Kiowa

Kiowa-Tanoan family · North America

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

On Lateral Consonants, WALS codes Kiowa as “No /l/, but lateral obstruents”, a value held by 8 of the 567 languages coded, Chukchi and Kutenai among them.

On Verbal Person Marking, WALS codes Kiowa as “Person marking of the A or P argument”, a value held by 6 of the 378 languages coded, Awa Pit and Kalkatungu among them.

The closest grammar profile to Kiowa in the atlas belongs to Zuni, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 40 of the 65 features both have coded.

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

Contrast Kiowa with Zuni or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Order of Adposition and Noun PhraseNo adpositions30 of 1,184
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingHierarchical alignment11 of 380
Order of Relative Clause and NounInternally-headed relative clause24 of 824
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsNumber-indifferent pronouns9 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns'We' and 'I' identical10 of 200
Verbal Number and SuppletionSingular-plural pairs, no suppletion12 of 193
Productivity of the Antipassive Constructionpartially productive14 of 186
Number of CasesExclusively borderline morphological case-marking24 of 261

Closest profiles

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

Awa Pit Barbacoan59 of 102
Resígaro Arawakan26 of 41
Takelma family of its own27 of 43
Maidu (Northeast) Penutian34 of 56

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Kiowa for 109 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 98 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Kiowa shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Glottalized Consonants	Ejectives only	58 of 567
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
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
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
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
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	55 of 368
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 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
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
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 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
Person Marking on Adpositions	No adpositions	63 of 378
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Not both A and P in the same construction	24 of 168
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 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 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Coding of Evidentiality	Verbal affix or clitic	131 of 418
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 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
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
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
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Suffixal adverbial subordinators	64 of 659
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
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 Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Antipassive Constructions	Antipassive with patient-like argument left implicit	18 of 194
Negative Morphemes	Double negation	119 of 1,157
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero realization of all third person singular S forms	45 of 380
Reciprocal Constructions	Identical to reflexive	44 of 175
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
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
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
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
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 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Subjects	Non-reduction	24 of 166
Reason Clauses	Balanced/deranked	37 of 169
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
N-M Pronouns	N-M pronouns, paradigmatic	25 of 230
M in Second Person Singular	m in second person singular	78 of 230
Hand and Arm	Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'	228 of 617
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593