Yoruba

Niger-Congo family · Defoid branch · Africa

Yoruba is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives, WALS codes Yoruba as “Tonal/isolating”, a value held by 1 of the 165 languages coded.

The closest grammar profile to Yoruba in the atlas belongs to Ndyuka, a Creoles and Pidgins language: the two agree on 60 of the 88 features both have coded.

Of the 27 Niger-Congo languages profiled here, Yoruba departs most often from the family’s usual values.

The order Yoruba uses in 8 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Yoruba with Ndyuka or with any other language

Uncommon values

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

Relativization on SubjectsPronoun-retention5 of 166
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Negative MorphemesNegative word, unclear if verb or particle73 of 1,157
Nonperiphrastic Causative ConstructionsNo morphological type or compound type23 of 310
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsLabial-velars45 of 567
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsOptional pronouns in subject position61 of 711
The PerfectPerfect derived from word meaning 'finish' or 'already'21 of 222

Inside the Niger-Congo family

Yoruba matches the most frequent Niger-Congo value on 70 of the 125 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (56%).

Where Yoruba breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Yoruba	Most relatives
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal (12 of 12)
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	Monoexponential case	No case (7 of 7)
Ordinal Numerals	One-th, two-th, three-th	First, two-th, three-th (21 of 23)

Closest profiles

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

Sundanese Austronesian29 of 40
Khmer Austro-Asiatic60 of 89
Igbo Niger-Congo57 of 86
Thai Tai-Kadai72 of 113

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Yoruba for 125 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 113 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Yoruba shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Syllable Structure	Simple syllable structure	61 of 486
Tone	Complex tone system	88 of 527
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately low	101 of 564
Consonant Inventories	Moderately small	122 of 563
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels present	64 of 244
Vowel Quality Inventories	Large vowel inventory (7-14)	184 of 564
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in plosives alone	189 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Glottalized Consonants	No glottalized consonants	409 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 9

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
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
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is head-marked	78 of 236
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
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 26

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural word	170 of 1,066
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always optional	55 of 291
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction	49 of 207
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	No possessive affixes	260 of 902
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Definite Articles	Neither definite nor indefinite article	198 of 620
Distributive Numerals	Marked by reduplication	85 of 251
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Indefinite Articles	Neither indefinite nor definite	198 of 534
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem	114 of 261
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns are formally differentiated	74 of 168
The Associative Plural	Associative plural marker also used for additive plurals	104 of 236
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives	Two-way contrast	126 of 234
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
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Differentiation	213 of 322
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	Not both A and P in the same construction	24 of 168
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
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 14

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for both possibility and necessity	36 of 207
The Morphological Imperative	No second-person imperatives	122 of 548
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
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
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
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions	Interrogative phrases obligatorily initial	264 of 902
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Position of Polar Question Particles	No question particle	355 of 884
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Demonstrative and Noun	Demonstrative word follows noun (NDem)	562 of 1,225
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
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
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 22

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Both sequential type and purposive type	15 of 118
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Secondary-object construction	65 of 378
Polar Questions	Interrogative intonation only	173 of 955
Comparative Constructions	Exceed Comparative	33 of 167
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
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
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Nominative - accusative (standard)	61 of 172
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have verbal encoding	151 of 386
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Applicative Constructions	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Other Roles of Applied Objects	No applicative construction	100 of 183
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Passive Constructions	There is no passive construction	211 of 373
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
Purpose Clauses	Balanced	38 of 170
'When' Clauses	Balanced	84 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is left implicit	144 of 283
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Utterance Complement Clauses	Balanced	114 of 143

Vocabulary 6

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
Tea	Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te	84 of 230
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143