Khmer
Austro-Asiatic family · Khmer branch · Eurasia
Khmer is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
The closest grammar profile to Khmer in the atlas belongs to Thai, a Tai-Kadai language: the two agree on 76 of the 94 features both have coded.
On Lateral Consonants, all 16 other Austro-Asiatic languages coded have the value “/l/, no obstruent laterals”; Khmer has “Laterals, but no /l/, no obstruent lateral”.
On Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns, WALS codes Khmer as “Pronouns avoided for politeness”, a value held by 7 of the 207 languages coded, Vietnamese and Indonesian among them.
Contrast Khmer with Thai or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Khmer, rarest first.
- Indefinite PronounsMixed indefinites23 of 326
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsProminence: other factors are heavy for stress41 of 500
- The PerfectPerfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'21 of 222
- Glottalized ConsonantsImplosives only55 of 567
Inside the Austro-Asiatic family
Khmer matches the most frequent Austro-Asiatic value on 73 of the 95 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (77%). Among the 9 Austro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks third from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Khmer; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Khmer for 100 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 93 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Khmer shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 16
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Stress Locations | Ultimate: stress is on the ultimate (last) syllable | 51 of 502 |
| Rhythm Types | Undetermined: no clear foot type | 37 of 323 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately low | 101 of 564 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, but not initially | 87 of 469 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | No voicing contrast | 182 of 567 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) | 281 of 500 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| 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 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Little or no inflectional morphology | 141 of 969 |
| 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 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 20
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinal Numerals | One-th, two-th, three-th | 41 of 321 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are optional | 62 of 400 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural word | 170 of 1,066 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always optional | 55 of 291 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | No morphological case-marking | 81 of 261 |
| 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 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally similar, involving interrogative expression | 43 of 116 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| 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 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | 213 of 322 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Weakly differentiated | 15 of 138 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 13
| 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 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + special negative | 182 of 496 |
| 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 |
| The Future Tense | No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 112 of 222 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 121 of 222 |
| 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 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at end of sentence | 314 of 884 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Noun-genitive (NGen) | 468 of 1,249 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg) | 192 of 481 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Prepositions | 511 of 1,184 |
| 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 Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Mixed | 40 of 378 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Both sequential type and purposive type | 15 of 118 |
| Comparative Constructions | Exceed Comparative | 33 of 167 |
| Predicative Possession | Topic Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 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 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| 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 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Obliques | Gap Strategy | 55 of 112 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
Vocabulary 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |
| Hand and Arm | Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm' | 228 of 617 |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings | 71 of 143 |