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Koyra Chiini

Songhay family · Africa

Koyra Chiini is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions, WALS codes Koyra Chiini as “Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not”, a value held by 23 of the 902 languages coded, Indonesian and Hausa among them.

On Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection, WALS codes Koyra Chiini as “TAM+polarity”, a value held by 5 of the 160 languages coded, Kayardild and Mangarrayi among them.

Koyra Chiini: 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.verbobject47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Object follows verb (VO). 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: Postpositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Genitive-noun (GenN). 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 word47%40%Order of Degree Word and Adjective: Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg). Of 481 languages coded, 227 put the degree word before the adjective and 192 after it.
The order Koyra Chiini uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Koyra Chiini with Koyraboro Senni or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Koyra Chiini for 69 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 62 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Koyra Chiini shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 13

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Consonant InventoriesModerately small122 of 563
Vowel NasalizationContrastive nasal vowels present64 of 244
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in plosives alone189 of 567
Consonant-Vowel RatioAverage234 of 564
Vowel Quality InventoriesAverage vowel inventory (5-6)287 of 564
Syllable StructureModerately complex syllable structure274 of 486
ToneNo tones307 of 527
Lateral Consonants/l/, no obstruent laterals388 of 567
Glottalized ConsonantsNo glottalized consonants409 of 567
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsNone449 of 567
Uvular ConsonantsNo uvulars470 of 567
Absence of Common ConsonantsAll present503 of 567
Front Rounded VowelsNone525 of 562

Word structure 7

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyLittle or no inflectional morphology141 of 969
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb2-3 categories per word24 of 145
Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyConsistently dependent-marking46 of 236
Locus of Marking in the ClauseP is dependent-marked63 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesPossessor is dependent-marked98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional FormativesNo case75 of 162
Zero Marking of A and P ArgumentsNon-zero marking219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 13

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Comitatives and InstrumentalsMixed33 of 322
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural word170 of 1,066
Position of Pronominal Possessive AffixesNo possessive affixes260 of 902
Distributive NumeralsMarked by reduplication85 of 251
Conjunctions and Universal QuantifiersFormally different40 of 116
Definite ArticlesDefinite word distinct from demonstrative216 of 620
Position of Case AffixesNeither case affixes nor adpositional clitics379 of 1,031
Intensifiers and Reflexive PronounsIntensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated74 of 168
Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesUnrelated100 of 225
Occurrence of Nominal PluralityPlural in all nouns, always obligatory133 of 291
Person Marking on AdpositionsAdpositions without person marking209 of 378
Numeral ClassifiersNumeral classifiers are absent260 of 400
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsNo gender distinctions254 of 378

Noun phrases 4

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Possessive ClassificationTwo classes94 of 243
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative ClausesHighly differentiated77 of 138
Obligatory Possessive InflectionNo obligatorily possessed nouns201 of 244
Number of Possessive NounsNone reported233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect AffixesNo tense-aspect inflection152 of 1,131

Word order 12

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Order of Degree Word and AdjectiveDegree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)192 of 481
Position of Polar Question ParticlesNo question particle355 of 884
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbVerb-object-oblique (VOX)210 of 500
Order of Demonstrative and NounDemonstrative word follows noun (NDem)562 of 1,225
Order of Object and VerbObject follows verb (VO)705 of 1,518
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePostpositions577 of 1,184
Order of Numeral and NounNumeral follows noun (NNum)608 of 1,154
Order of Genitive and NounGenitive-noun (GenN)685 of 1,249
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
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsObligatory pronouns in subject position82 of 711
Polar QuestionsInterrogative intonation only173 of 955
Verbal Person MarkingNo person marking of any argument82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingNeutral alignment (no verbal person marking)84 of 380
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingNo person marking of the S96 of 380
Predicative PossessionHave-Possessive63 of 240
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

Complex sentences 4

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Relativization on ObliquesGap Strategy55 of 112
Purpose ClausesDeranked102 of 170
Relativization on SubjectsGap125 of 166
Utterance Complement ClausesBalanced114 of 143