Wardaman

Yangmanic family · Australia

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

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

The closest grammar profile to Wardaman in the atlas belongs to Mangarrayi, a Mangarrayi-Maran language: the two agree on 61 of the 84 features both have coded.

On Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions, WALS codes Wardaman as “Compound type but no morphological type”, a value held by 9 of the 310 languages coded, Mandarin and Vietnamese among them.

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

Contrast Wardaman with Mangarrayi or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Order of Person Markers on the VerbA and P are fused20 of 379
Order of Object and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant101 of 1,518
Order of Subject and VerbBoth orders with neither order dominant110 of 1,496
Order of Genitive and NounBoth orders occur with neither order dominant96 of 1,249
Plurality in Independent Personal PronounsPerson-number stem with a nominal plural affix22 of 261
Absence of Common ConsonantsNo fricatives48 of 567
Number of Cases8-9 case categories23 of 261

Closest profiles

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

Gooniyandi Bunuban53 of 86
Malakmalak Northern Daly27 of 41
Dyirbal Pama-Nyungan34 of 54
Nunggubuyu Gunwinyguan49 of 81

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Wardaman for 90 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 81 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Wardaman shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
Fixed Stress Locations	Penultimate	110 of 502
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
The Velar Nasal	Velar nasal, also initially	147 of 469
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
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
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
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 7

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	147 of 969
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	35 of 198
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	Subject person/number marking is never syncretic	81 of 198
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	71 of 162
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

Nouns and pronouns 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Number of Genders	Three	26 of 257
Ordinal Numerals	Zero: Ordinal numerals do not exist	33 of 321
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Non-sex-based gender system	28 of 257
Definite Articles	Definite affix on noun	92 of 620
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
Person Marking on Adpositions	No adpositions	63 of 378
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always optional	55 of 291
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Additive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking	53 of 261
The Associative Plural	Special bound associative plural marker	48 of 236
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic assignment	53 of 257
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for all demonstratives	52 of 225
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Indefinite Pronouns	Interrogative-based indefinites	194 of 326
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + normal negative	55 of 496
Epistemic Possibility	Affixes on verbs	84 of 240
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Morphological Imperative	Second singular and second plural	292 of 548
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	More than one order with none dominant	167 of 500
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 Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial	615 of 902

Simple clauses 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Ergative - absolutive	20 of 172
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
Antipassive Constructions	Oblique patient	30 of 194
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Ergative - absolutive	32 of 190
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Secondary-object construction	65 of 378
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
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Accusative alignment	212 of 380
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

Complex sentences 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Hand and Arm	Different	389 of 617
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
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593