Trumai

a family of its own in WALS · South America

WALS records no dominant basic order of subject, object and verb for Trumai, a group that holds 189 of the 1,376 languages it codes for this feature.

On Number of Possessive Nouns, WALS codes Trumai as “One”, a value held by 3 of the 243 languages coded, the others being Guaraní and Washo.

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

The closest grammar profile to Trumai in the atlas belongs to Diyari, a Pama-Nyungan language: the two agree on 27 of the 45 features both have coded.

The order Trumai uses in 7 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Trumai with Diyari or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsCompound type but no morphological type9 of 310
Position of Pronominal Possessive AffixesPrefixes and suffixes32 of 902
Number of Cases5 case categories12 of 261
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingErgative alignment19 of 380
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns'We' and 'I' identical10 of 200
Verbal Person MarkingPerson marking of only the P argument24 of 378
Order of Object and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant101 of 1,518
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a nominal plural affix19 of 261

Closest profiles

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

Korean family of its own50 of 93
Dyirbal Pama-Nyungan30 of 53
Mandarin Sino-Tibetan52 of 98
Meithei Sino-Tibetan48 of 90

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Trumai for 99 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 89 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Trumai shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Lateral Consonants	/l/ and lateral obstruents	47 of 567
Fixed Stress Locations	Ultimate: stress is on the ultimate (last) syllable	51 of 502
Glottalized Consonants	Ejectives only	58 of 567
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
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
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 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Isolating/concatenative	13 of 165
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	8-9 categories per word	24 of 145
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	35 of 198
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
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
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 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ordinal Numerals	Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist	33 of 321
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related by gender markers	24 of 225
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural only in human nouns, obligatory	40 of 291
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	Gender distinctions in 3rd person singular only	61 of 378
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
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
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Possessive Classification	Three to five classes	20 of 243
Action Nominal Constructions	No action nominals	42 of 168
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 12

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + normal negative	55 of 496
Coding of Evidentiality	Separate particle	65 of 418
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	No overlap	105 of 207
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
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 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adjective and Noun	No dominant order	110 of 1,367
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Suffixal adverbial subordinators	64 of 659
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Obligatory pronouns in subject position	82 of 711
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Ergative - absolutive	20 of 172
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Ergative - absolutive	32 of 190
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Utterance Complement Clauses	Deranked	11 of 143
Purpose Clauses	Balanced/deranked	30 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169

Vocabulary 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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