Kutenai

a family of its own in WALS · North America

WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Kutenai, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.

On Order of Adjective and Noun, WALS codes Kutenai as “Only internally-headed relative clauses”, a value held by 5 of the 1,367 languages coded, Diegueño (Mesa Grande) and Tiipay (Jamul) among them.

On Lateral Consonants, WALS codes Kutenai as “No /l/, but lateral obstruents”, a value held by 8 of the 567 languages coded, Chukchi and Kiowa among them.

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

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

Contrast Kutenai with Squamish or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Order of Adposition and Noun PhraseNo adpositions30 of 1,184
Order of Relative Clause and NounInternally-headed relative clause24 of 824
Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives and glottalized resonants20 of 567
Exponence of Selected Inflectional FormativesCase + referentiality6 of 162
Situational PossibilityOther kinds of markers13 of 234
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection'We' and 'I' identical12 of 200
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight38 of 500
Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops and continuants48 of 567

Closest profiles

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

Squamish Salishan57 of 88
Wichí Matacoan65 of 104
Pipil Uto-Aztecan37 of 57
Nez Perce Penutian53 of 85
Abipón Guaicuruan38 of 61

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Kutenai for 119 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 108 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Kutenai shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	High	69 of 564
Vowel Quality Inventories	Small vowel inventory (2-4)	93 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Fixed Stress Locations	Penultimate	110 of 502
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Rhythm Types	Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong	153 of 323
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)	281 of 500
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for suffixing	123 of 969
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	55 of 368
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is double-marked	58 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
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
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
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 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural prefix	126 of 1,066
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural only in human nouns, obligatory	40 of 291
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Person Marking on Adpositions	No adpositions	63 of 378
Indefinite Articles	No indefinite article but definite article	98 of 534
Distributive Numerals	No distributive numerals	62 of 251
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
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
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
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
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
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed	33 of 138
Action Nominal Constructions	No action nominals	42 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
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
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659

Simple clauses 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Other Roles of Applied Objects	Instrument	17 of 183
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Subject pronouns in different position	67 of 711
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero in all 3rd person forms	36 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Secondary-object construction	65 of 378
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A precedes P	96 of 379
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
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
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
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
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
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

Complex sentences 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283

Vocabulary 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
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
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593