Tukang Besi
Austronesian family · Celebic branch · Papunesia
Tukang Besi puts its words in verb-object-subject order (VOS), one of only 25 with that basic order among the 1,376 languages WALS codes for this feature.
On Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions, WALS codes Tukang Besi as “Mixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not”, a value held by 23 of the 902 languages coded, Indonesian and Chamorro among them.
On Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Tukang Besi as “Case + referentiality”, a value held by 6 of the 162 languages coded, Tagalog and Paiwan among them.
Contrast Tukang Besi with Lenakel or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Tukang Besi, rarest first.
- Ordinal NumeralsFirst, two, three12 of 321
- Action Nominal ConstructionsDouble-Possessive: All major arguments treated as possessors7 of 168
- 'Want' Complement SubjectsBoth construction types exist14 of 283
- Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument and locative12 of 183
- Politeness Distinctions in PronounsSecond person pronouns encode multiple politeness distinctions15 of 207
- Order of Relative Clause and NounMixed types of relative clause with none dominant64 of 824
- The Morphological ImperativeSecond singular43 of 548
- Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesIsolating/concatenative13 of 165
Inside the Austronesian family
Tukang Besi matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 77 of the 127 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (61%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 33rd from the top.
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Tukang Besi; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Tukang Besi for 127 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 116 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tukang Besi shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 19
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Glottalized Consonants | Implosives only | 55 of 567 |
| Syllable Structure | Simple syllable structure | 61 of 486 |
| 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 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Average | 234 of 564 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 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 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 |
| Tone | No tones | 307 of 527 |
| Lateral Consonants | /l/, no obstruent laterals | 388 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 | Moderate preference for prefixing | 94 of 969 |
| Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection | TAM+agreement | 19 of 160 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P has no marking | 42 of 236 |
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 6-7 categories per word | 31 of 145 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is never syncretic | 81 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is dependent-marked | 98 of 236 |
| 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 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 23
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | No plural | 98 of 1,066 |
| Definite Articles | Demonstrative word used as marker of definiteness | 69 of 620 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are optional | 62 of 400 |
| Indefinite Articles | No indefinite article but definite article | 98 of 534 |
| The Associative Plural | Special non-bound associative plural marker | 47 of 236 |
| Distributive Numerals | No distributive numerals | 62 of 251 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | No morphological case-marking | 81 of 261 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally different | 40 of 116 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics | 379 of 1,031 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Three-way contrast | 88 of 234 |
| Number of Cases | No morphological case-marking | 100 of 261 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 79 of 200 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | 100 of 225 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
| Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives | Same forms | 143 of 201 |
Noun phrases 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Possessive Classification | Two classes | 94 of 243 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
| Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Highly differentiated | 77 of 138 |
| 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 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion according to tense | 36 of 193 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Verbal constructions | 65 of 240 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| The Past Tense | No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction | 88 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 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | No overlap | 105 of 207 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| 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 |
| 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 Subject and Verb | Subject follows verb (VS) | 194 of 1,496 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at end of sentence | 314 of 884 |
| Order of Genitive and Noun | Noun-genitive (NGen) | 468 of 1,249 |
| 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 Numeral and Noun | Numeral follows noun (NNum) | 608 of 1,154 |
| 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 |
Simple clauses 21
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Ergative - absolutive | 20 of 172 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Both sequential type and purposive type | 15 of 118 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Ergative - absolutive | 32 of 190 |
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Double-object construction | 84 of 378 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A precedes P | 96 of 379 |
| 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 |
| Passive Constructions | There is a passive construction | 162 of 373 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| 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 Verbal Person Marking | Accusative alignment | 212 of 380 |
| 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 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 30 of 170 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 39 of 174 |
| Relativization on Obliques | Gap Strategy | 55 of 112 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |
Vocabulary 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Numeral Bases | Decimal | 125 of 196 |
| 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 |
Other 1
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks | Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings | 71 of 143 |