Koromfe
Niger-Congo family · Koromfe branch · Africa
Koromfe is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives, WALS codes Koromfe as “No distance contrast”, a value held by 7 of the 234 languages coded, Supyire and French among them.
On Utterance Complement Clauses, all 10 other Niger-Congo languages coded have the value “Balanced”; Koromfe has “Balanced/deranked”.
On Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase, WALS codes Koromfe as “More than one adposition type with none dominant”, a value held by 58 of the 1,184 languages coded, Akan and Doyayo among them.
Contrast Koromfe with Birom or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Koromfe, rarest first.
- 'Want' Complement SubjectsBoth construction types exist14 of 283
- Imperative-Hortative SystemsThe language has both a maximal and a minimal system21 of 375
- Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number affixes25 of 261
Inside the Niger-Congo family
Koromfe matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 66 of the 106 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (62%). Among the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, that rate ranks 21st from the top.
| Feature | Koromfe | Most relatives |
|---|---|---|
| Reduplication | No productive reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication (18 of 22) |
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Koromfe; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Koromfe for 106 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 98 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Koromfe shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 19
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Low | 58 of 564 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | Initial: stress is on the first syllable | 92 of 502 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, but not initially | 87 of 469 |
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately small | 122 of 563 |
| Vowel Nasalization | Contrastive nasal vowels present | 64 of 244 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Absent: no rhythmic stress | 98 of 323 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 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 |
| 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 | Moderate preference for suffixing | 123 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 22
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Genders | Three | 26 of 257 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Non-sex-based gender system | 28 of 257 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | 3rd person only, but also non-singular | 42 of 378 |
| Indefinite Articles | No indefinite article but definite article | 98 of 534 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic assignment | 53 of 257 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Person marking for pronouns only | 83 of 378 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Generic-noun-based indefinites | 85 of 326 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression | 33 of 116 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | No morphological case-marking | 81 of 261 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| 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 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | 100 of 225 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 94 of 168 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | 260 of 400 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 4
| 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 |
| Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Highly differentiated | 77 of 138 |
| Adjectives without Nouns | Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking | 73 of 124 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Morphological Imperative | Second person number-neutral | 89 of 548 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for either possibility or necessity | 66 of 207 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | No grammatical evidentials | 181 of 418 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 264 of 902 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at end of sentence | 314 of 884 |
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | Verb-object-oblique (VOX) | 210 of 500 |
| 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 Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Initial subordinator word | 398 of 659 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 21
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Secondary-object construction | 65 of 378 |
| Comparative Constructions | Exceed Comparative | 33 of 167 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| 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 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Neutral | 79 of 172 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No zero realization of third person S forms | 181 of 380 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 30 of 170 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced | 84 of 174 |
| Relativization on Obliques | Gap Strategy | 55 of 112 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
Vocabulary 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Hand and Arm | Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm' | 228 of 617 |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |
| Finger and Hand | Different | 521 of 593 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express logical meanings ('yes' and/or 'no') | 47 of 143 |