Yaqui
Uto-Aztecan family · Cahita branch · North America
Yaqui is an SOV language, like 564 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.
The closest grammar profile to Yaqui in the atlas belongs to Nara (in Ethiopia), an Eastern Sudanic language: the two agree on 31 of the 43 features both have coded.
On Verbal Person Marking, all 7 other Uto-Aztecan languages coded have the value “Person marking of both the A and P arguments”; Yaqui has “No person marking of any argument”.
On Expression of Pronominal Subjects, WALS codes Yaqui as “More than one of the above types with none dominant”, a value held by 32 of the 711 languages coded, Tepehuan (Northern) and Finnish among them.
Contrast Yaqui with Nara (in Ethiopia) or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Yaqui, rarest first.
- Exponence of Selected Inflectional FormativesCase + number8 of 162
- Verbal Number and SuppletionSingular-plural pairs, no suppletion12 of 193
- Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate NegationNegative indefinites show mixed behaviour13 of 206
- Locus of Marking: Whole-language TypologyConsistently double-marking16 of 236
- Definite ArticlesNo definite article but indefinite article45 of 620
- Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress SystemsCombined: two of the above factors determine weight42 of 500
- Applicative ConstructionsBenefactive object only; both bases16 of 183
- Number of Cases2 case categories23 of 261
Inside the Uto-Aztecan family
Yaqui matches the most frequent Uto-Aztecan value on 67 of the 100 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (67%). Among the 11 Uto-Aztecan languages profiled here, that rate ranks second from the top.
| Feature | Yaqui | Most relatives |
|---|---|---|
| Alignment of Verbal Person Marking | Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking) | Accusative alignment (6 of 7) |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Unrelated | Related for all demonstratives (4 of 5) |
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Yaqui; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Yaqui for 126 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 113 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Yaqui shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 18
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed Stress Locations | Initial: stress is on the first syllable | 92 of 502 |
| Consonant Inventories | Moderately small | 122 of 563 |
| Tone | Simple tone system | 132 of 527 |
| 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 | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
| The Velar Nasal | No velar nasal | 235 of 469 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Average vowel inventory (5-6) | 287 of 564 |
| Weight-Sensitive Stress | Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity) | 281 of 500 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| 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 |
| Absence of Common Consonants | All present | 503 of 567 |
| Front Rounded Vowels | None | 525 of 562 |
Word structure 10
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Case Syncretism | Inflectional case marking is syncretic for core cases only | 18 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is double-marked | 22 of 236 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is double-marked | 58 of 236 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | No subject person/number marking | 57 of 198 |
| Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb | 4-5 categories per word | 52 of 145 |
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Predominantly suffixing | 406 of 969 |
| 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 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 20
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinal Numerals | One-th, two-th, three-th | 41 of 321 |
| Indefinite Articles | Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one' | 102 of 534 |
| The Associative Plural | Special bound associative plural marker | 48 of 236 |
| Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes | No possessive affixes | 260 of 902 |
| Asymmetrical Case-Marking | Symmetrical case-marking | 79 of 261 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No person marking at all | 70 of 200 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated | 74 of 168 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Adpositions without person marking | 209 of 378 |
| Number of Genders | None | 145 of 257 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | No gender system | 145 of 257 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | No gender system | 145 of 257 |
| Indefinite Pronouns | Interrogative-based indefinites | 194 of 326 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 136 of 207 |
| Comitatives and Instrumentals | Differentiation | 213 of 322 |
| Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns | No gender distinctions | 254 of 378 |
Noun phrases 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | No action nominals | 42 of 168 |
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| Nominal and Verbal Conjunction | Nominal and verbal conjunction are largely identical | 161 of 301 |
| Noun Phrase Conjunction | AND-languages: 'and' and 'with' are not identical | 131 of 234 |
| Obligatory Possessive Inflection | No obligatorily possessed nouns | 201 of 244 |
| Number of Possessive Nouns | None reported | 233 of 243 |
Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 16
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Coding of Evidentiality | Verbal affix or clitic | 131 of 418 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 84 of 240 |
| Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality | Only indirect evidentials | 166 of 418 |
| The Past Tense | Past/non-past distinction marked; no remoteness distinction | 94 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 |
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | No overlap | 105 of 207 |
| The Perfect | No perfect | 114 of 222 |
| The Morphological Imperative | Second singular and second plural | 292 of 548 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has neither a maximal nor a minimal system | 201 of 375 |
| 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 |
| Situational Possibility | Verbal constructions | 158 of 234 |
| Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives | None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material) | 153 of 193 |
| The Optative | Inflectional optative absent | 271 of 319 |
Word order 12
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause | More than one type of adverbial subordinators with none dominant | 93 of 659 |
| Position of Polar Question Particles | Question particle at beginning of sentence | 129 of 884 |
| Order of Adjective and Noun | Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN) | 373 of 1,367 |
| 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 precedes verb (OV) | 712 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 |
| Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions | Interrogative phrases not obligatorily initial | 615 of 902 |
| Order of Relative Clause and Noun | Relative clause follows noun (NRel) | 579 of 824 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 20
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' | Secondary-object construction | 65 of 378 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No other roles (= Only benefactive) | 36 of 183 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Nominative - accusative (standard) | 46 of 190 |
| Reciprocal Constructions | Identical to reflexive | 44 of 175 |
| Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking | No person marking of the S | 96 of 380 |
| Predicative Possession | Have-Possessive | 63 of 240 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns | Nominative - accusative (standard) | 61 of 172 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is possible | 175 of 386 |
| Order of Person Markers on the Verb | A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb | 187 of 379 |
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Purposive type but no sequential type | 68 of 118 |
| Polar Questions | Question particle | 585 of 955 |
| Nominal and Locational Predication | Different | 269 of 386 |
| 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 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | 'Want' is expressed as a desiderative verbal affix | 45 of 283 |
| Purpose Clauses | Balanced | 38 of 170 |
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced | 84 of 174 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
| Utterance Complement Clauses | Balanced | 114 of 143 |
Vocabulary 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| N-M Pronouns | N-M pronouns, paradigmatic | 25 of 230 |
| Numeral Bases | Hybrid vigesimal-decimal | 22 of 196 |
| M in Second Person Singular | m in second person singular | 78 of 230 |
| M in First Person Singular | No m in first person singular | 177 of 230 |
| M-T Pronouns | No M-T pronouns | 200 of 230 |