Khalkha

Altaic family · Mongolic branch · Eurasia

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

On Coding of Evidentiality, WALS codes Khalkha as “Mixed systems”, a value held by 10 of the 418 languages coded, Georgian and Sanuma among them.

On The Morphological Imperative, all 14 other Altaic languages coded have the value “Second singular and second plural”; Khalkha has “Second person number-neutral”.

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

Contrast Khalkha with Tuvan or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Coding of Nominal PluralityMorphological plural with no method primary60 of 1,066
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a nominal plural affix19 of 261
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsOptional pronouns in subject position61 of 711
Number of Cases8-9 case categories23 of 261

Inside the Altaic family

Khalkha matches the most frequent Altaic value on 81 of the 109 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (74%). Among the 15 Altaic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 12th from the top.

Where Khalkha breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Khalkha	Most relatives
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	Accusative alignment (6 of 6)
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	Person marking of only the A argument (6 of 6)
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction (5 of 5)

Closest profiles

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

Tuvan Altaic42 of 52
Yakut Altaic37 of 47
Dagur Altaic34 of 43
Chuvash Altaic48 of 64
Turkish Altaic92 of 130

Outside the Altaic family, the best match is Marathi (Indo-European), with 37 of 50 features alike.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Khalkha 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 Khalkha shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 18

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
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
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
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
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	No subject person/number marking	57 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 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different inflectional features	21 of 201
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
Ordinal Numerals	First/one-th, two-th, three-th	54 of 321
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always optional	55 of 291
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
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
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
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
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
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
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378

Noun phrases 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Possessive-Accusative	29 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Optative	Inflectional optative present	48 of 319
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Both direct and indirect evidentials	71 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
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
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
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
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
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

Word order 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In finiteness: Subtype A/Fin	40 of 297
Predicative Possession	Locational Possessive	48 of 240
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
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
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
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
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
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

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M-T Pronouns	M-T pronouns, paradigmatic	27 of 230
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 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 Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593