall vowel inventory (2-4)93 of 564
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives158 of 567
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems/p t k b d g/255 of 567
The Velar NasalNo velar nasal235 of 469
ToneNo tones307 of 527
Absence of Common ConsonantsAll present503 of 567
Front Rounded VowelsNone525 of 562

Word structure 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyApproximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing147 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 6

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Pronominal and Adnominal DemonstrativesDifferent inflectional features21 of 201
Definite ArticlesDefinite affix on noun92 of 620
Position of Case AffixesCase suffixes452 of 1,031
The Associative PluralAssociative plural marker also used for additive plurals104 of 236
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural suffix513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in DemonstrativesTwo-way contrast126 of 234

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect AffixesCombination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary146 of 1,131
The OptativeInflectional optative present48 of 319

Word order 8

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Order of Relative Clause and NounRelative clause precedes noun (RelN)141 of 824
Position of Polar Question ParticlesNo question particle355 of 884
Order of Demonstrative and NounDemonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)542 of 1,225
Order of Object and VerbObject precedes verb (OV)712 of 1,518
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePostpositions577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and NounGenitive-noun (GenN)685 of 1,249
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content QuestionsInterrogative phrases not obligatorily initial615 of 902
Order of Subject and VerbSubject precedes verb (SV)1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 9

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Productivity of the Antipassive Constructionproductive24 of 186
Antipassive ConstructionsOblique patient30 of 194
Negative MorphemesNegative affix395 of 1,157
Predicative AdjectivesPredicative adjectives have verbal encoding151 of 386
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard NegationSymmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy130 of 297
Zero Copula for Predicate NominalsZero copula is impossible211 of 386
Reciprocal ConstructionsDistinct from reflexive99 of 175
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsPronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs437 of 711
Nominal and Locational PredicationDifferent269 of 386

Vocabulary 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
TeaWords derived from Sinitic cha110 of 230
Numeral BasesDecimal125 of 196