Koasati
Muskogean family · North America
Koasati is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb, WALS codes Koasati as “12-13 categories per word”, a value held by 2 of the 145 languages coded, the other being Wichita.
The closest grammar profile to Koasati in the atlas belongs to Maricopa, a Hokan language: the two agree on 62 of the 100 features both have coded.
On Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives, WALS codes Koasati as “Five (or more)-way contrast”, a value held by 4 of the 234 languages coded, Malagasy and Maricopa among them.
Contrast Koasati with Maricopa or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Koasati, rarest first.
- Verbal Number and SuppletionSingular-dual-plural triples, no suppletion5 of 193
- Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingActive alignment26 of 380
- Occurrence of Nominal PluralityPlural only in human nouns, optional20 of 291
- Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
- Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
- Order of Relative Clause and NounMixed types of relative clause with none dominant64 of 824
- Lateral Consonants/l/ and lateral obstruents47 of 567
- Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbObject-verb-oblique (OVX)45 of 500
Inside the Muskogean family
Koasati matches the most frequent Muskogean value on 8 of the 10 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (80%).
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Koasati; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Koasati for 110 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 99 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Koasati shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 17
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable | 65 of 500 |
| Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems | Long vowel: long vowels are heavy for stress | 65 of 500 |
| Consonant Inventories | Small | 89 of 563 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Small vowel inventory (2-4) | 93 of 564 |
| Tone | Complex tone system | 88 of 527 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| Vowel Nasalization | Contrastive nasal vowels present | 64 of 244 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| 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 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing | 147 of 969 |
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is never syncretic | 35 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is double-marked | 58 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is head-marked | 78 of 236 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is never syncretic | 81 of 198 |
| Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives | Monoexponential case | 71 of 162 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Inconsistent marking or other type | 121 of 236 |
| 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 20
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number affixes | 25 of 261 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Postpositional clitics | 123 of 1,031 |
| Number of Cases | 6-7 case categories | 37 of 261 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Person marking for pronouns only | 83 of 378 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive prefixes | 255 of 902 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Symmetrical case-marking | 79 of 261 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 79 of 200 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | 100 of 225 |
| 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 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
| 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 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | 213 of 322 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | Obligatorily possessed nouns exist | 43 of 244 |
| Possessive Classification | Two classes | 94 of 243 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are different | 125 of 301 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Both direct and indirect evidentials | 71 of 418 |
| The Past Tense | Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions | 38 of 222 |
| 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 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one | 133 of 375 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Adposition and Noun Phrase | Postpositions | 577 of 1,184 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| 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 17
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | Zero in all 3rd person forms | 36 of 380 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | P precedes A | 57 of 379 |
| Predicative Possession | Topic Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Nominative - accusative (standard) | 46 of 190 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat | 82 of 297 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| 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 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Indirect-object construction | 189 of 378 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 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 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| Antipassive Constructions | No antipassive | 146 of 194 |
| Productivity of the Antipassive Construction | no antipassive | 146 of 186 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Subjects | Non-reduction | 24 of 166 |
Vocabulary 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |
| M in Second Person Singular | No m in second person singular | 152 of 230 |
| M in First Person Singular | No m in first person singular | 177 of 230 |
| N-M Pronouns | No N-M pronouns | 194 of 230 |
| M-T Pronouns | No M-T pronouns | 200 of 230 |
| Finger and Hand | Different | 521 of 593 |