Lak
Nakh-Daghestanian family · Lak branch · Eurasia
The closest grammar profile to Lak in the atlas belongs to Hindi, an Indo-European language: the two agree on 39 of the 60 features both have coded.
On Vowel Quality Inventories, 6 of 7 other Nakh-Daghestanian languages coded have the value “Average vowel inventory (5-6)”; Lak has “Small vowel inventory (2-4)”.
On Presence of Uncommon Consonants, WALS codes Lak as “Pharyngeals”, a value held by 21 of the 567 languages coded, Ingush and Hunzib among them.
On Number of Genders, WALS codes Lak as “Four”, a value held by 12 of the 257 languages coded, Archi and Burushaski among them.
Contrast Lak with Hindi or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Lak, rarest first.
- Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingErgative alignment19 of 380
- Verbal Person MarkingPerson marking of only the P argument24 of 378
- Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops and continuants48 of 567
- Case SyncretismInflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only18 of 198
- Number of Cases10 or more case categories24 of 261
Inside the Nakh-Daghestanian family
Lak matches the most frequent Nakh-Daghestanian value on 40 of the 58 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (69%). Among the 7 Nakh-Daghestanian languages profiled here, that rate ranks sixth from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Lak; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Lak for 62 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 54 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Lak shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Large | 57 of 563 |
| Glottalized Consonants | Ejectives only | 58 of 567 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | High | 69 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives | 158 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| Vowel Nasalization | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 180 of 244 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 60 of 198 |
Nouns and pronouns 14
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic assignment | 53 of 257 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Symmetrical case-marking | 79 of 261 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Distributive Numerals | Marked by reduplication | 85 of 251 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 79 of 200 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| The Associative Plural | Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals | 104 of 236 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | 213 of 322 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Sentential | 25 of 168 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for either possibility or necessity | 66 of 207 |
| 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 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
Word order 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| 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 Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Productivity of the Antipassive Construction | productive | 24 of 186 |
| Antipassive Constructions | Oblique patient | 30 of 194 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Ergative - absolutive | 32 of 190 |
| 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 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 187 of 379 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Indirect-object construction | 189 of 378 |
| Applicative Constructions | No applicative construction | 100 of 183 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No applicative construction | 100 of 183 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
Vocabulary 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |