Kunama

a family of its own in WALS · Africa

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

On Verbal Number and Suppletion, WALS codes Kunama as “Singular-dual-plural triples, suppletion”, a value held by 2 of the 193 languages coded, the other being Slave.

WALS lists no other language in the family it assigns to Kunama.

The closest grammar profile to Kunama in the atlas belongs to Kanuri, a Saharan language: the two agree on 59 of the 83 features both have coded.

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

Contrast Kunama with Kanuri or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P are fused20 of 379
Weight-Sensitive StressRight-oriented: The antepenultimate is involved27 of 500
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight38 of 500
Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesIsolating/concatenative13 of 165

Closest profiles

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

Maba Maban39 of 56
Nubian (Dongolese) Eastern Sudanic45 of 66
Beja Afro-Asiatic48 of 72
Fur family of its own43 of 70

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Kunama for 94 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 86 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Kunama shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Rhythm Types	Undetermined: no clear foot type	37 of 323
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
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 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for suffixing	123 of 969
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
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 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Number of Cases	6-7 case categories	37 of 261
Definite Articles	Definite affix on noun	92 of 620
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Indefinite Articles	No indefinite article but definite article	98 of 534
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different stems	37 of 201
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
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

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
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 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	Imperative	29 of 193
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
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 Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
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 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 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero realization of all third person singular S forms	45 of 380
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Both sequential type and purposive type	15 of 118
Polar Questions	Interrogative verb morphology	164 of 955
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
Predicative Possession	Have-Possessive	63 of 240
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding	103 of 386
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 of 1,157
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
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
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
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
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196