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Tuvaluan

Austronesian family · Oceanic branch · Papunesia

Tuvaluan puts its words in object-verb-subject order (OVS), one of only 11 with that basic order among the 1,376 languages WALS codes for this feature.

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

Within the Oceanic branch, 8 of 9 other languages coded for Reason Clauses have the value “Balanced”; Tuvaluan has “Balanced/deranked”.

Tuvaluan: order of head and dependent in 8 constructions← beforeafter →verbsubject80%13%Order of Subject and Verb: Subject follows verb (VS). Of 1,496 languages coded, 1,192 put the subject before the verb and 194 after it.verbobject47%46%Order of Object and Verb: Object precedes verb (OV). Of 1,518 languages coded, 712 put the object before the verb and 705 after it.adpositionnoun phrase49%43%Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase: Prepositions. Of 1,184 languages coded, 577 put the noun phrase before the adposition and 511 after it.noungenitive55%37%Order of Genitive and Noun: Noun-genitive (NGen). Of 1,249 languages coded, 685 put the genitive before the noun and 468 after it.nounadjective27%64%Order of Adjective and Noun: Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj). Of 1,367 languages coded, 373 put the adjective before the noun and 879 after it.noundemonstrative45%48%Order of Demonstrative and Noun: Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem). Of 1,225 languages coded, 551 put the demonstrative before the noun and 590 after it.nounnumeral42%53%Order of Numeral and Noun: Numeral precedes noun (NumN). Of 1,154 languages coded, 479 put the numeral before the noun and 608 after it.nounrelative clause17%70%Order of Relative Clause and Noun: Relative clause follows noun (NRel). Of 824 languages coded, 141 put the relative clause before the noun and 579 after it.
The order Tuvaluan uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Tuvaluan with Maori or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Inside the Austronesian family

Tuvaluan matches the most frequent Austronesian value on 28 of the 49 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (57%). Among the 38 Austronesian languages profiled here, that rate ranks 35th from the top.

Closest profiles

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

  • Maori Austronesian35 of 47
  • Rapanui Austronesian30 of 41
  • Fijian Austronesian27 of 42
  • Nkore-Kiga Niger-Congo24 of 40
  • Ndyuka Creoles and Pidgins24 of 42

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Tuvaluan for 49 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 41 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tuvaluan shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Nouns and pronouns 16

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Numeral ClassifiersNumeral classifiers are optional62 of 400
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural word170 of 1,066
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number stem with a pronominal plural affix47 of 261
Indefinite ArticlesIndefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'102 of 534
The Associative PluralSpecial non-bound associative plural marker47 of 236
Indefinite PronounsGeneric-noun-based indefinites85 of 326
Asymmetrical Case-MarkingNo morphological case-marking81 of 261
Definite ArticlesDefinite word distinct from demonstrative216 of 620
Position of Case AffixesNeither case affixes nor adpositional clitics379 of 1,031
Distance Contrasts in DemonstrativesThree-way contrast88 of 234
Number of CasesNo morphological case-marking100 of 261
Occurrence of Nominal PluralityPlural in all nouns, always obligatory133 of 291
Number of GendersNone145 of 257
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender SystemsNo gender system145 of 257
Systems of Gender AssignmentNo gender system145 of 257
Pronominal and Adnominal DemonstrativesSame forms143 of 201

Noun phrases 1

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionNominal and verbal conjunction are different125 of 301

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect AffixesNo tense-aspect inflection152 of 1,131
Epistemic PossibilityOther91 of 240
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal MarkingNo overlap105 of 207
Situational PossibilityVerbal constructions158 of 234

Word order 9

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Order of Subject and VerbSubject follows verb (VS)194 of 1,496
Order of Genitive and NounNoun-genitive (NGen)468 of 1,249
Position of Polar Question ParticlesNo question particle355 of 884
Order of Numeral and NounNumeral precedes noun (NumN)479 of 1,154
Order of Adposition and Noun PhrasePrepositions511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and NounDemonstrative word follows noun (NDem)562 of 1,225
Order of Object and VerbObject precedes verb (OV)712 of 1,518
Order of Adjective and NounModifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)879 of 1,367
Order of Relative Clause and NounRelative clause follows noun (NRel)579 of 824

Simple clauses 8

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
Periphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth sequential type and purposive type15 of 118
Polar QuestionsInterrogative intonation only173 of 955
Comparative ConstructionsLocational Comparative78 of 167
Applicative ConstructionsNo applicative construction100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsNo applicative construction100 of 183
Antipassive ConstructionsNo antipassive146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Constructionno antipassive146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsMorphological type but no compound type254 of 310

Complex sentences 3

FeatureValueLanguages sharing it
'When' ClausesBalanced/deranked39 of 174
Purpose ClausesDeranked102 of 170
Utterance Complement ClausesBalanced114 of 143