Meithei

Sino-Tibetan family · Manipuri branch · Eurasia

On Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers, all 6 other Sino-Tibetan languages coded have the value “Formally similar, involving interrogative expression”; Meithei has “Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression”.

The nearest grammar profile in the atlas is Tibetan (Standard Spoken), which agrees with Meithei on 41 of 51 shared features.

The order Meithei uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Meithei with Tibetan (Standard Spoken) or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a nominal plural affix19 of 261
Order of Adjective and NounNo dominant order110 of 1,367
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsOptional pronouns in subject position61 of 711
Predicative PossessionGenitive Possessive22 of 240
The PerfectPerfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'21 of 222

Inside the Sino-Tibetan family

Meithei matches the most frequent Sino-Tibetan value on 87 of the 121 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (72%). Among the 15 Sino-Tibetan languages profiled here, that rate ranks fourth from the top.

Where Meithei breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Meithei	Most relatives
Numeral Bases	Hybrid vigesimal-decimal	Decimal (6 of 7)

Closest profiles

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

Nara (in Ethiopia) Eastern Sudanic32 of 41
Lahu Sino-Tibetan45 of 64
Awtuw Sepik33 of 46
Garo Sino-Tibetan57 of 84

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Meithei for 122 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 114 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Meithei shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
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 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Moderate preference for suffixing	123 of 969
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	35 of 198
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
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 23

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Definite Articles	Demonstrative word used as marker of definiteness	69 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Number of Cases	6-7 case categories	37 of 261
Ordinal Numerals	First/one-th, two-th, three-th	54 of 321
The Associative Plural	Special bound associative plural marker	48 of 236
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Distributive Numerals	Marked by reduplication	85 of 251
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Number of Genders	None	145 of 257
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	No gender system	145 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	No gender system	145 of 257
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed	33 of 138
Action Nominal Constructions	No action nominals	42 of 168
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 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 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Optative	Inflectional optative present	48 of 319
The Morphological Imperative	Second person number-neutral	89 of 548
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Both direct and indirect evidentials	71 of 418
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Coding of Evidentiality	Verbal affix or clitic	131 of 418
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193

Word order 10

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 Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)	141 of 824
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
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 Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 20

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No other roles (= Only benefactive)	36 of 183
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 of 1,157
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
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
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reason Clauses	Deranked	42 of 169
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

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

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express neither affective nor logical meanings	25 of 143