Rapanui

Austronesian family · Oceanic branch · Papunesia

Rapanui puts its words in verb-subject-object order (VSO), one of only 95 with that basic order among the 1,376 languages WALS codes for this feature.

On Reason Clauses, 17 of 19 other Austronesian languages coded have the value “Balanced”; Rapanui has “Deranked”.

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

Contrast Rapanui with Maori or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Negative MorphemesNegative word, unclear if verb or particle73 of 1,157
Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated to remote demonstratives18 of 225
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsOptional pronouns in subject position61 of 711
ReduplicationFull reduplication only35 of 368
Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesExclusively isolating16 of 165

Inside the Austronesian family

Rapanui matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 74 of the 119 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (62%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 29th from the top.

Closest profiles

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

Maori Austronesian83 of 111
Hawaiian Austronesian43 of 60
Tuvaluan Austronesian30 of 41
Khmer Austro-Asiatic58 of 85
Hmong Njua Hmong-Mien65 of 97

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Rapanui for 119 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 112 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Rapanui shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Rhythm Types	Undetermined: no clear foot type	37 of 323
Syllable Structure	Simple syllable structure	61 of 486
Consonant Inventories	Small	89 of 563
Lateral Consonants	No laterals	95 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
Fixed Stress Locations	Penultimate	110 of 502
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
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
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
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
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	8-9 categories per word	24 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is double-marked	58 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
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 23

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always optional	55 of 291
The Associative Plural	Special non-bound associative plural marker	47 of 236
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
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
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
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
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
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
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed	33 of 138
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 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 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 of 222
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
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 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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
Reciprocal Constructions	Identical to reflexive	44 of 175
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
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
'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

Vocabulary 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
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
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593