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Nuuchahnulth

Wakashan family · Southern Wakashan branch · North America

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

On Lateral Consonants, WALS codes Nuuchahnulth as “No /l/, but lateral obstruents”, a value held by 8 of the 567 languages coded, Chukchi and Kutenai among them.

The closest grammar profile to Nuuchahnulth in the atlas belongs to Squamish, a Salishan language: the two agree on 29 of the 40 features both have coded.

On Expression of Pronominal Subjects, WALS codes Nuuchahnulth as “Pronominal subjects are expressed by clitics with variable host”, a value held by 32 of the 711 languages coded, Makah and Ngiyambaa among them.

Nuuchahnulth: order of head and dependent in 5 constructions← beforeafter →verbsubject80%13%Order of Subject and Verb: Subject follows verb (VS). Of 1,496 languages coded, 1,192 put the subject before the verb and 194 after it.verbobject47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Object follows verb (VO). Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.nounadjectiveadjectiveno dominant order27%64%Order of Adjective and Noun: No dominant order. Of 1,367 languages coded, 373 put the adjective before the noun and 879 after it.nounnumeralnumeralno dominant order42%53%Order of Numeral and Noun: Both orders of numeral and noun with neither order dominant. Of 1,154 languages coded, 479 put the numeral before the noun and 608 after it.adjectivedegree word47%40%Order of Degree Word and Adjective: Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg). Of 481 languages coded, 227 put the degree word before the adjective and 192 after it.
The order Nuuchahnulth uses in 5 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Nuuchahnulth with Squamish or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Nuuchahnulth for 45 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 35 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Nuuchahnulth shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 9

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Consonant InventoriesLarge57 of 563
Consonant-Vowel RatioHigh69 of 564
Vowel Quality InventoriesSmall vowel inventory (2-4)93 of 564
Syllable StructureComplex syllable structure151 of 486
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesNo voicing contrast182 of 567
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsOther242 of 567
ToneNo tones307 of 527
Absence of Common ConsonantsAll present503 of 567
Front Rounded VowelsNone525 of 562

Word structure 5

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Locus of Marking in the ClauseP has no marking42 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesPossessor is head-marked78 of 236
Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyInconsistent marking or other type121 of 236
ReduplicationProductive full and partial reduplication278 of 368
Zero Marking of A and P ArgumentsNon-zero marking219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Person Marking on AdpositionsNo adpositions63 of 378
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsNo gender distinctions254 of 378

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Coding of EvidentialityVerbal affix or clitic131 of 418
Semantic Distinctions of EvidentialityOnly indirect evidentials166 of 418

Word order 4

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Order of Subject and VerbSubject follows verb (VS)194 of 1,496
Order of Degree Word and AdjectiveDegree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)192 of 481
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbVerb-object-oblique (VOX)210 of 500
Order of Object and VerbObject follows verb (VO)705 of 1,518

Simple clauses 9

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Verbal Person MarkingPerson marking of only the A argument73 of 378
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsNo other roles (= Only benefactive)36 of 183
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'Double-object construction84 of 378
Predicative AdjectivesPredicative adjectives have verbal encoding151 of 386
Passive ConstructionsThere is a passive construction162 of 373
Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P do not or do not both occur on the verb187 of 379
Zero Copula for Predicate NominalsZero copula is impossible211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingAccusative alignment212 of 380
Nominal and Locational PredicationDifferent269 of 386

Vocabulary 4

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Hand and ArmDifferent389 of 617
N-M PronounsNo N-M pronouns194 of 230
M-T PronounsNo M-T pronouns200 of 230
Finger and HandDifferent521 of 593