Maasai

Eastern Sudanic family · Eastern Nilotic branch · Africa

Maasai puts its words in verb-subject-object order (VSO), one of only 95 with that basic order among the 1,376 languages WALS codes for this feature.

On Position of Case Affixes, WALS codes Maasai as “Case coded by tone”, a value held by 5 of the 1,031 languages coded, Nandi and Maba among them.

On Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Maasai as “Tonal/concatenative”, a value held by 2 of the 165 languages coded, the other being Nandi.

The closest grammar profile to Maasai in the atlas belongs to Krongo, a Kadu language: the two agree on 41 of the 56 features both have coded.

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

Contrast Maasai with Krongo or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood InflectionTAM+polarity5 of 160
Glottalized ConsonantsImplosives only55 of 567
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyModerate preference for prefixing94 of 969

Inside the Eastern Sudanic family

Maasai matches the most frequent Eastern Sudanic value on 32 of the 54 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (59%). Among the 11 Eastern Sudanic languages profiled here, that rate ranks sixth from the top.

Closest profiles

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

Nandi Eastern Sudanic30 of 42
Korean family of its own35 of 59
Rapanui Austronesian30 of 50
Maung Iwaidjan31 of 52

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Maasai for 59 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 53 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Maasai shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
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 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162

Nouns and pronouns 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 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 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary	146 of 1,131

Word order 12

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
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
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 Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
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

Simple clauses 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In finiteness: Subtype A/Fin	40 of 297
Predicative Possession	Have-Possessive	63 of 240
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding	103 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Purposive type but no sequential type	68 of 118
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
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 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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