Otomí (Mezquital)

Oto-Manguean family · Otomian branch · North America

Otomí (Mezquital) puts its words in verb-object-subject order (VOS), one of only 25 with that basic order among the 1,376 languages WALS codes for this feature.

The closest grammar profile to Otomí (Mezquital) in the atlas belongs to Huave (San Mateo del Mar), a Huavean language: the two agree on 35 of the 47 features both have coded.

Of the 4 Oto-Manguean languages profiled here, Otomí (Mezquital) departs most often from the family’s usual values.

On Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking, 4 of 5 other Oto-Manguean languages coded have the value “No zero realization of third person S forms”; Otomí (Mezquital) has “Zero realization of all third person singular S forms”.

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

Contrast Otomí (Mezquital) with Huave (San Mateo del Mar) or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Otomí (Mezquital), rarest first.

Presence of Uncommon Consonants'Th' sounds40 of 567
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsNo morphological type or compound type23 of 310
Reciprocal ConstructionsThere are no non-iconic reciprocal constructions.16 of 175
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number affixes25 of 261
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyModerate preference for prefixing94 of 969

Inside the Oto-Manguean family

Otomí (Mezquital) matches the most frequent Oto-Manguean value on 34 of the 56 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (61%).

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Otomí (Mezquital); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Bagirmi Central Sudanic52 of 82
Wichita Caddoan47 of 79
Cayuvava family of its own41 of 68
Brahui Dravidian43 of 72

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Otomí (Mezquital) for 95 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 88 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Otomí (Mezquital) shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 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
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	TAM+agreement	19 of 160
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
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ordinal Numerals	One-th, two-th, three-th	41 of 321
The Associative Plural	Associative plural absent	37 of 236
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
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
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

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical	131 of 234
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 10

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 Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 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
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
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 Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
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 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Predicative Possession	Topic Possessive	48 of 240
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A precedes P	96 of 379
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding	103 of 386
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
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
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Purposive type but no sequential type	68 of 118
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
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Hybrid vigesimal-decimal	22 of 196
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230