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Kisi

Niger-Congo family · Southern Mel branch · Africa

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

On Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes, WALS codes Kisi as “Tense-aspect tone”, a value held by 13 of the 1,131 languages coded, Doyayo and Lango among them.

On Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Kisi as “Exclusively tonal”, a value held by 3 of the 165 languages coded, Lango among them.

Kisi: order of head and dependent in 9 constructions← beforeafter →verbsubject80%13%Order of Subject and Verb: Subject precedes verb (SV). Of 1,496 languages coded, 1,192 put the subject before the verb and 194 after it.verbobjectobjectno dominant order47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Both orders with neither order dominant. Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.adpositionnoun phrase49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: Prepositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Noun-genitive (NGen). Of 1,249 languages coded, 685 put the genitive before the noun and 468 after it.nounadjective27%64%Order of Adjective and Noun: Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj). Of 1,367 languages coded, 373 put the adjective before the noun and 879 after it.noundemonstrative45%48%Order of Demonstrative and Noun: Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem). Of 1,225 languages coded, 551 put the demonstrative before the noun and 590 after it.nounnumeral42%53%Order of Numeral and Noun: Numeral follows noun (NNum). Of 1,154 languages coded, 479 put the numeral before the noun and 608 after it.nounrelative clause17%70%Order of Relative Clause and Noun: Relative clause follows noun (NRel). Of 824 languages coded, 141 put the relative clause before the noun and 579 after it.adjectivedegree worddegree wordno dominant order47%40%Order of Degree Word and Adjective: Both orders occur with neither order dominant. Of 481 languages coded, 227 put the degree word before the adjective and 192 after it.
The order Kisi uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Kisi with Luvale or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Inside the Niger-Congo family

Kisi matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 33 of the 55 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (60%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks 25th from the top.

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Kisi for 55 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 46 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Kisi shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Vowel NasalizationContrastive nasal vowels absent180 of 244

Word structure 6

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb2-3 categories per word24 of 145
Locus of Marking in the ClauseP has no marking42 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesPossessor is dependent-marked98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional FormativesNo case75 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyInconsistent marking or other type121 of 236
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflectionmonoexponential TAM127 of 160

Nouns and pronouns 13

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated by gender markers24 of 225
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender SystemsNon-sex-based gender system28 of 257
Systems of Gender AssignmentSemantic and formal assignment59 of 257
Comitatives and InstrumentalsIdentity76 of 322
Definite ArticlesNeither definite nor indefinite article198 of 620
Ordinal NumeralsFirst, two-th, three-th110 of 321
Position of Case AffixesNeither case affixes nor adpositional clitics379 of 1,031
Indefinite ArticlesNeither indefinite nor definite198 of 534
Distance Contrasts in DemonstrativesTwo-way contrast126 of 234
Person Marking on AdpositionsAdpositions without person marking209 of 378
Politeness Distinctions in PronounsSecond person pronouns encode no politeness distinction136 of 207
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsNo gender distinctions254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal DemonstrativesSame forms143 of 201

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 3

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
The ProhibitiveNormal imperative + normal negative113 of 496
The Morphological ImperativeSecond singular and second plural292 of 548
The OptativeInflectional optative absent271 of 319

Word order 12

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Order of Degree Word and AdjectiveBoth orders occur with neither order dominant62 of 481
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content QuestionsInterrogative phrases obligatorily initial264 of 902
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbMore than one order with none dominant167 of 500
Order of Genitive and NounNoun-genitive (NGen)468 of 1,249
Position of Polar Question ParticlesNo question particle355 of 884
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePrepositions511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and NounDemonstrative word follows noun (NDem)562 of 1,225
Order of Numeral and NounNumeral follows noun (NNum)608 of 1,154
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseInitial subordinator word398 of 659
Order of Adjective and NounModifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)879 of 1,367
Order of Relative Clause and NounRelative clause follows noun (NRel)579 of 824
Order of Subject and VerbSubject precedes verb (SV)1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 8

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Negative MorphemesDouble negation119 of 1,157
Polar QuestionsInterrogative intonation only173 of 955
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'Double-object construction84 of 378
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingNo person marking of the S96 of 380
Passive ConstructionsThere is a passive construction162 of 373
Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P do not or do not both occur on the verb187 of 379
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingAccusative alignment212 of 380
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsMorphological type but no compound type254 of 310

Complex sentences 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Relativization on SubjectsGap125 of 166

Vocabulary 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Hand and ArmIdentity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'228 of 617
Finger and HandDifferent521 of 593