Maltese
Afro-Asiatic family · Semitic branch · Eurasia
Within the Semitic branch, 6 of 7 other languages coded for Rhythm Types have the value “Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong”; Maltese has “Undetermined: no clear foot type”.
On Action Nominal Constructions, WALS codes Maltese as “Double-Possessive: All major arguments treated as possessors”, a value held by 7 of the 168 languages coded, Finnish and Japanese among them.
Contrast Maltese with Hebrew (Modern) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Maltese, rarest first.
- Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites show mixed behaviour13 of 206
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsCombined: two of the above factors determine weight42 of 500
Inside the Afro-Asiatic family
Maltese matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 29 of the 41 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (71%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks sixth from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Maltese; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Maltese for 41 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 37 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Maltese shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable | 65 of 500 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
Nouns and pronouns 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Related by gender markers | 24 of 225 |
| Number of Genders | Two | 50 of 257 |
| The Associative Plural | Special non-bound associative plural marker | 47 of 236 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic and formal assignment | 59 of 257 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Generic-noun-based indefinites | 85 of 326 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Two-way contrast | 126 of 234 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 94 of 168 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | 213 of 322 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | Imperative | 29 of 193 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 of 222 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 101 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 112 of 222 |
| 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 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | No suppletion in tense or aspect | 123 of 193 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| Verbal Number and Suppletion | No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples | 159 of 193 |
Simple clauses 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Predicative Possession | Locational Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Identical | 117 of 386 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| Comparative Constructions | Locational Comparative | 78 of 167 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Indirect-object construction | 189 of 378 |
Vocabulary 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express logical meanings ('yes' and/or 'no') | 47 of 143 |