Nambikuára (Southern)
Nambikuaran family · South America
Nambikuára (Southern) is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Glottalized Consonants, WALS codes Nambikuára (Southern) as “Ejectives, implosives and glottalized resonants”, a value held by 3 of the 567 languages coded.
WALS lists no other language in the family it assigns to Nambikuára (Southern).
The closest grammar profile to Nambikuára (Southern) in the atlas belongs to Dani (Lower Grand Valley), a Trans-New Guinea language: the two agree on 30 of the 47 features both have coded.
Contrast Nambikuára (Southern) with Dani (Lower Grand Valley) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Nambikuára (Southern), rarest first.
- Indefinite ArticlesIndefinite affix on noun24 of 534
- Lateral ConsonantsLaterals, but no /l/, no obstruent lateral29 of 567
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Nambikuára (Southern); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Nambikuára (Southern) for 51 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 47 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Nambikuára (Southern) shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 14
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Stress Locations | Ultimate: stress is on the ultimate (last) syllable | 51 of 502 |
| Tone | Complex tone system | 88 of 527 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | No voicing contrast | 182 of 567 |
| Consonant Inventories | Average | 201 of 563 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems | No weight, or weight factor unknown | 261 of 500 |
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) | 281 of 500 |
| 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 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 8-9 categories per word | 24 of 145 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Consistently head-marking | 47 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is head-marked | 71 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is head-marked | 78 of 236 |
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
| Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives | No case | 75 of 162 |
| 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 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Definite Articles | Definite affix on noun | 92 of 620 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only | 61 of 378 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | No adpositions | 63 of 378 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive prefixes | 255 of 902 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Sentential | 25 of 168 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
Word order 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Polar Question Particles | No question particle | 355 of 884 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object precedes verb (OV) | 712 of 1,518 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | Zero realization of all third person singular S forms | 45 of 380 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | P precedes A | 57 of 379 |
| Polar Questions | Interrogative verb morphology | 164 of 955 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Secondary-object construction | 65 of 378 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
Complex sentences 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | 'Want' is expressed as a desiderative verbal affix | 45 of 283 |
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 |