Yagaria

Trans-New Guinea family · Siane-Yagaria branch · Papunesia

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

The closest grammar profile to Yagaria in the atlas belongs to Basque, a language WALS places in a family of its own: the two agree on 29 of the 47 features both have coded.

Of the 16 Trans-New Guinea languages profiled here, Yagaria departs most often from the family’s usual values.

On Glottalized Consonants, all 22 other Trans-New Guinea languages coded have the value “No glottalized consonants”; Yagaria has “Implosives only”.

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

Contrast Yagaria with Basque or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Position of Pronominal Possessive AffixesPrefixes and suffixes32 of 902
Lateral ConsonantsLaterals, but no /l/, no obstruent lateral29 of 567
Definite ArticlesNo definite article but indefinite article45 of 620
Coding of Nominal PluralityPlural clitic81 of 1,066
Order of Object, Oblique, and VerbOblique-object-verb (XOV)48 of 500

Inside the Trans-New Guinea family

Yagaria matches the most frequent Trans-New Guinea value on 23 of the 47 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (49%).

Where Yagaria breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Yagaria	Most relatives
Finger and Hand	Identical	Different (8 of 8)
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions (6 of 7)

Closest profiles

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

Kannada Dravidian27 of 45
Kewa Trans-New Guinea25 of 43
Lavukaleve Solomons East Papuan24 of 42
Meithei Sino-Tibetan24 of 42

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Yagaria for 47 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 38 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Yagaria shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Small	89 of 563
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Syllable Structure	Complex syllable structure	151 of 486
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Average	234 of 564
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	/p t k b d g/	255 of 567
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
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 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing	147 of 969

Nouns and pronouns 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Case Affixes	Postpositional clitics	123 of 1,031
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Different stems	37 of 201
Indefinite Articles	Numeral for 'one' is used as indefinite article	112 of 534
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Three-way contrast	88 of 234

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 4

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Combination of tense-aspect strategies with none primary	146 of 1,131
The Perfect	Other perfect	80 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

Word order 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant	93 of 659
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 Object and Verb	Object precedes verb (OV)	712 of 1,518
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Postpositions	577 of 1,184
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
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 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
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
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	Pronominal subjects are expressed by affixes on verbs	437 of 711

Complex sentences 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Hand and Arm	Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'	228 of 617