Nama

Khoe-Kwadi family · Africa

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

On Presence of Uncommon Consonants, WALS codes Nama as “Clicks”, a value held by 9 of the 567 languages coded, Zulu and Ju|'hoan among them.

The closest grammar profile to Nama in the atlas belongs to Korean, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 67 of the 117 features both have coded.

On Indefinite Articles, WALS codes Nama as “Indefinite affix on noun”, a value held by 24 of the 534 languages coded, Lango and Ladakhi among them.

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

Contrast Nama with Korean or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsGender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person18 of 378
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in second position in sentence52 of 884
Verbal Person MarkingPerson marking of only the P argument24 of 378
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesIsolating/concatenative13 of 165
Number of Cases2 case categories23 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number affixes25 of 261

Closest profiles

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

Mundari Austro-Asiatic53 of 91
Mandarin Sino-Tibetan66 of 120
Khanty Uralic31 of 52
Nara (in Ethiopia) Eastern Sudanic26 of 43

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Nama for 122 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 111 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Nama shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Tone	Complex tone system	88 of 527
Lateral Consonants	No laterals	95 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately high	102 of 564
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently dependent-marking	46 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
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 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Genders	Three	26 of 257
The Associative Plural	Special bound associative plural marker	48 of 236
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
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
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400

Noun phrases 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed	33 of 138
Action Nominal Constructions	No action nominals	42 of 168
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking	73 of 124
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
The Past Tense	Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions	38 of 222
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion according to tense	36 of 193
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
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
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
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
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Oblique-object-verb (XOV)	48 of 500
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Final subordinator word	96 of 659
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)	141 of 824
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 21

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No other roles (= Only benefactive)	36 of 183
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Double-object construction	84 of 378
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
Predicative Possession	Have-Possessive	63 of 240
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding	103 of 386
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
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

Complex sentences 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
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