Word Order Facts
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Languages of South America

Macro-area, as the atlas divides the world

WALS places 258 languages in South America, from 78 families. The largest are Arawakan (28), Tupian (23) and Cariban (20).

Its most distinctive trait relative to the rest of the atlas: Lateral Consonants = no laterals, held by 37 of 77 languages coded here (48%) against 17% worldwide.

For basic word order, SOV leads with 67 of the 129 languages coded, ahead of SVO (24).

Every WALS language assigned to South America.

Word order against the world

Languages of South America 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
    South Americabefore: 43both or other: 10after: 969% · 15% of 62
    All WALSbefore: 1192both or other: 110after: 19480% · 13% of 1,496
  • Object and verb
    South Americabefore: 41both or other: 7after: 1664% · 25% of 64
    All WALSbefore: 712both or other: 101after: 70547% · 46% of 1,518
  • Noun phrase and adposition
    South Americabefore: 46both or other: 2after: 882% · 14% of 56
    All WALSbefore: 577both or other: 96after: 51149% · 43% of 1,184
  • Genitive and noun
    South Americabefore: 50both or other: 4after: 585% · 8% of 59
    All WALSbefore: 685both or other: 96after: 46855% · 37% of 1,249
  • Adjective and noun
    South Americabefore: 19both or other: 9after: 3132% · 53% of 59
    All WALSbefore: 373both or other: 115after: 87927% · 64% of 1,367
  • Demonstrative and noun
    South Americabefore: 40after: 785% · 15% of 47
    All WALSbefore: 551both or other: 84after: 59045% · 48% of 1,225
  • Numeral and noun
    South Americabefore: 37both or other: 5after: 480% · 9% of 46
    All WALSbefore: 479both or other: 67after: 60842% · 53% of 1,154
  • Relative clause and noun
    South Americabefore: 4both or other: 9after: 1614% · 55% of 29
    All WALSbefore: 141both or other: 104after: 57917% · 70% of 824
  • Degree word and adjective
    South Americabefore: 16both or other: 3after: 1252% · 39% of 31
    All WALSbefore: 227both or other: 62after: 19247% · 40% of 481

Traits far more frequent here

FeatureValueHereAll WALS
'Want' Complement Subjects'Want' is expressed as a desiderative verbal affix45% (14 of 31)16%
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content QuestionsInterrogative phrases obligatorily initial80% (70 of 87)29%
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and ClauseSuffixal adverbial subordinators26% (16 of 62)10%
ReduplicationNo productive reduplication39% (12 of 31)15%
Syllable StructureSimple syllable structure32% (20 of 63)13%
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /g/14% (11 of 77)6%
Position of Pronominal Possessive AffixesPossessive prefixes64% (72 of 112)28%
Definite ArticlesNeither definite nor indefinite article67% (31 of 46)32%
Order of Demonstrative and NounDemonstrative word precedes noun (DemN)88% (84 of 95)44%

Families and languages