Squamish
Salishan family · Central Salish branch · North America
Squamish 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 Position of Case Affixes, WALS codes Squamish as “Prepositional clitics”, a value held by 17 of the 1,031 languages coded, French and Malagasy among them.
The closest grammar profile to Squamish in the atlas belongs to Nuuchahnulth, a Wakashan language: the two agree on 29 of the 40 features both have coded.
On Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation, WALS codes Squamish as “In finiteness and reality status: Subtypes A/Fin and A/NonReal”, a value held by 9 of the 297 languages coded, Shuswap and Korean among them.
Contrast Squamish with Nuuchahnulth or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Squamish, rarest first.
- Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives and glottalized resonants20 of 567
- Position of Pronominal Possessive AffixesPrefixes and suffixes32 of 902
- Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsPharyngeals21 of 567
- Negative MorphemesNegative auxiliary verb47 of 1,157
- Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in second position in sentence52 of 884
- Utterance Complement ClausesDeranked11 of 143
- Order of Relative Clause and NounMixed types of relative clause with none dominant64 of 824
- Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSyncretism in relevant NP-types21 of 261
Inside the Salishan family
Squamish matches the most frequent Salishan value on 26 of the 39 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (67%).
| Feature | Squamish | Most relatives |
|---|---|---|
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | Velar nasal, also initially (5 of 6, Central Salish branch) |
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Squamish; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Squamish for 97 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 85 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Squamish shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 16
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems | Prominence: other factors are heavy for stress | 41 of 500 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/ and lateral obstruents | 47 of 567 |
| Uvular Consonants | Uvular stops and continuants | 48 of 567 |
| Consonant Inventories | Large | 57 of 563 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | High | 69 of 564 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Small vowel inventory (2-4) | 93 of 564 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | Penultimate | 110 of 502 |
| Rhythm Types | Absent: no rhythmic stress | 98 of 323 |
| Syllable Structure | Complex syllable structure | 151 of 486 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | No voicing contrast | 182 of 567 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) | 281 of 500 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Vowel Nasalization | Contrastive nasal vowels absent | 180 of 244 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is head-marked | 78 of 236 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is never syncretic | 81 of 198 |
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
| 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 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
| 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 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Cases | 2 case categories | 23 of 261 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | No adpositions | 63 of 378 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, second, three-th | 61 of 321 |
| Indefinite Articles | Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one' | 102 of 534 |
| Definite Articles | Definite word distinct from demonstrative | 216 of 620 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 79 of 200 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | No action nominals | 42 of 168 |
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| 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 |
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Coding of Evidentiality | Separate particle | 65 of 418 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Both direct and indirect evidentials | 71 of 418 |
| Situational Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 63 of 234 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| 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 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | No suppletion in tense or aspect | 123 of 193 |
| 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 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject follows verb (VS) | 194 of 1,496 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| 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 precedes noun (DemN) | 542 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 |
Simple clauses 14
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | Zero in all 3rd person forms | 36 of 380 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | P precedes A | 57 of 379 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy | 53 of 297 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding | 151 of 386 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| Verbal Person Marking | Person marking of both the A and P arguments | 193 of 378 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Neutral | 98 of 190 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Expression of Pronominal Subjects | Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs | 437 of 711 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is expressed overtly | 72 of 283 |
| 'When' Clauses | Deranked | 51 of 174 |
Vocabulary 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Hand and Arm | Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm' | 228 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 |
| 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 |