Tibetan (Standard Spoken)
Sino-Tibetan family · Bodic branch · Eurasia
Tibetan (Standard Spoken) is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
On Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection, all 8 other Sino-Tibetan languages coded have the value “monoexponential TAM”; Tibetan (Standard Spoken) has “TAM+agreement”.
Of the 15 Sino-Tibetan languages profiled here, Tibetan (Standard Spoken) follows the family’s usual values most closely.
On Front Rounded Vowels, WALS codes Tibetan (Standard Spoken) as “High and mid”, a value held by 23 of the 562 languages coded, Cantonese and French among them.
Contrast Tibetan (Standard Spoken) with Meithei or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Tibetan (Standard Spoken), rarest first.
- Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a nominal plural affix19 of 261
- Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsNo morphological type or compound type23 of 310
Inside the Sino-Tibetan family
Tibetan (Standard Spoken) matches the most frequent Sino-Tibetan value on 47 of the 61 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (77%).
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Tibetan (Standard Spoken); the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Tibetan (Standard Spoken) for 61 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 56 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tibetan (Standard Spoken) shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 15
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Large | 57 of 563 |
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Unbounded: Stress can be anywhere in the word | 54 of 500 |
| Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems | Long vowel: long vowels are heavy for stress | 65 of 500 |
| Tone | Simple tone system | 132 of 527 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Large vowel inventory (7-14) | 184 of 564 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | Voicing contrast in plosives alone | 189 of 567 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Average | 234 of 564 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | No fixed stress (mostly weight-sensitive stress) | 220 of 502 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | /p t k b d g/ | 255 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 of 567 |
| 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 |
Word structure 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology | Consistently dependent-marking | 46 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is dependent-marked | 63 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 |
| Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives | Exclusively concatenative | 125 of 165 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always optional | 55 of 291 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 49 of 207 |
| Distributive Numerals | Marked by reduplication | 85 of 251 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | 100 of 225 |
| 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 |
Noun phrases 3
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Word order 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | Final subordinator word | 96 of 659 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause precedes noun (RelN) | 141 of 824 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at end of sentence | 314 of 884 |
| Order of Degree Word and Adjective | Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg) | 192 of 481 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem) | 562 of 1,225 |
| Order of Object and Verb | Object precedes verb (OV) | 712 of 1,518 |
| Order of Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| 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 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation | In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat | 82 of 297 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy | 130 of 297 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Indirect-object construction | 189 of 378 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Purposive type but no sequential type | 68 of 118 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
Complex sentences 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
Vocabulary 7
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Hand and Arm | Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm' | 228 of 617 |
| Tea | Words derived from Sinitic cha | 110 of 230 |
| 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 |