Karok

Hokan family · Karok branch · North America

WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Karok, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.

The closest grammar profile to Karok in the atlas belongs to Luiseño, a Uto-Aztecan language: the two agree on 30 of the 42 features both have coded.

On Alignment of Verbal Person Marking, WALS codes Karok as “Hierarchical alignment”, a value held by 11 of the 380 languages coded, Mapudungun and Awa Pit among them.

On Coding of Evidentiality, 8 of 9 other Hokan languages coded have the value “Verbal affix or clitic”; Karok has “Separate particle”.

The order Karok uses in 7 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Karok with Luiseño or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Number of Cases3 case categories9 of 261
Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P are fused20 of 379
Order of Object and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant101 of 1,518
Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSubtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking20 of 261
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument17 of 183

Inside the Hokan family

Karok matches the most frequent Hokan value on 41 of the 76 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (54%). Among the 6 Hokan languages profiled here, that rate ranks fourth from the top.

Closest profiles

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

Apurinã Arawakan60 of 91
Acoma Keresan54 of 87
Slave Na-Dene57 of 94
Yurok Algic50 of 83

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Karok for 102 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 94 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Karok shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Unbounded: Stress can be anywhere in the word	54 of 500
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	Long vowel: long vowels are heavy for stress	65 of 500
Lateral Consonants	No laterals	95 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
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
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	147 of 969
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	8-9 categories per word	24 of 145
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently head-marking	47 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 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 head-marked	78 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
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 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Number of Genders	None	145 of 257
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	No gender system	145 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	No gender system	145 of 257
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
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
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
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
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 Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Negative Morphemes	Double negation	119 of 1,157
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Predicative Possession	Topic Possessive	48 of 240
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
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
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
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

Vocabulary 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
N-M Pronouns	N-M pronouns, paradigmatic	25 of 230
Finger and Hand	Identical	72 of 593
Tea	Others	36 of 230
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
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230