Features for Waku

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Phonology

Consonant Inventories WALS Moderately small
pʲ pˠ t k
bʲ bˠ ʝ ɣ
mʲ mˠ n ŋ
l
r
Vowel Quality Inventories WALS Average (5-6)
Front vowels:
/i e a/

Back vowels:
/o u/

Front vowels are centralised following velar or velarised consonants.
Consonant-Vowel Ratio WALS Average
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives WALS In both plosives and fricatives
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems WALS Other
Uvular Consonants WALS None
Glottalized Consonants WALS No glottalized consonants
Lateral Consonants WALS /l/, no obstruent laterals
The Velar Nasal WALS Initial velar nasal
Vowel Nasalization WALS Contrast absent
Front Rounded Vowels WALS None
Syllable Structure WALS Simple
Tone WALS No tones
Fixed Stress Locations WALS No fixed stress
Weight-Sensitive Stress WALS Not predictable
A few lexical items have irregular stress. Otherwise, it's on the syllable containing the second-to-last mora.
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems WALS Lexical stress
Rhythm Types WALS No rhythmic stress
Absence of Common Consonants WALS All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants WALS None
The voiced velar fricative may be realised as a pharyngeal for some speakers.

Morphology

Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives WALS Exclusively isolating
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives WALS No case
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb WALS 0-1 category per word
Verbs are inflected for voice and number.
Locus of Marking in the Clause WALS Dependent marking
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases WALS Dependent marking
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology WALS Dependent-marking
Semantic/syntactic roles are marked by prepositions/particles.

a - ergative (occasionally instrumental
o - genitive
i - locative
mo - allative
kai - ablative
me - instrumental/comitative
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology WALS Little affixation
There are a couple of common prefixes: the antipassive kei-, and the plural le-.
Reduplication WALS Productive full and partial reduplication
Case Syncretism WALS No case marking
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking WALS No subject person/number marking

Nominal Categories

Number of Genders WALS None
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems WALS No gender
Systems of Gender Assignment WALS No gender
Coding of Nominal Plurality WALS No plural
There is a singulative article ta. Otherwise, plural number are marked on verbs and adjectives (but not on the noun itself).
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality WALS No nominal plural
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns WALS Person stem + pronominal plural affix
The Associative Plural WALS No associative plural
Definite Articles WALS No definite or indefinite article
The article ta indicates the singularity of the noun, but is unspecified for definiteness.
Indefinite Articles WALS No definite or indefinite article
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns WALS No inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection WALS No person marking
Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives WALS Two-way contrast
A two-way contrast is formed by the modifiers ngii 'here' and ngaa 'there'.
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives WALS Unrelated
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns WALS No gender distinctions
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns WALS No politeness distinction
Indefinite Pronouns WALS Existential construction
Intensifiers and Reflexive Pronouns WALS Identical
Person Marking on Adpositions WALS No person marking
Number of Cases WALS No morphological case-marking
Asymmetrical Case-Marking WALS No case-marking
Position of Case Affixes WALS No case affixes or adpositional clitics
Comitatives and Instrumentals WALS Differentiation
Ordinal Numerals WALS One, two, three
Ordinal numerals are regular numerals, placed after the noun:

oa gara - 'two cats'
gara oa - 'the second cat'
Distributive Numerals WALS Marked by mixed or other strategies
Numeral Classifiers WALS Absent
Conjunctions and Universal Quantifiers WALS Formally different
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes WALS No possessive affixes

Nominal Syntax

Obligatory Possessive Inflection WALS Absent
Possessive Classification WALS No possessive classification
Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses WALS Genitives and relative clauses collapsed
Adjectives without Nouns WALS Not without noun
Typically, a dummy noun would be used, such as taka ('person', 'man') or kati ('thing', 'object').
Action Nominal Constructions WALS Ergative-Possessive
Noun Phrase Conjunction WALS 'And' different from 'with'
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction WALS Differentiation
Nominal conjunction formed by e - 'and'. Verbal conjunction is formed by juxtaposition.

Verbal Categories

Perfective/Imperfective Aspect WALS Grammatical marking
Perfective and imperfective are distinguished in the past tense. Imperfective is marked by the particle 'me', and perfective by 'ko'.
The Past Tense WALS Present, no remoteness distinctions
The Future Tense WALS No inflectional future
Future tense is optionally marked with the particle ma.
The Perfect WALS No perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes WALS No tense-aspect inflection
The Morphological Imperative WALS No second-person imperatives
The Prohibitive WALS Special imperative + normal negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems WALS Both types of system
It is possible to form imperative/hortative forms for all persons, by using the verb without any tense/aspect/mood marking.

laka mai - 'let me go'
laka ngo - 'go'
laka kia - 'let him go'
lakalaka mana - 'let's go'
lakalaka ngora - 'go'
lakalaka era - 'let them go'

There is also a special second person imperative form:

a laka - 'go'
The Optative WALS Inflectional optative absent
A periphrastic optative may be formed with the particle ea preceding the verb.
Situational Possibility WALS Verbal constructions
Kala ('can', 'may') for possibility, and kalla ('must') for necessity.
Epistemic Possibility WALS Other
Epistemic possibility is marked by adverbs.
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking WALS No overlap
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality WALS No grammatical evidentials
Coding of Evidentiality WALS No grammatical evidentials
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect WALS None
Verbal Number and Suppletion WALS None

Word Order

Order of Subject, Object and Verb WALS VSO
Order of Subject and Verb WALS VS
Order of Object and Verb WALS VO
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb WALS No dominant order
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase WALS Prepositions
Order of Genitive and Noun WALS Noun-Genitive
Order of Adjective and Noun WALS Noun-Adjective
Order of Demonstrative and Noun WALS Mixed
Order of Numeral and Noun WALS Numeral-Noun
Order of Relative Clause and Noun WALS Noun-Relative clause
Order of Degree Word and Adjective WALS Adjective-Degree word
Position of Polar Question Particles WALS No question particle
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions WALS Not initial interrogative phrase
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause WALS Initial subordinator word
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase WALS Other
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun WALS Other
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun WALS Other
Order of Negative Morpheme and Verb WALS [Neg-V]
Position of Negative Morpheme With Respect to Subject, Object and Verb WALS Other

Simple Clauses

Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases WALS Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns WALS Ergative - absolutive
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking WALS Ergative
Expression of Pronominal Subjects WALS Obligatory pronouns in subject position
Verbal Person Marking WALS No person marking
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking WALS No person marking
Order of Person Markers on the Verb WALS A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' WALS Indirect-object construction
Reciprocal Constructions WALS Mixed
Passive Constructions WALS Absent
Antipassive Constructions WALS Implicit patient
Antipassive forms are formed with the prefix kei-.
Applicative Constructions WALS No applicative construction
Periphrastic Causative Constructions WALS Sequential but no purposive
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions WALS Morphological but no compound
Negative Morphemes WALS Negative word, unclear if verb or particle
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation WALS Asymmetric
Negated verbs are not inflected for number.
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation WALS A/Fin
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation WALS Negative existential construction
Polar Questions WALS Interrogative intonation only
Predicative Possession WALS Genitive
Predicative Adjectives WALS Verbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication WALS Identical
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals WALS Possible
Zero copula may be used to express identity.
Comparative Constructions WALS Locational

Complex Sentences

Relativization on Subjects WALS Non-reduction
Relativization on Obliques WALS Non-reduction
'Want' Complement Subjects WALS Subject is left implicit
Purpose Clauses WALS Deranked
'When' Clauses WALS Balanced/deranked
Reason Clauses WALS Balanced/deranked
Utterance Complement Clauses WALS Balanced

Lexicon

Hand and Arm WALS Identical
Finger and Hand WALS Different
Numeral Bases WALS Decimal
Number of Non-Derived Basic Colour Categories WALS 4
mera - 'red', 'yellow'
goni - 'blue', 'green'
ngokko - 'black'
miti - 'white'
Number of Basic Colour Categories WALS 8-8.5
Green and Blue WALS Green/blue
Red and Yellow WALS Red/yellow
M-T Pronouns WALS No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns WALS No N-M pronouns
Tea WALS Words derived from Min Nan Chinese te
English loan, tii.

Other

Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks WALS Other or none

Conlang-specific

Conlang type Artlang

Comments:

  1. On April 12, 2014, 9:46 p.m., ttaga wrote:
    There is also a CBB thread: http://aveneca.com/cbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1722
    1. On April 13, 2014, 9:29 a.m., ttaga replied:
      http://aveneca.com/cbb/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1722