Paamese

Austronesian family · Oceanic branch · Papunesia

Paamese is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Number of Possessive Nouns, WALS codes Paamese as “Two to four”, a value held by 4 of the 243 languages coded, Chamorro and Fijian among them.

On Fixed Stress Locations, WALS codes Paamese as “Antepenultimate”, a value held by 12 of the 502 languages coded, Georgian and Greek (Modern) among them.

On Obligatory Possessive Inflection, all 14 other Austronesian languages coded have the value “No obligatorily possessed nouns”; Paamese has “Obligatorily possessed nouns exist”.

The order Paamese uses in 7 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Paamese with Lenakel or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsNo morphological type or compound type23 of 310
Possessive ClassificationThree to five classes20 of 243
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyModerate preference for prefixing94 of 969

Inside the Austronesian family

Paamese matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 56 of the 89 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (63%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 26th from the top.

Closest profiles

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

Lenakel Austronesian31 of 40
Luo Eastern Sudanic32 of 43
Maung Iwaidjan51 of 75
Wichí Matacoan55 of 82
West Makian North Halmaheran29 of 41

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Paamese for 89 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 82 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Paamese shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
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
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368

Nouns and pronouns 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Indefinite Articles	No indefinite article but definite article	98 of 534
Person Marking on Adpositions	Person marking for pronouns only	83 of 378
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378

Noun phrases 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Not both A and P in the same construction	24 of 168
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect prefixes	153 of 1,131
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
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
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
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 Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 22

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero realization of all third person singular S forms	45 of 380
Polar Questions	Interrogative intonation only	173 of 955
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
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 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
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
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
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
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Pronoun-Retention Strategy	20 of 112
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143