Nunggubuyu
Gunwinyguan family · Nunggubuyu branch · Australia
WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Nunggubuyu, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.
On Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause, WALS codes Nunggubuyu as “Clause-internal adverbial subordinators”, a value held by 8 of the 659 languages coded, Nkore-Kiga and Yukulta among them.
On Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase, WALS codes Nunggubuyu as “No adpositions”, a value held by 30 of the 1,184 languages coded, Ngalakan and Kayardild among them.
The closest grammar profile to Nunggubuyu in the atlas belongs to Garrwa, a Garrwan language: the two agree on 31 of the 42 features both have coded.
Contrast Nunggubuyu with Garrwa or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Nunggubuyu, rarest first.
- Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingHierarchical alignment11 of 380
- Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in either of two positions26 of 884
- Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/NonReal and A/Cat11 of 297
- Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsGender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person18 of 378
- Suppletion According to Tense and AspectSuppletion according to aspect10 of 193
- Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P are fused20 of 379
- 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
Inside the Gunwinyguan family
Nunggubuyu matches the most frequent Gunwinyguan value on 16 of the 22 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (73%).
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Nunggubuyu; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Nunggubuyu for 107 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 96 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Nunggubuyu shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 19
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Absence of Common Consonants | No fricatives | 48 of 567 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Small vowel inventory (2-4) | 93 of 564 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | Penultimate | 110 of 502 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, also initially | 147 of 469 |
| 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 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
| 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 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| Glottalized Consonants | No glottalized consonants | 409 of 567 |
| Vowel Nasalization | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 180 of 244 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 8
| 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 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is double-marked | 58 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 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Inconsistent marking or other type | 121 of 236 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 22
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Cases | 10 or more case categories | 24 of 261 |
| Number of Genders | Five or more | 24 of 257 |
| Ordinal Numerals | Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist | 33 of 321 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural prefix | 126 of 1,066 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | Inclusive and exclusive differentiated | 30 of 200 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | No adpositions | 63 of 378 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix | 47 of 261 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 53 of 261 |
| The Associative Plural | Special bound associative plural marker | 48 of 236 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic and formal assignment | 59 of 257 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | Inclusive and exclusive differentiated | 63 of 200 |
| Definite Articles | Neither definite nor indefinite article | 198 of 620 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Indefinite Articles | Neither indefinite nor definite | 198 of 534 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Three-way contrast | 88 of 234 |
| 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 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | 260 of 400 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 136 of 207 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Possessive Classification | Two classes | 94 of 243 |
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Morphological Imperative | No second-person imperatives | 122 of 548 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | No overlap | 105 of 207 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| 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 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Both orders occur with neither order dominant | 96 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | No dominant order | 110 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 Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 of 1,225 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
Simple clauses 16
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | Zero in all 3rd person forms | 36 of 380 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No other roles (= Only benefactive) | 36 of 183 |
| Comparative Constructions | Conjoined Comparative | 34 of 167 |
| Applicative Constructions | Benefactive and other; both bases | 49 of 183 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy | 130 of 297 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Neutral | 79 of 172 |
| 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 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Distinct from reflexive | 99 of 175 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| Antipassive Constructions | No antipassive | 146 of 194 |
| Productivity of the Antipassive Construction | no antipassive | 146 of 186 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
Complex sentences 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Relativization on Obliques | Gap Strategy | 55 of 112 |
| Purpose Clauses | Deranked | 102 of 170 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |
Vocabulary 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Finger and Hand | Identical | 72 of 593 |
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| 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 |