Paiwan

Austronesian family · Paiwan branch · Papunesia

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

On Case Syncretism, 13 of 14 other Austronesian languages coded have the value “Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal”; Paiwan has “Inflectional case marking is never syncretic”.

On Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Paiwan as “Case + referentiality”, a value held by 6 of the 162 languages coded, Tagalog and Tukang Besi among them.

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

Contrast Paiwan with Malagasy or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Lateral ConsonantsLaterals, but no /l/, no obstruent lateral29 of 567
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument and locative12 of 183
Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops only38 of 567
Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyConsistently double-marking16 of 236
Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesIsolating/concatenative13 of 165
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesPossessor is double-marked22 of 236

Inside the Austronesian family

Paiwan matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 60 of the 106 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (57%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 36th from the top.

Where Paiwan breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Paiwan	Most relatives
Coding of Evidentiality	Verbal affix or clitic	No grammatical evidentials (17 of 19)

Closest profiles

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

Malagasy Austronesian69 of 102
Semelai Austro-Asiatic46 of 74
Muna Austronesian26 of 41
West Makian North Halmaheran26 of 42
Yoruba Niger-Congo55 of 99

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Paiwan for 106 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 96 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Paiwan shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
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
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
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	147 of 969
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is double-marked	58 of 236
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
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
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ordinal Numerals	One-th, two-th, three-th	41 of 321
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking	53 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
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
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 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 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary	146 of 1,131
The Morphological Imperative	Second person number-neutral	89 of 548
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
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
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
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 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
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Mixed	40 of 378
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	productive	24 of 186
Antipassive Constructions	Oblique patient	30 of 194
Polar Questions	Interrogative intonation only	173 of 955
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
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
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
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