Nez Perce

Penutian family · Sahaptian branch · North America

WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Nez Perce, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.

On Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns, WALS codes Nez Perce as “Tripartite”, a value held by 3 of the 172 languages coded, the others being Hindi and Semelai.

On Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases, WALS codes Nez Perce as “Tripartite”, a value held by 4 of the 190 languages coded, Hindi and Semelai among them.

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

Contrast Nez Perce with Klamath or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives and glottalized resonants20 of 567
Weight-Sensitive StressNot predictable26 of 500
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection'We' and 'I' identical12 of 200
Order of Object and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant101 of 1,518
Order of Subject and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant110 of 1,496
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingSplit alignment28 of 380
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight38 of 500
Lateral Consonants/l/ and lateral obstruents47 of 567

Inside the Penutian family

Nez Perce matches the most frequent Penutian value on 37 of the 57 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (65%). Among the 5 Penutian languages profiled here, that rate ranks third from the top.

Closest profiles

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

Klamath Penutian31 of 45
Pipil Uto-Aztecan27 of 40
Kutenai family of its own53 of 85
Yurok Algic47 of 77
Coos (Hanis) Oregon Coast45 of 74

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Nez Perce for 92 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 81 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Nez Perce shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Uvular Consonants	Uvular stops and continuants	48 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
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
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
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Tone	No tones	307 of 527
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 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
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	147 of 969
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	35 of 198
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368

Nouns and pronouns 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Cases	10 or more case categories	24 of 261
Person Marking on Adpositions	No adpositions	63 of 378
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
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
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Possessive-Accusative	29 of 168
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
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
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
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 Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
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 Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
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 Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Other Roles of Applied Objects	Locative	18 of 183
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	productive	24 of 186
Antipassive Constructions	Oblique patient	30 of 194
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A precedes P	96 of 379
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric standard negation only: Type Sym	114 of 297
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	Non-assignable (no asymmetry found)	114 of 297
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

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

Other 1

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