Word Order Facts
Menu

Languages of Africa

Macro-area, as the atlas divides the world

WALS places 606 languages in Africa, from 29 families. The largest are Niger-Congo (324), Afro-Asiatic (118) and Eastern Sudanic (47).

Its most distinctive trait relative to the rest of the atlas: Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes = tense-aspect tone, held by 12 of 241 languages coded here (5%) against 1% worldwide.

For basic word order, SVO leads with 244 of the 363 languages coded, ahead of SOV (62).

Every WALS language assigned to Africa.

Word order against the world

Languages of Africa with at least 30 coded features, compared with every language coded for each pairing.

dependent before the headboth or otherafter the head

  • Subject and verb
    Africabefore: 92both or other: 2after: 1188% · 10% of 105
    All WALSbefore: 1192both or other: 110after: 19480% · 13% of 1,496
  • Object and verb
    Africabefore: 24both or other: 7after: 7323% · 70% of 104
    All WALSbefore: 712both or other: 101after: 70547% · 46% of 1,518
  • Noun phrase and adposition
    Africabefore: 26both or other: 12after: 5827% · 60% of 96
    All WALSbefore: 577both or other: 96after: 51149% · 43% of 1,184
  • Genitive and noun
    Africabefore: 30both or other: 7after: 6729% · 64% of 104
    All WALSbefore: 685both or other: 96after: 46855% · 37% of 1,249
  • Adjective and noun
    Africabefore: 12both or other: 4after: 8911% · 85% of 105
    All WALSbefore: 373both or other: 115after: 87927% · 64% of 1,367
  • Demonstrative and noun
    Africabefore: 13both or other: 9after: 7913% · 78% of 101
    All WALSbefore: 551both or other: 84after: 59045% · 48% of 1,225
  • Numeral and noun
    Africabefore: 12both or other: 1after: 8612% · 87% of 99
    All WALSbefore: 479both or other: 67after: 60842% · 53% of 1,154
  • Relative clause and noun
    Africabefore: 4both or other: 3after: 874% · 93% of 94
    All WALSbefore: 141both or other: 104after: 57917% · 70% of 824
  • Degree word and adjective
    Africabefore: 9both or other: 5after: 1927% · 58% of 33
    All WALSbefore: 227both or other: 62after: 19247% · 40% of 481

Traits far more frequent here

FeatureValueHereAll WALS
Presence of Uncommon ConsonantsLabial-velars33% (43 of 130)8%
Indefinite PronounsGeneric-noun-based indefinites93% (41 of 44)26%
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/21% (27 of 130)6%
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender SystemsNon-sex-based gender system39% (19 of 49)11%
Number of GendersFive or more33% (16 of 49)9%
Glottalized ConsonantsEjectives and implosives8% (11 of 130)2%
Third Person Pronouns and DemonstrativesRelated by gender markers36% (13 of 36)11%
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsGender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person15% (11 of 72)5%
Imperative-Hortative SystemsThe language has both a maximal and a minimal system17% (18 of 103)6%

Families and languages