Pitjantjatjara
Pama-Nyungan family · Western Pama-Nyungan branch · Australia
On Negative Morphemes, WALS codes Pitjantjatjara as “Variation between negative word and affix”, a value held by 21 of the 1,157 languages coded, Lavukaleve and Armenian (Eastern) among them.
On Asymmetrical Case-Marking, WALS codes Pitjantjatjara as “Qualitatively asymmetrical case-marking”, a value held by 7 of the 261 languages coded, Ngiyambaa and Yidiny among them.
Of the 12 Pama-Nyungan languages profiled here, Pitjantjatjara departs most often from the family’s usual values.
On Person Marking on Adpositions, all 9 other Pama-Nyungan languages coded have the value “No adpositions”; Pitjantjatjara has “Adpositions without person marking”.
Contrast Pitjantjatjara with Diyari or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Pitjantjatjara, rarest first.
- Order of Person Markers on the VerbBoth orders of A and P occur19 of 379
- Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated to non-remote demonstratives14 of 225
- Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
- Order of Relative Clause and NounMixed types of relative clause with none dominant64 of 824
- Absence of Common ConsonantsNo fricatives48 of 567
- Case SyncretismInflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only18 of 198
- Number of Cases10 or more case categories24 of 261
- Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number affixes25 of 261
Inside the Pama-Nyungan family
Pitjantjatjara matches the most frequent Pama-Nyungan value on 51 of the 77 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (66%).
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Pitjantjatjara; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Pitjantjatjara for 82 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 71 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Pitjantjatjara 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 | Initial: stress is on the first syllable | 92 of 502 |
| 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 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
| 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 |
| Presence of Uncommon Consonants | None | 449 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | No uvulars | 470 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | No subject person/number marking | 57 of 198 |
Nouns and pronouns 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Case Affixes | Postpositional clitics | 123 of 1,031 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No person marking at all | 70 of 200 |
| 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 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| 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 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Coding of Evidentiality | Separate particle | 65 of 418 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second person number-neutral | 89 of 548 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | 113 of 496 |
| Situational Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 63 of 234 |
| 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 |
| 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 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg) | 192 of 481 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem) | 562 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object precedes verb (OV) | 712 of 1,518 |
| Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase | Postpositions | 577 of 1,184 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj) | 879 of 1,367 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 13
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | Zero realization of all third person singular S forms | 45 of 380 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In finiteness: Subtype A/Fin | 40 of 297 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Ergative - absolutive | 32 of 190 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Double-object construction | 84 of 378 |
| Predicative Possession | Conjunctional Possessive | 59 of 240 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding | 132 of 386 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Nominative - accusative (standard) | 61 of 172 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy | 130 of 297 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| 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 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
Complex sentences 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Reason Clauses | Deranked | 42 of 169 |
| 'When' Clauses | Deranked | 51 of 174 |
| Relativization on Obliques | Gap Strategy | 55 of 112 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
| Purpose Clauses | Deranked | 102 of 170 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |
Vocabulary 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Numeral Bases | Restricted | 20 of 196 |
| Finger and Hand | Identical | 72 of 593 |
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| 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 |