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Qawasqar

Alacalufan family · South America

WALS lists no other language in the family it assigns to Qawasqar.

The closest grammar profile to Qawasqar in the atlas belongs to Korean, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 35 of the 49 features both have coded.

On Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns, WALS codes Qawasqar as “Number-indifferent pronouns”, a value held by 9 of the 261 languages coded, Burmese and Pirahã among them.

Qawasqar: order of head and dependent in 5 constructions← beforeafter →verbsubject80%13%Order of Subject and Verb: Subject precedes verb (SV). Of 1,496 languages coded, 1,192 put the subject before the verb and 194 after it.verbobject47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Object precedes verb (OV). Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.adpositionnoun phrase49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: Postpositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Genitive-noun (GenN). Of 1,249 languages coded, 685 put the genitive before the noun and 468 after it.nounnumeralnumeralno dominant order42%53%Order of Numeral and Noun: Both orders of numeral and noun with neither order dominant. Of 1,154 languages coded, 479 put the numeral before the noun and 608 after it.
The order Qawasqar uses in 5 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Qawasqar with Korean or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Closest profiles

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

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Qawasqar for 49 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 45 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Qawasqar shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 14

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives only58 of 567
Consonant-Vowel RatioHigh69 of 564
Vowel Quality InventoriesSmall vowel inventory (2-4)93 of 564
Syllable StructureComplex syllable structure151 of 486
Voicing in Plosives and FricativesNo voicing contrast182 of 567
Consonant InventoriesAverage201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsOther242 of 567
ToneNo tones307 of 527
Lateral Consonants/l/, no obstruent laterals388 of 567
Vowel NasalizationContrastive nasal vowels absent180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsNone449 of 567
Uvular ConsonantsNo uvulars470 of 567
Absence of Common ConsonantsAll present503 of 567
Front Rounded VowelsNone525 of 562

Word structure 3

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number MarkingNo subject person/number marking57 of 198
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly suffixing406 of 969
Case SyncretismInflectional case marking is absent or minimal123 of 198

Nouns and pronouns 5

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSymmetrical case-marking79 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal InflectionNo person marking at all70 of 200
Person Marking on AdpositionsAdpositions without person marking209 of 378
Comitatives and InstrumentalsDifferentiation213 of 322
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsNo gender distinctions254 of 378

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 7

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Epistemic PossibilityOther91 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of EvidentialityNo grammatical evidentials181 of 418
Coding of EvidentialityNo grammatical evidentials181 of 418
Position of Tense-Aspect AffixesTense-aspect suffixes667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and AspectNo suppletion in tense or aspect123 of 193
Suppletion in Imperatives and HortativesNone (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)153 of 193
Verbal Number and SuppletionNo singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples159 of 193

Word order 6

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseMore than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant93 of 659
Position of Polar Question ParticlesNo question particle355 of 884
Order of Object and VerbObject precedes verb (OV)712 of 1,518
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePostpositions577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and NounGenitive-noun (GenN)685 of 1,249
Order of Subject and VerbSubject precedes verb (SV)1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 8

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Polar QuestionsInterrogative verb morphology164 of 955
Verbal Person MarkingNo person marking of any argument82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingNeutral alignment (no verbal person marking)84 of 380
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person MarkingNo person marking of the S96 of 380
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard NegationSymmetric standard negation only: Type Sym114 of 297
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationNon-assignable (no asymmetry found)114 of 297
Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P do not or do not both occur on the verb187 of 379
Passive ConstructionsThere is no passive construction211 of 373

Vocabulary 2

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Hand and ArmDifferent389 of 617
Finger and HandDifferent521 of 593