Kobon

Trans-New Guinea family · Kalam-Kobon branch · Papunesia

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

On Numeral Bases, WALS codes Kobon as “Extended body-part system”, a value held by 4 of the 196 languages coded, Una among them.

The closest grammar profile to Kobon in the atlas belongs to Dumo, a Skou language: the two agree on 35 of the 46 features both have coded.

On Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions, WALS codes Kobon as “Compound type but no morphological type”, a value held by 9 of the 310 languages coded, Mandarin and Vietnamese among them.

The order Kobon uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Kobon with Dumo or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Definite ArticlesNo definite article but indefinite article45 of 620
Order of Relative Clause and NounMixed types of relative clause with none dominant64 of 824

Inside the Trans-New Guinea family

Kobon matches the most frequent Trans-New Guinea value on 77 of the 112 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (69%). Among the 16 Trans-New Guinea languages profiled here, that rate ranks fourth from the top.

Closest profiles

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

Tauya Trans-New Guinea40 of 56
Daga Trans-New Guinea58 of 84
Sentani Sentanic50 of 72
Waskia Trans-New Guinea31 of 43

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Kobon for 115 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 110 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Kobon shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, but not initially	87 of 469
Fixed Stress Locations	Penultimate	110 of 502
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
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
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 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 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor has no marking	32 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P has no marking	42 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
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
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ordinal Numerals	Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist	33 of 321
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural only in human nouns, obligatory	40 of 291
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking	53 of 261
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
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
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
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 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Sentential	25 of 168
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 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 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 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
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero realization of all third person singular S forms	45 of 380
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of only the A argument	73 of 378
Predicative Possession	Topic Possessive	48 of 240
Comparative Constructions	Conjoined Comparative	34 of 167
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Double-object construction	84 of 378
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 of 1,157
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
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
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
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
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
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
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 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	'Want' is expressed as a desiderative verbal affix	45 of 283
Reason Clauses	Balanced/deranked	37 of 169
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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