Kannada
Kannada is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Order of Relative Clause and Noun, 6 of 7 other Dravidian languages coded have the value “Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)”; Kannada has “Mixed types of relative clause with none dominant”.
Of its word-order pairings, the one Kannada shares with the fewest languages is Order of Adjective and Noun: “Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)”, the value of 373 of the 1,367 languages coded.
The least common value coded for Kannada is “Plural in all nouns, optional in inanimates” on Occurrence of Nominal Plurality, held by 15 of the 291 languages coded.
Its closest grammar profile in the atlas is that of Telugu: the two agree on 40 of the 48 features both have coded.
Contrast Kannada with Telugu or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Kannada, rarest first.
- Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
- Politeness Distinctions in PronounsSecond person pronouns encode multiple politeness distinctions15 of 207
- Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated to remote demonstratives18 of 225
- Action Nominal ConstructionsMixed: Several patterns in the same language14 of 168
- Applicative ConstructionsBenefactive object only; both bases16 of 183
- Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a pronominal plural affix23 of 261
Inside the Dravidian family
Kannada matches the most frequent Dravidian value on 54 of the 74 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (73%). Among the 5 Dravidian languages profiled here, that rate ranks third from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Kannada; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Kannada for 130 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 120 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Kannada shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 15
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately large | 94 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately low | 101 of 564 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| 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 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| 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 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 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 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 2-3 categories per word | 24 of 145 |
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is never syncretic | 35 of 198 |
| 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 | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 60 of 198 |
| 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 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
| 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 23
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Genders | Three | 26 of 257 |
| 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 |
| Number of Cases | 6-7 case categories | 37 of 261 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First/one-th, two-th, three-th | 54 of 321 |
| The Associative Plural | Special non-bound associative plural marker | 47 of 236 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic assignment | 53 of 257 |
| Indefinite Articles | Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article | 112 of 534 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Symmetrical case-marking | 79 of 261 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Distributive Numerals | Marked by reduplication | 85 of 251 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally similar, involving interrogative expression | 43 of 116 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 79 of 200 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | 126 of 234 |
| 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 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | 260 of 400 |
| 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 |
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| 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 17
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion according to tense | 36 of 193 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | Verbal affix or clitic | 131 of 418 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one | 133 of 375 |
| The Perfect | Other perfect | 80 of 222 |
| 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 | Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 110 of 222 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| 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 |
| 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 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant | 93 of 659 |
| 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 23
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No other roles (= Only benefactive) | 36 of 183 |
| Predicative Possession | Locational Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Nominative - accusative (standard) | 46 of 190 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Nominative - accusative (standard) | 61 of 172 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| 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 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Distinct from reflexive | 99 of 175 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Purposive type but no sequential type | 68 of 118 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 18 of 143 |
| Reason Clauses | Deranked | 42 of 169 |
| 'When' Clauses | Deranked | 51 of 174 |
| Relativization on Obliques | Gap Strategy | 55 of 112 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
| Purpose Clauses | Deranked | 102 of 170 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
Vocabulary 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| M in Second Person Singular | m in second person singular | 78 of 230 |
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |
| M in First Person Singular | No m in first person singular | 177 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 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings | 71 of 143 |