Pomo (Southeastern)
Hokan family · Pomoan branch · North America
Pomo (Southeastern) is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
The closest grammar profile to Pomo (Southeastern) in the atlas belongs to Korean, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 49 of the 72 features both have coded.
On Expression of Pronominal Subjects, all 7 other Hokan languages coded have the value “Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs”; Pomo (Southeastern) has “Obligatory pronouns in subject position”.
Contrast Pomo (Southeastern) with Korean or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Pomo (Southeastern), rarest first.
- Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbObject-oblique-verb (OXV)27 of 500
- Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /g/34 of 567
- Possessive ClassificationThree to five classes20 of 243
- Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number stem with a nominal plural affix22 of 261
- Uvular ConsonantsUvular stops and continuants48 of 567
- Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseSuffixal adverbial subordinators64 of 659
Inside the Hokan family
Pomo (Southeastern) matches the most frequent Hokan value on 29 of the 60 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (48%). Among the 6 Hokan languages profiled here, that rate ranks fifth from the top.
| Feature | Pomo (Southeastern) | Most relatives |
|---|---|---|
| Verbal Person Marking | No person marking of any argument | Person marking of both the A and P arguments (5 of 5) |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only | No gender distinctions (5 of 5) |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking) | Accusative alignment (4 of 5) |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | A and P are fused (4 of 5) |
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Pomo (Southeastern); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Pomo (Southeastern) for 73 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 61 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Pomo (Southeastern) shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Glottalized Consonants | Ejectives only | 58 of 567 |
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately large | 94 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| 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 9
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is never syncretic | 35 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Consistently dependent-marking | 46 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is dependent-marked | 63 of 236 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | No subject person/number marking | 57 of 198 |
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 4-5 categories per word | 52 of 145 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is dependent-marked | 98 of 236 |
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
| 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 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Cases | 6-7 case categories | 37 of 261 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Related for all demonstratives | 52 of 225 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Symmetrical case-marking | 79 of 261 |
| Definite Articles | Neither definite nor indefinite article | 198 of 620 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No person marking at all | 70 of 200 |
| Indefinite Articles | Neither indefinite nor definite | 198 of 534 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| 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 |
Noun phrases 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| The Optative | Inflectional optative present | 48 of 319 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second person number-neutral | 89 of 548 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Both direct and indirect evidentials | 71 of 418 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + normal negative | 113 of 496 |
| Situational Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 63 of 234 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | Verbal affix or clitic | 131 of 418 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 84 of 240 |
| 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 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
Word order 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 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 Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN) | 542 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 Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Negative Morphemes | Double negation | 119 of 1,157 |
| Polar Questions | Interrogative verb morphology | 164 of 955 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Nominative - accusative (standard) | 46 of 190 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No person marking of the S | 96 of 380 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat | 82 of 297 |
| 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 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Distinct from reflexive | 99 of 175 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
Complex sentences 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced | 84 of 174 |