Lugbara

Central Sudanic family · Moru-Ma'di branch · Africa

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

On Glottalized Consonants, WALS codes Lugbara as “Implosives and glottalized resonants”, a value held by 4 of the 567 languages coded, Khmu' and Sedang among them.

On Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Lugbara as “Case + TAM (tense-aspect-mood)”, a value held by 2 of the 162 languages coded, the other being Kayardild.

The closest grammar profile to Lugbara in the atlas belongs to Ewe, a Niger-Congo language: the two agree on 31 of the 47 features both have coded.

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

Contrast Lugbara with Ewe or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesAblaut/concatenative5 of 165
Lateral ConsonantsLaterals, but no /l/, no obstruent lateral29 of 567
Occurrence of Nominal PluralityPlural in all nouns, optional in inanimates15 of 291
Negative MorphemesNegative word, unclear if verb or particle73 of 1,157
Order of Object and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant101 of 1,518
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsLabial-velars45 of 567
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyModerate preference for prefixing94 of 969

Inside the Central Sudanic family

Lugbara matches the most frequent Central Sudanic value on 28 of the 44 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (64%).

Closest profiles

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

Gbeya Bossangoa Niger-Congo29 of 46
Lahu Sino-Tibetan25 of 40
Kobon Trans-New Guinea31 of 54
Amele Trans-New Guinea33 of 60

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Lugbara for 60 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 50 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Lugbara shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Tone	Complex tone system	88 of 527
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
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 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P has no marking	42 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
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 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect prefixes	153 of 1,131
The Morphological Imperative	Second person number-neutral	89 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375

Word order 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant	93 of 659
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
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
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
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 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955

Vocabulary 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
M in Second Person Singular	m in second person singular	78 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230