Navajo

Na-Dene family · Athapaskan branch · North America

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

On Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives, WALS codes Navajo as “Five (or more)-way contrast”, a value held by 4 of the 234 languages coded, Malagasy and Maricopa among them.

On Verbal Number and Suppletion, WALS codes Navajo as “Singular-dual-plural triples, no suppletion”, a value held by 5 of the 193 languages coded, Maricopa and Koasati among them.

Of the 4 Na-Dene languages profiled here, Navajo follows the family’s usual values most closely.

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

Contrast Navajo with Slave or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Order of Relative Clause and NounInternally-headed relative clause24 of 824
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in either of two positions26 of 884
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbObject-oblique-verb (OXV)27 of 500
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly prefixing58 of 969
Person Marking on AdpositionsPerson marking for pronouns and nouns23 of 378
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesVoicing contrast in fricatives alone38 of 567
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsNo morphological type or compound type23 of 310
Lateral Consonants/l/ and lateral obstruents47 of 567

Inside the Na-Dene family

Navajo matches the most frequent Na-Dene value on 36 of the 50 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (72%).

Closest profiles

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

Slave Na-Dene57 of 84
Lakhota Siouan51 of 84
Koasati Muskogean45 of 76
Karok Hokan41 of 70
Hupa Na-Dene26 of 43

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Navajo for 91 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 80 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Navajo shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Glottalized Consonants	Ejectives only	58 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	High	69 of 564
Vowel Quality Inventories	Small vowel inventory (2-4)	93 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Fixed Stress Locations	No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress)	220 of 502
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
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 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	55 of 368
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165

Nouns and pronouns 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a nominal plural affix	22 of 261
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only	61 of 378
Ordinal Numerals	First/one-th, two-th, three-th	54 of 321
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	No action nominals	42 of 168
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect prefixes	153 of 1,131
Coding of Evidentiality	Separate particle	65 of 418
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
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
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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 Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
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 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero in all 3rd person forms	36 of 380
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	P precedes A	57 of 379
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy	53 of 297
Predicative Possession	Conjunctional Possessive	59 of 240
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283

Vocabulary 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Finger and Hand	Identical	72 of 593
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196