Turkish

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

On The Perfect, all 5 other Altaic languages coded have the value “Other perfect”; Turkish has “No perfect”.

Only 3 languages have more of the profile features coded than Turkish.

On Front Rounded Vowels, WALS codes Turkish as “High and mid”, a value held by 23 of the 562 languages coded, Chuvash and Tuvan among them.

The order Turkish uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Turkish with Azerbaijani or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Coding of EvidentialityPart of the tense system24 of 418
Definite ArticlesNo definite article but indefinite article45 of 620
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson stem with a nominal plural affix19 of 261
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsLexical: lexical stress, diacritic weight38 of 500
Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated to remote demonstratives18 of 225
Predicative PossessionGenitive Possessive22 of 240
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun PhrasesPossessor is double-marked22 of 236
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbOblique-object-verb (XOV)48 of 500

Inside the Altaic family

Turkish matches the most frequent Altaic value on 86 of the 114 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (75%). Among the 15 Altaic languages profiled here, that rate ranks tenth from the top.

Where Turkish breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Turkish	Most relatives
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	Interrogative-based indefinites (21 of 26)
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers	Formally different	Formally similar, not involving interrogative expression (4 of 4, Turkic branch)
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant	Initial subordinator word (4 of 5, Turkic branch)

Closest profiles

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

Azerbaijani Altaic35 of 40
Kirghiz Altaic35 of 40
Dagur Altaic38 of 47
Yakut Altaic39 of 50
Tuvan Altaic42 of 55

Outside the Altaic family, the best match is Brahui (Dravidian), with 68 of 98 features alike.

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Turkish for 140 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 126 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Turkish shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 17

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Weight-Sensitive Stress	Unbounded: Stress can be anywhere in the word	54 of 500
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
Rhythm Types	Absent: no rhythmic stress	98 of 323
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Average	201 of 563
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
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
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

Word structure 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	35 of 198
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is dependent-marked	63 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
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Exclusively concatenative	125 of 165
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 23

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different inflectional features	21 of 201
Distributive Numerals	Marked by suffix	32 of 251
Number of Cases	6-7 case categories	37 of 261
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are optional	62 of 400
Ordinal Numerals	First/one-th, two-th, three-th	54 of 321
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	79 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
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
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

Noun phrases 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Possessive-Accusative	29 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 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
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
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Both direct and indirect evidentials	71 of 418
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for both possibility and necessity	36 of 207
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	Suppletion according to tense	36 of 193
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 of 496
Situational Possibility	Affixes on verbs	63 of 234
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
The Past Tense	Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction	94 of 222
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	Inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	110 of 222
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
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 Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause precedes noun (RelN)	141 of 824
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 Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)	542 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word precedes adjective (DegAdj)	227 of 481
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Genitive and Noun	Genitive-noun (GenN)	685 of 1,249
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 25

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero realization of all third person singular S forms	45 of 380
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of only the A argument	73 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Nominative - accusative (standard)	46 of 190
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative affix	395 of 1,157
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Comparative Constructions	Locational Comparative	78 of 167
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
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Purposive type but no sequential type	68 of 118
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711
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
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced/deranked	18 of 143
Reason Clauses	Balanced/deranked	37 of 169
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Relativization on Obliques	Gap Strategy	55 of 112
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
M-T Pronouns	M-T pronouns, paradigmatic	27 of 230
M in First Person Singular	m in first person singular	53 of 230
Tea	Words derived from Sinitic cha	110 of 230
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express logical meanings ('yes' and/or 'no')	47 of 143