Koyraboro Senni

Songhay family · Africa

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

On Position of Polar Question Particles, WALS codes Koyraboro Senni as “Question particle in either of two positions”, a value held by 26 of the 884 languages coded, Indonesian and Malagasy among them.

On Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives, WALS codes Koyraboro Senni as “No distance contrast”, a value held by 7 of the 234 languages coded, French and German among them.

The order Koyraboro Senni uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Koyraboro Senni with Koyra Chiini or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Applicative ConstructionsNon-benefactive object only; both bases9 of 183
Imperative-Hortative SystemsThe language has both a maximal and a minimal system21 of 375
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbObject-verb-oblique (OVX)45 of 500
Antipassive ConstructionsAntipassive with patient-like argument left implicit18 of 194
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument17 of 183

Closest profiles

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

Koyra Chiini Songhay36 of 44
Bambara Mande46 of 63
Bribri Chibchan34 of 46
Lepcha Sino-Tibetan42 of 67
Malagasy Austronesian56 of 93

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Koyraboro Senni for 99 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 88 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Koyraboro Senni shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
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	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 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 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ordinal Numerals	First/one-th, two-th, three-th	54 of 321
Indefinite Articles	No indefinite article but definite article	98 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	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
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
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
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
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 2

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

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	Imperative	29 of 193
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
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
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 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 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Mixed	40 of 378
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Both sequential type and purposive type	15 of 118
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	productive	24 of 186
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 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
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
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
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Others	36 of 230
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