Sundanese
Austronesian family · Malayo-Sumbawan branch · Papunesia
Sundanese is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Coding of Nominal Plurality, WALS codes Sundanese as “Plural by complete reduplication of stem”, a value held by 8 of the 1,066 languages coded, Indonesian and Batak (Karo) among them.
The closest grammar profile to Sundanese in the atlas belongs to Khmer, an Austro-Asiatic language: the two agree on 34 of the 41 features both have coded.
Contrast Sundanese with Khmer or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Sundanese, rarest first.
- Negative MorphemesNegative word, unclear if verb or particle73 of 1,157
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsProminence: other factors are heavy for stress41 of 500
- The PerfectPerfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'21 of 222
Inside the Austronesian family
Sundanese matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 28 of the 44 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (64%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 25th from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Sundanese; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Sundanese for 44 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 39 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Sundanese shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Right-edge: Stress on ultimate or penultimate syllable | 65 of 500 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
Word structure 2
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Little or no inflectional morphology | 141 of 969 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
Nouns and pronouns 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Indefinite Articles | No indefinite article but definite article | 98 of 534 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always optional | 55 of 291 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | No tense-aspect inflection | 152 of 1,131 |
| The Past Tense | No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction | 88 of 222 |
| 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 |
Word order 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Both orders occur with neither order dominant | 62 of 481 |
| 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 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 11
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Mixed | 40 of 378 |
| 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 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding | 151 of 386 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| 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 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions | Morphological type but no compound type | 254 of 310 |
Complex sentences 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
Vocabulary 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Tea | Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te | 84 of 230 |