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Murrinh-Patha

Southern Daly family · Murrinh-Patha branch · Australia

Murrinh-Patha is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Green and Blue, WALS codes Murrinh-Patha as “Green and blue not both encoded in any basic color term”, a value held by 2 of the 120 languages coded, the other being Kuku-Yalanji.

On Red and Yellow, WALS codes Murrinh-Patha as “Red and yellow not both encoded in any basic color term”, a value held by 3 of the 120 languages coded, the others being Waorani and Kuku-Yalanji.

The closest grammar profile to Murrinh-Patha in the atlas belongs to French, an Indo-European language: the two agree on 17 of the 40 features both have coded.

Murrinh-Patha: 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 precedes verb (OV). Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.adpositionnoun phrasenoun phraseno dominant order49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: More than one adposition type with none dominant. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Noun-genitive (NGen). 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.nounrelative clauserelative clauseMixed17%70%Order of Relative Clause and Noun: Mixed types of relative clause with none dominant. Of 824 languages coded, 141 put the relative clause before the noun and 579 after it.adjectivedegree word47%40%Order of Degree Word and Adjective: Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg). Of 481 languages coded, 227 put the degree word before the adjective and 192 after it.
The order Murrinh-Patha uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Murrinh-Patha with French or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Murrinh-Patha for 40 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 32 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Murrinh-Patha shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 12

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Vowel Quality InventoriesSmall vowel inventory (2-4)93 of 564
Consonant-Vowel RatioModerately high102 of 564
Syllable StructureComplex syllable structure151 of 486
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in plosives alone189 of 567
Consonant InventoriesAverage201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems/p t k b d g/255 of 567
ToneNo tones307 of 527
Lateral Consonants/l/, no obstruent laterals388 of 567
Glottalized ConsonantsNo glottalized consonants409 of 567
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsNone449 of 567
Uvular ConsonantsNo uvulars470 of 567
Front Rounded VowelsNone525 of 562

Word structure 5

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesPossessor has no marking32 of 236
Locus of Marking in the ClauseP is double-marked58 of 236
Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyInconsistent marking or other type121 of 236
ReduplicationProductive full and partial reduplication278 of 368
Zero Marking of A and P ArgumentsNon-zero marking219 of 235

Noun phrases 3

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Possessive ClassificationNo possessive classification125 of 243
Obligatory Possessive InflectionNo obligatorily possessed nouns201 of 244
Number of Possessive NounsNone reported233 of 243

Word order 8

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle at end of sentence314 of 884
Order of Genitive and NounNoun-genitive (NGen)468 of 1,249
Order of Degree Word and AdjectiveDegree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)192 of 481
Order of Demonstrative and NounDemonstrative word follows noun (NDem)562 of 1,225
Order of Object and VerbObject precedes verb (OV)712 of 1,518
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 Subject and VerbSubject precedes verb (SV)1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Polar QuestionsQuestion particle585 of 955

Vocabulary 3

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Finger and HandIdentical72 of 593
Number of Basic Colour Categories3, between 3 and 4, or 4 categories20 of 119
Hand and ArmDifferent389 of 617