Palauan
Austronesian family · Palauan branch · Papunesia
Palauan is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Polar Questions, WALS codes Palauan as “Interrogative word order”, a value held by 13 of the 955 languages coded, English and Spanish among them.
The closest grammar profile to Palauan in the atlas belongs to Nahuatl (Tetelcingo), a Uto-Aztecan language: the two agree on 33 of the 47 features both have coded.
Contrast Palauan with Nahuatl (Tetelcingo) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Palauan, rarest first.
- Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyModerate preference for prefixing94 of 969
Inside the Austronesian family
Palauan matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 35 of the 53 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (66%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 18th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Palauan; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Palauan for 53 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 50 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Palauan shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Nouns and pronouns 17
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural prefix | 126 of 1,066 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural only in human nouns, obligatory | 40 of 291 |
| 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 |
| Definite Articles | Neither definite nor indefinite article | 198 of 620 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Indefinite Articles | Neither indefinite nor definite | 198 of 534 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | Possessive suffixes | 355 of 902 |
| 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 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | 213 of 322 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical | 103 of 234 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect prefixes | 153 of 1,131 |
| The Morphological Imperative | No second-person imperatives | 122 of 548 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | 113 of 496 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one | 133 of 375 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| 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 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 |
| 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 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Secondary-object construction | 65 of 378 |
| Predicative Possession | Topic Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| Comparative Constructions | Locational Comparative | 78 of 167 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No zero realization of third person S forms | 181 of 380 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
Complex sentences 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
Vocabulary 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Hand and Arm | Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm' | 228 of 617 |
| Finger and Hand | Different | 521 of 593 |