Yimas
Ramu-Lower Sepik family · Lower Sepik branch · Papunesia
On M-T Pronouns, WALS codes Yimas as “M-T pronouns, non-paradigmatic”, a value held by 3 of the 230 languages coded, the others being Greenlandic (West) and Waskia.
The closest grammar profile to Yimas in the atlas belongs to Nunggubuyu, a Gunwinyguan language: the two agree on 57 of the 93 features both have coded.
On Nominal and Verbal Conjunction, WALS codes Yimas as “Both expressed by juxtaposition”, a value held by 15 of the 301 languages coded, Hixkaryana and Tiwi among them.
Contrast Yimas with Nunggubuyu or with any other language
Uncommon values
Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Yimas, rarest first.
- Order of Person Markers on the VerbBoth orders of A and P occur19 of 379
- Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard NegationA/Fin and A/Cat21 of 297
- Alignment of Verbal Person MarkingSplit alignment28 of 380
- Asymmetrical Case-MarkingSubtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical case-marking20 of 261
- Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsBoth morphological type and compound type24 of 310
- Order of Adjective and NounNo dominant order110 of 1,367
- Absence of Common ConsonantsNo fricatives48 of 567
- Number of CasesExclusively borderline morphological case-marking24 of 261
Closest profiles
Languages that share the most coded values with Yimas; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.
The rest of the profile
WALS codes Yimas for 110 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 100 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Yimas shares with the fewest languages comes first.
Sounds 18
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Consonant Inventories | Small | 89 of 563 |
| Vowel Quality Inventories | Small vowel inventory (2-4) | 93 of 564 |
| Consonant-Vowel Ratio | Moderately high | 102 of 564 |
| Fixed Stress Locations | Initial: stress is on the first syllable | 92 of 502 |
| The Velar Nasal | Velar nasal, also initially | 147 of 469 |
| Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives | No voicing contrast | 182 of 567 |
| Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems | Other | 242 of 567 |
| Rhythm Types | Trochaic: left-hand syllable in the foot is strong | 153 of 323 |
| 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 |
| Syllable Structure | Moderately complex syllable structure | 274 of 486 |
| 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 8
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology | Approximately equal amounts of suffixing and prefixing | 147 of 969 |
| Locus of Marking in the Clause | P is head-marked | 71 of 236 |
| Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking | Subject person/number marking is syncretic | 60 of 198 |
| Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases | Possessor is dependent-marked | 98 of 236 |
| 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 |
| Reduplication | Productive full and partial reduplication | 278 of 368 |
| Zero Marking of A and P Arguments | Non-zero marking | 219 of 235 |
Nouns and pronouns 22
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Genders | Five or more | 24 of 257 |
| Person Marking on Adpositions | Person marking for pronouns only | 83 of 378 |
| Systems of Gender Assignment | Semantic and formal assignment | 59 of 257 |
| Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives | Related for all demonstratives | 52 of 225 |
| Distributive Numerals | No distributive numerals | 62 of 251 |
| Definite Articles | Neither definite nor indefinite article | 198 of 620 |
| Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems | Sex-based gender system | 84 of 257 |
| Ordinal Numerals | First, two-th, three-th | 110 of 321 |
| Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers | Formally different | 40 of 116 |
| Indefinite Articles | Neither indefinite nor definite | 198 of 534 |
| Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives | Three-way contrast | 88 of 234 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 79 of 200 |
| Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns | Person-number stem | 114 of 261 |
| Position of Case Affixes | Case suffixes | 452 of 1,031 |
| Occurrence of Nominal Plurality | Plural in all nouns, always obligatory | 133 of 291 |
| Coding of Nominal Plurality | Plural suffix | 513 of 1,066 |
| Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns | Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally identical | 94 of 168 |
| Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns | No inclusive/exclusive opposition | 120 of 200 |
| Numeral Classifiers | Numeral classifiers are absent | 260 of 400 |
| 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 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Action Nominal Constructions | Possessive-Accusative | 29 of 168 |
| Possessive Classification | No possessive classification | 125 of 243 |
| Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses | Highly differentiated | 77 of 138 |
| Adjectives without Nouns | Adjective may occur without noun, and without marking | 73 of 124 |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking | Overlap for both possibility and necessity | 36 of 207 |
| Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect | Suppletion according to tense | 36 of 193 |
| Situational Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 63 of 234 |
| The Prohibitive | Special imperative + special negative | 146 of 496 |
| Epistemic Possibility | Affixes on verbs | 84 of 240 |
| Imperative-Hortative Systems | The language has a maximal system, but not a minimal one | 133 of 375 |
| 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 |
| Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes | Tense-aspect suffixes | 667 of 1,131 |
| 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 6
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb | More than one order with none dominant | 167 of 500 |
| Order of Demonstrative and Noun | Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem) | 562 of 1,225 |
| 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 Genitive and Noun | Genitive-noun (GenN) | 685 of 1,249 |
| Order of Subject and Verb | Subject precedes verb (SV) | 1,192 of 1,496 |
Simple clauses 18
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Periphrastic Causative Constructions | Both sequential type and purposive type | 15 of 118 |
| Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation | Asymmetric standard negation only: Type Asy | 53 of 297 |
| Other Roles of Applied Objects | No other roles (= Only benefactive) | 36 of 183 |
| Predicative Possession | Conjunctional Possessive | 59 of 240 |
| Predicative Adjectives | Predicative adjectives have mixed encoding | 103 of 386 |
| Applicative Constructions | Benefactive and other; both bases | 49 of 183 |
| Negative Morphemes | Negative affix | 395 of 1,157 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases | Neutral | 98 of 190 |
| Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals | Zero copula is impossible | 211 of 386 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
Complex sentences 5
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| 'When' Clauses | Balanced/deranked | 39 of 174 |
| 'Want' Complement Subjects | The complement subject is left implicit | 144 of 283 |
| Reason Clauses | Balanced | 90 of 169 |
| Purpose Clauses | Deranked | 102 of 170 |
| Relativization on Subjects | Gap | 125 of 166 |
Vocabulary 4
| Feature | Value | Languages sharing it |
|---|---|---|
| Numeral Bases | Pure vigesimal | 20 of 196 |
| M in First Person Singular | m in first person singular | 53 of 230 |
| M in Second Person Singular | m in second person singular | 78 of 230 |
| N-M Pronouns | No N-M pronouns | 194 of 230 |