Tunica

a family of its own in WALS · North America

Tunica is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

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

The closest grammar profile to Tunica in the atlas belongs to Alamblak, a Sepik language: the two agree on 47 of the 73 features both have coded.

On Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns, WALS codes Tunica as “Gender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person”, a value held by 18 of the 378 languages coded, Spanish and Abkhaz among them.

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

Contrast Tunica with Alamblak or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

N-M PronounsN-M pronouns, non-paradigmatic11 of 230
Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingActive alignment26 of 380
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
Number of CasesExclusively borderline morphological case-marking24 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number affixes25 of 261
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseSuffixal adverbial subordinators64 of 659

Closest profiles

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

Daga Trans-New Guinea41 of 63
Abkhaz Northwest Caucasian49 of 78
Wappo Wappo-Yukian30 of 46
Tonkawa family of its own36 of 57

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Tunica for 81 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 73 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tunica shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
Fixed Stress Locations	Initial: stress is on the first syllable	92 of 502
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
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
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 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Consistently head-marking	47 of 236
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is head-marked	71 of 236
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Genders	Two	50 of 257
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic assignment	53 of 257
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Person Marking on Adpositions	Adpositions without person marking	209 of 378
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400

Noun phrases 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Possessive Classification	Two classes	94 of 243
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Coding of Evidentiality	Verbal affix or clitic	131 of 418
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
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 Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
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 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	P precedes A	57 of 379
Polar Questions	Interrogative verb morphology	164 of 955
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
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
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711

Vocabulary 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Finger and Hand	Identical	72 of 593
Tea	Others	36 of 230
M in Second Person Singular	m in second person singular	78 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230