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Lele

Afro-Asiatic family · East Chadic branch · Africa

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

On Green and Blue, WALS codes Lele as “Yellow-or-green-or-blue”, a value held by 2 of the 120 languages coded.

On Red and Yellow, WALS codes Lele as “Red and yellow-or-green-or-blue”, a value held by 3 of the 120 languages coded.

The closest grammar profile to Lele in the atlas belongs to Spanish, an Indo-European language: the two agree on 20 of the 43 features both have coded.

Lele: order of head and dependent in 8 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: Prepositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitivegenitiveno dominant order55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Both orders occur with neither order dominant. 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.
The order Lele uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Lele with Spanish or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Inside the Afro-Asiatic family

Lele matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 29 of the 39 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (74%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks first from the top.

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Lele for 43 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 34 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Lele shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Word structure 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly suffixing406 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 10

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Occurrence of Nominal PluralityPlural only in human nouns, obligatory40 of 291
Indefinite ArticlesIndefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'102 of 534
Number of GendersTwo50 of 257
Systems of Gender AssignmentSemantic and formal assignment59 of 257
Indefinite PronounsGeneric-noun-based indefinites85 of 326
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender SystemsSex-based gender system84 of 257
Position of Case AffixesNeither case affixes nor adpositional clitics379 of 1,031
Position of Pronominal Possessive AffixesPossessive suffixes355 of 902
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural suffix513 of 1,066
Person Marking on AdpositionsAdpositions without person marking209 of 378

Noun phrases 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionNominal and verbal conjunction are different125 of 301

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect AffixesCombination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary146 of 1,131

Word order 10

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle at end of sentence314 of 884
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePrepositions511 of 1,184
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 Numeral and NounNumeral follows noun (NNum)608 of 1,154
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseInitial subordinator word398 of 659
Order of Adjective and NounModifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content QuestionsInterrogative phrases not obligatorily initial615 of 902
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
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'Double-object construction84 of 378
Negative MorphemesNegative particle502 of 1,157
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingNo zero realization of third person S forms181 of 380
Verbal Person MarkingPerson marking of both the A and P arguments193 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingAccusative alignment212 of 380
Passive ConstructionsThere is no passive construction211 of 373
Polar QuestionsQuestion particle585 of 955
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation170 of 206

Complex sentences 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
'Want' Complement SubjectsThe complement subject is left implicit144 of 283
Relativization on SubjectsGap125 of 166

Vocabulary 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Number of Basic Colour Categories3, between 3 and 4, or 4 categories20 of 119