Tagalog
Austronesian family · Greater Central Philippine branch · Papunesia
Tagalog 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 Indefinite Pronouns, WALS codes Tagalog as “Existential construction”, a value held by 2 of the 326 languages coded.
On The Optative, all 24 other Austronesian languages coded have the value “Inflectional optative absent”; Tagalog has “Inflectional optative present”.
On Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Tagalog as “Case + referentiality”, a value held by 6 of the 162 languages coded, Tukang Besi and Paiwan among them.
Contrast Tagalog with Malagasy or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Tagalog, rarest first.
- Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesOther types6 of 236
- Order of Demonstrative and NounTwo or more of above types with none dominant67 of 1,225
- Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in second position in sentence52 of 884
- Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument and locative12 of 183
- Politeness Distinctions in PronounsSecond person pronouns encode multiple politeness distinctions15 of 207
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight38 of 500
- Order of Adjective and NounNo dominant order110 of 1,367
- Relativization on ObliquesNot possible10 of 112
Inside the Austronesian family
Tagalog matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 77 of the 131 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (59%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 34th from the top.
| Feature | Tagalog | Most relatives |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Genders | Two | None (20 of 20) |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | No gender system (20 of 20) |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic assignment | No gender system (20 of 20) |
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Tagalog; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Tagalog for 131 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 116 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tagalog shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 18
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately small | 122 of 563 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | Penultimate | 110 of 502 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, also initially | 147 of 469 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Average | 234 of 564 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| 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 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| 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 | 2-3 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: 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 19
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Distributive Numerals | Marked by mixed or other strategies | 23 of 251 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural word | 170 of 1,066 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | No adpositions | 63 of 378 |
| 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 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking | 53 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 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No person marking at all | 70 of 200 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally similar, involving interrogative expression | 43 of 116 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Three-way contrast | 88 of 234 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | 100 of 225 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | 260 of 400 |
| 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 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Possessive-Accusative | 29 of 168 |
| Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed | 33 of 138 |
| 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 |
| Adjectives without Nouns | Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking | 73 of 124 |
| 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 | Tense-aspect prefixes | 153 of 1,131 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | Separate particle | 65 of 418 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Situational Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 63 of 234 |
| The Prohibitive | Normal imperative + special negative | 182 of 496 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Other | 91 of 240 |
| The Past Tense | No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction | 88 of 222 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Only indirect evidentials | 166 of 418 |
| Perfective/Imperfective Aspect | Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction | 101 of 222 |
| The Future Tense | Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction | 110 of 222 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| 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 |
Word order 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject follows verb (VS) | 194 of 1,496 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial | 264 of 902 |
| 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 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 Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
Simple clauses 23
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Mixed | 40 of 378 |
| Predicative Possession | Topic Possessive | 48 of 240 |
| 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 |
| Applicative Constructions | Benefactive and other; both bases | 49 of 183 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Symmetric standard negation only: Type Sym | 114 of 297 |
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | Non-assignable (no asymmetry found) | 114 of 297 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding | 151 of 386 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative particle | 502 of 1,157 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Neutral | 79 of 172 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 187 of 379 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Neutral | 98 of 190 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| Passive Constructions | There is no passive construction | 211 of 373 |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Distinct from reflexive | 99 of 175 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Purposive type but no sequential type | 68 of 118 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| 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 |
| Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation | Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation | 170 of 206 |
Complex sentences 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Reason Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 37 of 169 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 39 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 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |
Vocabulary 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| M in Second Person Singular | m in second person singular | 78 of 230 |
| Tea | Words derived from Sinitic cha | 110 of 230 |
| Hand and Arm | Different | 389 of 617 |
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |
| 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 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express neither affective nor logical meanings | 25 of 143 |