Yagua

Peba-Yaguan family · South America

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

On Locus of Marking in the Clause, WALS codes Yagua as “Other types”, a value held by 2 of the 236 languages coded, the other being Malakmalak.

On The Past Tense, WALS codes Yagua as “Present, 4 or more remoteness distinctions”, a value held by 2 of the 222 languages coded.

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

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

Contrast Yagua with Campa (Axininca) or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Expression of Pronominal SubjectsPronominal subjects are expressed by clitics with variable host32 of 711
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb10-11 categories per word7 of 145
Applicative ConstructionsNon-benefactive object only; both bases9 of 183
Nominal and Verbal ConjunctionBoth expressed by juxtaposition15 of 301
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative ClausesGenitives and adjectives collapsed8 of 138
Position of Polar Question ParticlesQuestion particle in second position in sentence52 of 884
Person Marking on AdpositionsPerson marking for pronouns and nouns23 of 378
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsInstrument and locative12 of 183

Closest profiles

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

Campa (Axininca) Arawakan34 of 50
Apurinã Arawakan62 of 102
Daga Trans-New Guinea52 of 87
Nasioi South Bougainville27 of 43
Oneida Iroquoian55 of 95

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Yagua for 113 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 102 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Yagua shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Absence of Common Consonants	No fricatives	48 of 567
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Low	58 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Small	89 of 563
Lateral Consonants	No laterals	95 of 567
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	No voicing contrast	182 of 567
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems	Other	242 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 of 567
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reduplication	No productive reduplication	55 of 368
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Predominantly suffixing	406 of 969
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal	123 of 198
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 18

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Indefinite Pronouns	Special indefinites	22 of 326
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Related for non-human reference	17 of 225
Number of Cases	Exclusively borderline morphological case-marking	24 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	30 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are obligatory	78 of 400
The Associative Plural	Special bound associative plural marker	48 of 236
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive prefixes	255 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	Symmetrical case-marking	79 of 261
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	Inclusive and exclusive differentiated	63 of 200
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Position of Case Affixes	Case suffixes	452 of 1,031
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns	No gender distinctions	254 of 378
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Adjectives without Nouns	Adjective may occur without noun, obligatorily marked by suffix	13 of 124
Action Nominal Constructions	Sentential	25 of 168
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
The Prohibitive	Normal imperative + normal negative	113 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
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	Grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	101 of 222
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	Tense-aspect suffixes	667 of 1,131
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
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 Subject and Verb	Subject follows verb (VS)	194 of 1,496
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant	93 of 659
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
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 follows verb (VO)	705 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
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective follows noun (NAdj)	879 of 1,367
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824

Simple clauses 20

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Active alignment	26 of 380
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Secondary-object construction	65 of 378
Comparative Constructions	Conjoined Comparative	34 of 167
Reciprocal Constructions	Identical to reflexive	44 of 175
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A precedes P	96 of 379
Nominal and Locational Predication	Identical	117 of 386
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
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
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is possible	175 of 386
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No zero realization of third person S forms	181 of 380
Verbal Person Marking	Person marking of both the A and P arguments	193 of 378
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
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

Complex sentences 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Reason Clauses	Deranked	42 of 169
'When' Clauses	Deranked	51 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 5

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
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