Sanuma

Sanuma is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Coding of Evidentiality, WALS codes Sanuma as “Mixed systems”, a value held by 10 of the 418 languages coded, Georgian and Khalkha among them.

The closest grammar profile to Sanuma in the atlas belongs to Warao, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 61 of the 97 features both have coded.

On Negative Morphemes, WALS codes Sanuma as “Negative auxiliary verb”, a value held by 47 of the 1,157 languages coded, Finnish and Thai among them.

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

Contrast Sanuma with Warao or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionBoth expressed by juxtaposition15 of 301
Order of Relative Clause and NounMixed types of relative clause with none dominant64 of 824
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a pronominal plural affix23 of 261
Number of Cases2 case categories23 of 261
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbOblique-object-verb (XOV)48 of 500

Closest profiles

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

Araona Pano-Tacanan47 of 74
Zuni family of its own40 of 64
Arrernte (Mparntwe) Pama-Nyungan31 of 50
Uradhi Pama-Nyungan26 of 41

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Sanuma for 108 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 100 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Sanuma shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Low	58 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Small	89 of 563
Lateral Consonants	No laterals	95 of 567
Fixed Stress Locations	Penultimate	110 of 502
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Rhythm Types	Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong	153 of 323
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
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
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 of 236
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
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
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are optional	62 of 400
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking	53 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
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 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	No action nominals	42 of 168
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 16

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Both direct and indirect evidentials	71 of 418
The Past Tense	Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions	38 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + special negative	182 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Other	91 of 240
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system	201 of 375
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 Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Final subordinator word	96 of 659
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
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
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
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 20

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Ergative - absolutive	20 of 172
Antipassive Constructions	Oblique patient	30 of 194
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Ergative - absolutive	32 of 190
Polar Questions	Interrogative intonation only	173 of 955
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
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
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
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
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
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Subjects	Non-reduction	24 of 166
Reason Clauses	Deranked	42 of 169
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170

Vocabulary 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230