Khmu'

Austro-Asiatic family · Khmuic branch · Eurasia

Khmu' is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Glottalized Consonants, WALS codes Khmu' as “Implosives and glottalized resonants”, a value held by 4 of the 567 languages coded, Sedang and Lugbara among them.

On Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns, WALS codes Khmu' as “Gender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person”, a value held by 18 of the 378 languages coded, Spanish and Abkhaz among them.

The order Khmu' uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Khmu' with Khmer or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Indefinite PronounsSpecial indefinites22 of 326
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsOptional pronouns in subject position61 of 711
Coding of Nominal PluralityNo plural98 of 1,066
The PerfectPerfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'21 of 222

Inside the Austro-Asiatic family

Khmu' matches the most frequent Austro-Asiatic value on 63 of the 83 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (76%). Among the 9 Austro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks fourth from the top.

Closest profiles

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

Khmer Austro-Asiatic57 of 75
Thai Tai-Kadai58 of 79
Kayah Li (Eastern) Sino-Tibetan45 of 63
Vietnamese Austro-Asiatic54 of 80
Hmong Njua Hmong-Mien50 of 74

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Khmu' for 85 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 77 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Khmu' shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Fixed Stress Locations	Ultimate: stress is on the ultimate (last) syllable	51 of 502
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
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 Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems	No weight, or weight factor unknown	261 of 500
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)	281 of 500
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 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 3

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

Nouns and pronouns 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Genders	Two	50 of 257
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are obligatory	78 of 400
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic assignment	53 of 257
Distributive Numerals	No distributive numerals	62 of 251
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
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
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
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
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207

Noun phrases 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Not both A and P in the same construction	24 of 168
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301

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
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
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
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Both orders occur with neither order dominant	62 of 481
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 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 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 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
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
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
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
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
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143