Tzutujil

Mayan family · North America

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

Of the 4 Mayan languages profiled here, Tzutujil departs most often from the family’s usual values.

On Indefinite Articles, 4 of 5 other Mayan languages coded have the value “Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article”; Tzutujil has “Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'”.

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

Contrast Tzutujil with Jakaltek or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingErgative alignment19 of 380
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites preclude predicate negation11 of 206
Order of Demonstrative and NounTwo or more of above types with none dominant67 of 1,225
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional MorphologyPredominantly prefixing58 of 969
Person Marking on AdpositionsPerson marking for pronouns and nouns23 of 378
Order of Subject and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant110 of 1,496
Order of Adjective and NounNo dominant order110 of 1,367
Possessive ClassificationThree to five classes20 of 243

Inside the Mayan family

Tzutujil matches the most frequent Mayan value on 23 of the 36 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (64%).

Closest profiles

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

Jakaltek Mayan37 of 53
Nahuatl (Tetelcingo) Uto-Aztecan29 of 47
Otomí (Mezquital) Oto-Manguean29 of 48
Chamorro Austronesian31 of 52
Greek (Modern) Indo-European32 of 58

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Tzutujil for 60 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 50 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Tzutujil shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Nouns and pronouns 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 3

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	Obligatorily possessed nouns exist	43 of 244
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical	161 of 301

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary	146 of 1,131
Coding of Evidentiality	Separate particle	65 of 418
Imperative-Hortative Systems	The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one	133 of 375
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	Only indirect evidentials	166 of 418
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Both orders occur with neither order dominant	62 of 481
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at beginning of sentence	129 of 884
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral precedes noun (NumN)	479 of 1,154
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	Zero realization of all third person singular S forms	45 of 380
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	productive	24 of 186
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	P precedes A	57 of 379
Antipassive Constructions	Oblique patient	30 of 194
Predicative Possession	Topic Possessive	48 of 240
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Indirect-object construction	189 of 378
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386

Complex sentences 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

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