Tiwi

Tiwian family · Australia

Tiwi is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

WALS lists no other language in the family it assigns to Tiwi.

On Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection, WALS codes Tiwi as “no TAM”, a value held by 4 of the 160 languages coded, Maybrat and Sango among them.

On Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions, WALS codes Tiwi as “Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not”, a value held by 23 of the 902 languages coded, Indonesian and Hausa among them.

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

Contrast Tiwi with Maung or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Applicative ConstructionsNon-benefactive object only; both bases9 of 183
Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionBoth expressed by juxtaposition15 of 301
Order of Person Markers on the VerbBoth orders of A and P occur19 of 379
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites preclude predicate negation11 of 206
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly prefixing58 of 969
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationIn reality status: Subtype A/NonReal20 of 297
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument17 of 183

Closest profiles

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

Maung Iwaidjan81 of 106
Arapesh (Mountain) Torricelli68 of 99
Campa (Axininca) Arawakan36 of 53
Abipón Guaicuruan39 of 60
Dyirbal Pama-Nyungan45 of 72

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Tiwi for 123 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 113 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tiwi shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Vowel Quality Inventories	Small vowel inventory (2-4)	93 of 564
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately high	102 of 564
Fixed Stress Locations	Penultimate	110 of 502
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
Rhythm Types	Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong	153 of 323
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
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
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor has no marking	32 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is syncretic	60 of 198
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	4-5 categories per word	52 of 145
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 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
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 25

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ordinal Numerals	Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist	33 of 321
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural only in human nouns, obligatory	40 of 291
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only	61 of 378
Number of Genders	Two	50 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic assignment	53 of 257
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	40 of 116
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical	94 of 168
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses	Highly differentiated	77 of 138
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
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect prefixes	153 of 1,131
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
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
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
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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
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 Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
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
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 19

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Secondary-object construction	65 of 378
Predicative Possession	Topic Possessive	48 of 240
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
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
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
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
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
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
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

Complex sentences 2

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169

Vocabulary 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Tea	Others	36 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 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