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A List of Minority Features in Natlangs.

 
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:21 pm    Post subject: A List of Minority Features in Natlangs. Reply with quote

If your conlang is meant to be "naturalistic and realistic", you probably don't want more than about three of these. Each one occurs in at most about 10% of the languages sampled in the WALS.info database.

A: Phonology

1. 34 or more consonants.

2. Voicing contrast in fricatives but not in plosives.

3. Missing /p/ or /g/ or both.

4. Uvular consonants.

5. Glottalized consonants. (Maybe "ejectives only", or "implosives only", would be OK; but not both, and also not "glottalized resonants".)

6. Laterals other than /l/.

7. Front rounded vowels.

8. Fixed stress on the second, or third, or antepenultimate syllable. (Most natlangs have either no fixed stress, or penultimate stress, or initial stress; around 10% have ultimate stress.)

9. Weight-sensitive stress on:
* * one of the first three syllables (it could be the third) or
* * combined right-edge and unbounded or
* * not predictable or
* * one of the last three syllables (it could be the antepenultimate) or
* * one of the first two syllables (could be either one).
Most natlangs have either fixed stress, or stress on one of the last two syllables, or unbounded stress.

10. One of the following ways of deciding weight for stress:
* * Coda consonants; closed syllables are heavy for stress, or
* * Long vowels + coda; closed syllables are heavy and so are long-vowel syllables, or
* * Lexical stress (with "diacritic weight"), or
* * Prominence ("other factors" than long vowels or codas are heavy for stress), or
* * Combined: two or more of the above factors determine weight.
Most natlangs either have no weight, or the weight-factor is unknown, or long vowels are heavy for stress and the vowel-length is the only weight-factor.

11. A rhythm system with both iambic and trochaic feet.

12. No bilabials nor nasals. No fricatives nor nasals. No bilabials. No nasals.
Most natlangs have bilabials and fricatives and nasals; about 10% have no fricatives, but still have bilabials and nasals.

13. Clicks, pharyngeals, and thibilants (theta, thorn, eth sounds [T] [D]).
About 10% of languages have labial-velar plosives. Maybe 8% have thibilants. The other sounds --- clicks and pharyngeals --- are pretty rare.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:24 pm    Post subject: Re: A List of Minority Features in Natlangs. Reply with quote

If your conlang is meant to be "naturalistic and realistic", you probably don't want more than about three of these. Each one occurs in at most about 10% of the languages sampled in the WALS.info database.

B: Morphology

1. Anything except either "exclusively concatenating" or "exclusively isolating". Non-concatenative morphology; ablaut as the dominant, or one of the dominant, kinds of morphology; morphological tone as the dominant, or one of the dominant, kinds; and a combination of isolating with concatenative morphology; all are rare. (Note: WALS's actual data is based on case, tense, aspect, and mood. Presumably other morphology follows a statstically similar distribution.)

2. Any kind of fusional morphology; especially any fusion of case with anything else, especially case and number or case and referentiality.

3. Verbs with one or no inflectional categories, or with ten or more inflectional categories.

4. "Other types" than head-marking, dependent-marking, double-marking, and no marking, for showing which argument of a clause is the Patient. In particular, free markers or floating markers are rarish. Supposedly, other head-dependent relations in the clause (that is, relations between the verb as head and something else as dependent), are also either head-marked or dependent-marked or both or not marked by any kind of morphology (usually that means they're marked just by word-order).

5. "Other types", or double-marking, in possessive phrases. Either there's no marking, or the possessum is marked with an inflection showing that it is possessed and/or showing semantic and/or syntactic information about the possessor, or the possessor is marked with an inflection showing that it possesses something and/or showing semantic and/or syntactic information about the possessum. "Headward-migrating dependent marking" is rare; so is "free marker or floating marker". A bit less than 10% of natlangs have double-marking, both head and dependent.

6. Consistently double-marking or consistently zero-marking in the whole language. Most natlangs are "inconsistent or other"; most of the rest are either consistently head-marking or consistently dependent-marking.

7. Predominantly prefixing inflectional morphology.

8. Only full reduplication is productive; no productive partial reduplication. Most natlangs have both productive partial and productive full reduplication; most of the rest have no productive reduplication at all.

9. Inflectional case-marking syncretic for core cases only. "Core cases" are nominative, absolutive, accusative, and ergative. "Syncretism" occurs when the case-inflection (of some nouns or some pronouns or some adjectives) for two of these case-functions is the same for both functions.
Most natlangs have no case or have at most two cases. Most of the rest have no case-syncretism at all. Most of the rest have a core case syncretic with a non-core case.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 8:58 pm    Post subject: Re: A List of Minority Features in Natlangs. Reply with quote

If your conlang is meant to be "naturalistic and realistic", you probably don't want more than about three of these. Each one occurs in at most about 10% of the languages sampled in the WALS.info database.

C: Nominal Categories

1. Four or more genders. In fact, barely over 10% of languages have three genders; most have none, most of the rest have two.

2. Plurality of nouns not coded; or coded by tone or by stem-change or by complete reduplication of the stem; or by a clitic; or, morphologically, but not by any dominant method. Most natlangs encode plurals with a suffix. Most of the rest use a plural word, that is, a separate, independent word that means "plural". Most of the rest use a prefix.

3. Any of:
* * Plural possible for all nouns, but optional for inanimate nouns, or
* * Plural possible only for human nouns, and optional even for human nouns, or
* * No plurals for nouns.
Most natlangs have plurals for all nouns, always obligatory. Most of the rest have plurals in all nouns, always optional. Most of the rest have obligatory plurals in human nouns and no plurals in non-human nouns.

4. http://wals.info/feature/description/35
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This is very very useful. Thank you Eldin!!

PKM has 3 for phonology (missing /p/ and /g/, extra laterals, no bilabials), 1 for morphology (verbs with 10 or more inflections), and none for nominal categories.
Emitare has 4 for phonology (missing /p/, extra laterals, /y/ and /2/, no bilabials) 2 for morphology (very partially non-concatenative, verbs with 10 or more inflections), and none for nominal categories.

It does seem a bit odd that both 'missing /p/' and 'no bilabials' can fulfill their own separate categories, since if you have no bilabials, that's 2 since you therefore don't have /p/.


Last edited by Tolkien_Freak on Mon Aug 31, 2009 12:05 am; edited 1 time in total
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Aert



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PostPosted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 9:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

WOW lots of stuff!

Lets see (I'll do Ylara - hopefully I have it fleshed out enough to answer Wink)

A1: Consonant inventory is 25 (wow!)
A2: (as in f/v but not p/b ?) contrast exists in both then
A3: has both /p/ and /g/
A4: uvular consonants: has /χ/ (uncommon - more often is /ç/
A5: no distinction between /t/ and /th/ (aspirated), unless written. more often indicates stress
A6: has /r/ /ɾ/ and /l/
A7: no front rounded vowels
A8: no fixed stress
A9: 'unbounded'?
A10: n/a (can /h/ to indicate stress in compound words, etc)
A11: no rhythm system as I can see it
A12: has bilabials, no nasal vowels; does have nasal consonants
A13: no clicks; no pharyngeals; yes to thibilants though. no palatal plosives, if that's what you're asking

B1-3: I don't actually know how to answer this one; there's lots of suffixing, aspect and person are affixed; but there's very little marking on nouns except compounding and suffixes.
B4: OSV order, quantity-noun-adjective (I don't know which marking it is though)
B5: simple suffix for possession, no agreement though (including adjectives)
B6: not sure the marking, I'll have to get back to that
B7: predominantly suffixing
B8: no reduplication, I think (as in doubling most of the word to make it plural, as in some Pacific languages?)
B9: cases include the basic 'go [directions],' possession, perfective, gerund, conditional, habitual, imperative, benefactive, malefactive, comitative, privative, instrumental, NEG-instrumental (oh dear :S) total then: 25

C1: no genders
C2: plurality: suffix (clitic?)
C3: plural possible for all nouns (I think, probably not mass nouns, maybe not for ideas?)
C4: pronouns: 1SG, 1PL, 2SG, 2PL, 3SG.N, 3SG.F, 3SG.M, 3PL.ANIM, 3PL.N, [3SG.F | 3SG.M] ("he or she, ie I'm not sure")
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I decided to start over.
Here are the morphological and syntactic features WALS.info tracks in the groups they grouped them in:
A. Nominal Syntax
B. Complex Sentences
C. Morphology
D. Verbal Categories
E. Word Order

Still to come:
F. Simple Clauses
G. Nominal Categories

I have the percentage of the sampled languages that are recorded with each value.
I have also got, for each feature, the ratio of each value to the largest value.
Within any feature, I've sorted the values from rarest to commonest.
Within each group of features, I sorted the features from the lowest ratio of rarest-to-most-common value, to the highest ratio of rarest-value to most-common-value.

Pick your own cutoff point for how rare "rare" is. I had previously chosen 50% (that is, any value less than half as common as the commonest value was "rare") and 10% (that is, any value less than 10% as common as the commonest value was "rare"). But upon thinking about it, I decided I should let the reader see for himself/herself what the actual ratios are and decide.

A. Nominal Syntax

Feature/Chapter 103: Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking 0.55%
Zero only in 3rd nonsingular 1 0.26% 0.55%
Zero in some 3sg forms 21 5.53% 11.60%
Zero in all 3rd person forms 36 9.47% 19.89%
Zero in all 3sg forms 45 11.84% 24.86%
No person marking 96 25.26% 53.04%
No zero realization 181 47.63% 100.00%
total: 380 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 109: Applicative Constructions 1.00%
Non-benefactive object; only transitive 1 0.55% 1.00%
Benefactive and other; only transitive 2 1.09% 2.00%
Non-benefactive object; only intransitive 2 1.09% 2.00%
Benefactive object; only transitive 4 2.19% 4.00%
Non-benefactive object; both bases 9 4.92% 9.00%
Benefactive object; both bases 16 8.74% 16.00%
Benefactive and other; both bases 49 26.78% 49.00%
No applicative construction 100 54.64% 100.00%
total: 183 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 102: Verbal Person Marking 3.11%
A or P argument 6 1.59% 3.11%
Only the P argument 24 6.35% 12.44%
Only the A argument 73 19.31% 37.82%
No person marking 82 21.69% 42.49%
Both the A and P arguments 193 51.06% 100.00%
total: 378 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 111: Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions 3.54%
Compound but no morphological 9 2.90% 3.54%
Neither 23 7.42% 9.06%
Both 24 7.74% 9.45%
Morphological but no compound 254 81.94% 100.00%
total: 310 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 99: Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns 3.80%
Active - inactive 3 1.74% 3.80%
Nominative - accusative (marked nominative) 3 1.74% 3.80%
None 3 1.74% 3.80%
Tripartite 3 1.74% 3.80%
Ergative - absolutive 20 11.63% 25.32%
Nominative - accusative (standard) 61 35.47% 77.22%
Neutral 79 45.93% 100.00%
total: 172 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 112: Negative Morphemes 3.98%
Variation between negative word and affix 19 1.88% 3.98%
Negative auxiliary verb 45 4.45% 9.43%
Negative word, unclear if verb or particle 65 6.43% 13.63%
Double negation 66 6.53% 13.84%
Negative affix 339 33.53% 71.07%
Negative particle 477 47.18% 100.00%
total: 1011 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 98: Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases 4.08%
Active-inactive 4 2.11% 4.08%
Tripartite 4 2.11% 4.08%
Nominative - accusative (marked nominative) 6 3.16% 6.12%
Ergative - absolutive 32 16.84% 32.65%
Nominative - accusative (standard) 46 24.21% 46.94%
Neutral 98 51.58% 100.00%
total: 190 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 100: Alignment of Verbal Person Marking 5.19%
Hierarchical 11 2.89% 5.19%
Ergative 19 5.00% 8.96%
Active 26 6.84% 12.26%
Split 28 7.37% 13.21%
Neutral 84 22.11% 39.62%
Accusative 212 55.79% 100.00%
total: 380 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 101: Expression of Pronominal Subjects 7.33%
Mixed 30 4.45% 7.33%
Subject clitics on variable host 33 4.90% 8.07%
Optional pronouns in subject position 61 9.05% 14.91%
Subject pronouns in different position 64 9.50% 15.65%
Obligatory pronouns in subject position 77 11.42% 18.83%
Subject affixes on verb 409 60.68% 100.00%
total: 674 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 104: Order of Person Markers on the Verb 10.16%
Both orders of A and P occur 19 5.01% 10.16%
A and P are fused 20 5.28% 10.70%
P precedes A 57 15.04% 30.48%
A precedes P 96 25.33% 51.34%
A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb 187 49.34% 100.00%
total: 379 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 108: Antipassive Constructions 12.33%
Implicit patient 18 9.28% 12.33%
Oblique patient 30 15.46% 20.55%
No antipassive 146 75.26% 100.00%
total: 194 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 106: Reciprocal Constructions 16.16%
Mixed 16 9.14% 16.16%
No reciprocals 16 9.14% 16.16%
Identical to reflexive 44 25.14% 44.44%
Distinct from reflexive 99 56.57% 100.00%
total: 175 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 105: Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' 20.63%
Mixed 39 10.32% 20.63%
Secondary-object construction 66 17.46% 34.92%
Double-object construction 84 22.22% 44.44%
Indirect-object construction 189 50.00% 100.00%
total: 378 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 110: Periphrastic Causative Constructions 22.06%
Both 15 12.71% 22.06%
Sequential but no purposive 35 29.66% 51.47%
Purposive but no sequential 68 57.63% 100.00%
total: 118 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 107: Passive Constructions 76.78%
Present 162 43.43% 76.78%
Absent 211 56.57% 100.00%
total: 373 100.00%


B. Complex Sentences

Feature/Chapter 122: Relativization on Subjects 4.00%
Pronoun-retention 5 3.01% 4.00%
Relative pronoun 12 7.23% 9.60%
Non-reduction 24 14.46% 19.20%
Gap 125 75.30% 100.00%
total: 166 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 124: 'Want' Complement Subjects 5.56%
Desiderative particle 8 2.83% 5.56%
Both construction types exist 14 4.95% 9.72%
Desiderative verbal affix 45 15.90% 31.25%
Subject is expressed overtly 72 25.44% 50.00%
Subject is left implicit 144 50.88% 100.00%
total: 283 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 128: Utterance Complement Clauses 9.65%
Deranked 11 7.69% 9.65%
Balanced/deranked 18 12.59% 15.79%
Balanced 114 79.72% 100.00%
total: 143 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 123: Relativization on Obliques 18.18%
Not possible 10 8.93% 18.18%
Relative pronoun 13 11.61% 23.64%
Non-reduction 14 12.50% 25.45%
Pronoun-retention 20 17.86% 36.36%
Gap 55 49.11% 100.00%
total: 112 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 125: Purpose Clauses 29.41%
Balanced/deranked 30 17.65% 29.41%
Balanced 38 22.35% 37.25%
Deranked 102 60.00% 100.00%
total: 170 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 127: Reason Clauses 41.11%
Balanced/deranked 37 21.89% 41.11%
Deranked 42 24.85% 46.67%
Balanced 90 53.25% 100.00%
total: 169 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 126: 'When' Clauses 46.43%
Balanced/deranked 39 22.41% 46.43%
Deranked 51 29.31% 60.71%
Balanced 84 48.28% 100.00%
total: 174 100.00%


C. Morphology

Feature/Chapter 20: Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives 0.80%
Tonal/isolating 1 0.61% 0.80%
Tonal/concatenative 2 1.21% 1.60%
Exclusively tonal 3 1.82% 2.40%
Ablaut/concatenative 5 3.03% 4.00%
Isolating/concatenative 13 7.88% 10.40%
Exclusively isolating 16 9.70% 12.80%
Exclusively concatenative 125 75.76% 100.00%
total: 165 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 21: Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives 2.67%
Case + TAM 2 1.23% 2.67%
Case + referentiality 6 3.70% 8.00%
Case + number 8 4.94% 10.67%
Monoexponential case 71 43.83% 94.67%
No case 75 46.30% 100.00%
total: 162 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 23: Locus of Marking in the Clause 2.82%
Other 2 0.85% 2.82%
No marking 42 17.80% 59.15%
Double marking 58 24.58% 81.69%
Dependent marking 63 26.69% 88.73%
Head marking 71 30.08% 100.00%
total: 236 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 22: Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 3.85%
12-13 categories per word 2 1.38% 3.85%
0-1 category per word 5 3.45% 9.62%
10-11 categories per word 7 4.83% 13.46%
2-3 categories per word 24 16.55% 46.15%
8-9 categories per word 24 16.55% 46.15%
6-7 categories per word 31 21.38% 59.62%
4-5 categories per word 52 35.86% 100.00%
total: 145 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 25: Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology 4.96%
Zero-marking 6 2.54% 4.96%
Double-marking 16 6.78% 13.22%
Dependent-marking 46 19.49% 38.02%
Head-marking 47 19.92% 38.84%
Inconsistent or other 121 51.27% 100.00%
total: 236 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 24: Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases 6.12%
Other 6 2.54% 6.12%
Double marking 22 9.32% 22.45%
No marking 32 13.56% 32.65%
Head marking 78 33.05% 79.59%
Dependent marking 98 41.53% 100.00%
total: 236 100.00%
Feature/Chapter 27: Reduplication 12.64%
Full reduplication only 35 9.51% 12.64%
No productive reduplication 56 15.22% 20.22%
Productive full and partial reduplication 277 75.27% 100.00%
total: 368 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 26: Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology 14.14%
Strong prefixing 54 6.04% 14.14%
Weakly prefixing 92 10.29% 24.08%
Weakly suffixing 114 12.75% 29.84%
Little affixation 122 13.65% 31.94%
Equal prefixing and suffixing 130 14.54% 34.03%
Strongly suffixing 382 42.73% 100.00%
total: 894 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 28: Case Syncretism 14.63%
Core cases only 18 9.09% 14.63%
Core and non-core 22 11.11% 17.89%
No syncretism 35 17.68% 28.46%
No case marking 123 62.12% 100.00%
total: 198 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 29: Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking 70.37%
No subject person/number marking 57 28.79% 70.37%
Syncretic 60 30.30% 74.07%
Not syncretic 81 40.91% 100.00%
total: 198 100.00%


D. Verbal Categories

Feature/Chapter 70: The Morphological Imperative 0.68%
Second plural 2 0.37% 0.68%
Second singular 42 7.68% 14.38%
Second person number-neutral 89 16.27% 30.48%
No second-person imperatives 122 22.30% 41.78%
Second singular and second plural 292 53.38% 100.00%
total: 547 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 80: Verbal Number and Suppletion 1.26%
Singular-dual-plural triples, suppletion 2 1.04% 1.26%
Singular-dual-plural triples, no suppletion 5 2.59% 3.14%
Singular-plural pairs, no suppletion 12 6.22% 7.55%
Singular-plural pairs, suppletion 15 7.77% 9.43%
None 159 82.38% 100.00%
total: 193 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 69: Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes 1.75%
Tense-aspect tone 11 1.04% 1.75%
Mixed type 133 12.52% 21.14%
No tense-aspect inflection 139 13.09% 22.10%
Tense-aspect prefixes 150 14.12% 23.85%
Tense-aspect suffixes 629 59.23% 100.00%
total: 1062 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 66: The Past Tense 2.13%
Present, 4 or more remoteness distinctions 2 0.90% 2.13%
Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions 38 17.12% 40.43%
No past tense 88 39.64% 93.62%
Present, no remoteness distinctions 94 42.34% 100.00%
total: 222 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 78: Coding of Evidentiality 3.87%
Modal morpheme 7 1.67% 3.87%
Mixed 10 2.39% 5.52%
Part of the tense system 24 5.74% 13.26%
Separate particle 65 15.55% 35.91%
Verbal affix or clitic 131 31.34% 72.38%
No grammatical evidentials 181 43.30% 100.00%
total: 418 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 68: The Perfect 6.14%
From possessive 7 3.15% 6.14%
From 'finish', 'already' 21 9.46% 18.42%
Other perfect 80 36.04% 70.18%
No perfect 114 51.35% 100.00%
total: 222 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 79: Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect 8.13%
Aspect 10 5.18% 8.13%
Tense and aspect 24 12.44% 19.51%
Tense 36 18.65% 29.27%
None 123 63.73% 100.00%
total: 193 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 74: Situational Possibility 8.23%
Other kinds of markers 13 5.56% 8.23%
Affixes on verbs 63 26.92% 39.87%
Verbal constructions 158 67.52% 100.00%
total: 234 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 72: Imperative-Hortative Systems 9.95%
Minimal system 20 5.33% 9.95%
Both types of system 21 5.60% 10.45%
Maximal system 133 35.47% 66.17%
Neither type of system 201 53.60% 100.00%
total: 375 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 73: The Optative 17.71%
Inflectional optative present 48 15.05% 17.71%
Inflectional optative absent 271 84.95% 100.00%
total: 319 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 71: The Prohibitive 30.22%
Special imperative + normal negative 55 11.11% 30.22%
Normal imperative + normal negative 113 22.83% 62.09%
Special imperative + special negative 145 29.29% 79.67%
Normal imperative + special negative 182 36.77% 100.00%
total: 495 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 76: Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking 34.29%
Overlap for both possibility and necessity 36 17.39% 34.29%
Overlap for either possibility or necessity 66 31.88% 62.86%
No overlap 105 50.72% 100.00%
total: 207 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 77: Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality 39.23%
Direct and indirect 71 16.99% 39.23%
Indirect only 166 39.71% 91.71%
No grammatical evidentials 181 43.30% 100.00%
total: 418 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 75: Epistemic Possibility 71.43%
Verbal constructions 65 27.08% 71.43%
Affixes on verbs 84 35.00% 92.31%
Other 91 37.92% 100.00%
total: 240 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 65: Perfective/Imperfective Aspect 83.47%
Grammatical marking 101 45.50% 83.47%
No grammatical marking 121 54.50% 100.00%
total: 222 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 67: The Future Tense 98.21%
Inflectional future exists 110 49.55% 98.21%
No inflectional future 112 50.45% 100.00%
total: 222 100.00%


E. Word Order

Feature/Chapter 90: Order of Relative Clause and Noun 0.20%
Doubly headed 1 0.14% 0.20%
Adjoined 5 0.71% 0.99%
Correlative 7 0.99% 1.38%
Internally headed 18 2.55% 3.56%
Mixed 49 6.95% 9.68%
Relative clause-Noun 119 16.88% 23.52%
Noun-Relative clause 506 71.77% 100.00%
total: 705 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 89: Order of Numeral and Noun 0.39%
Numeral only modifies verb 2 0.20% 0.39%
No dominant order 55 5.49% 10.68%
Numeral-Noun 430 42.91% 83.50%
Noun-Numeral 515 51.40% 100.00%
total: 1002 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 87: Order of Adjective and Noun 0.39%
Only internally-headed relative clauses 3 0.25% 0.39%
No dominant order 101 8.33% 13.15%
Adjective-Noun 341 28.11% 44.40%
Noun-Adjective 768 63.31% 100.00%
total: 1213 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 81: Order of Subject, Object and Verb 0.80%
OSV 4 0.33% 0.80%
OVS 9 0.73% 1.81%
VOS 26 2.12% 5.23%
VSO 85 6.92% 17.10%
No dominant order 171 13.93% 34.41%
SVO 436 35.50% 87.73%
SOV 497 40.47% 100.00%
total: 1228 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 85: Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase 1.35%
Inpositions 7 0.65% 1.35%
No adpositions 28 2.61% 5.38%
No dominant order 52 4.84% 10.00%
Prepositions 467 43.48% 89.81%
Postpositions 520 48.42% 100.00%
total: 1074 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 96: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun 1.35%
VO and RelN 5 0.66% 1.35%
OV and NRel 95 12.57% 25.68%
OV and RelN 111 14.68% 30.00%
Other 175 23.15% 47.30%
VO and NRel 370 48.94% 100.00%
total: 756 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 84: Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb 1.59%
XVO 3 0.67% 1.59%
OXV 23 5.12% 12.17%
OVX 37 8.24% 19.58%
XOV 45 10.02% 23.81%
No dominant order 152 33.85% 80.42%
VOX 189 42.09% 100.00%
total: 449 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 88: Order of Demonstrative and Noun 1.82%
Demonstrative prefix 9 0.83% 1.82%
Demonstrative before and after Noun 15 1.38% 3.04%
Demonstrative suffix 28 2.58% 5.67%
Mixed 59 5.43% 11.94%
Noun-Demonstrative 481 44.29% 97.37%
Demonstrative-Noun 494 45.49% 100.00%
total: 1086 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 94: Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause 2.18%
Internal subordinator word 8 1.31% 2.18%
Subordinating suffix 59 9.66% 16.08%
Mixed 87 14.24% 23.71%
Final subordinator word 90 14.73% 24.52%
Initial subordinator word 367 60.07% 100.00%
total: 611 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 95: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase 2.34%
OV and Prepositions 10 0.97% 2.34%
VO and Postpositions 38 3.68% 8.90%
Other 141 13.65% 33.02%
VO and Prepositions 417 40.37% 97.66%
OV and Postpositions 427 41.34% 100.00%
total: 1033 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 92: Position of Polar Question Particles 2.59%
Other position 8 1.03% 2.59%
In either of two positions 24 3.09% 7.77%
Second position 45 5.79% 14.56%
Initial 118 15.19% 38.19%
Final 273 35.14% 88.35%
No question particle 309 39.77% 100.00%
total: 777 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 93: Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions 3.69%
Mixed 20 2.49% 3.69%
Initial interrogative phrase 241 30.01% 44.46%
Not initial interrogative phrase 542 67.50% 100.00%
total: 803 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 82: Order of Subject and Verb 9.91%
No dominant order 105 7.81% 9.91%
VS 179 13.32% 16.89%
SV 1060 78.87% 100.00%
total: 1344 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 86: Order of Genitive and Noun 13.70%
No dominant order 83 7.51% 13.70%
Noun-Genitive 416 37.65% 68.65%
Genitive-Noun 606 54.84% 100.00%
total: 1105 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 83: Order of Object and Verb 14.06%
No dominant order 90 6.57% 14.06%
OV 640 46.72% 100.00%
VO 640 46.72% 100.00%
total: 1370 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 97: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun 25.00%
VO and AdjN 101 8.63% 25.00%
Other 177 15.13% 43.81%
OV and AdjN 201 17.18% 49.75%
OV and NAdj 287 24.53% 71.04%
VO and NAdj 404 34.53% 100.00%
total: 1170 100.00%

Feature/Chapter 91: Order of Degree Word and Adjective 26.83%
No dominant order 55 12.59% 26.83%
Adjective-Degree word 177 40.50% 86.34%
Degree word-Adjective 205 46.91% 100.00%
total: 437 100.00%

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this is too hard to read, please let me know what you wish I would do to fix it to make it easier to read.

After I put F. Simple Clauses and G. Nominal Categories up, I intend to look at the http://cals.conlang.org/ info and see which features are rare in natlangs but common in conlangs.

I haven't intended to put up anything about phonology or lexicon.

I thought of putting up Feature 141 "Writing Systems", but there's so little data there it wouldn't be worthwhile.

------------

Thanks!
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Kiri



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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 9:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I would test Vaijerīna, but unfortunately I don't understand what half of this means Very Happy
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think the original format was a whole lot easier to read. I like the idea behind the revision, but it's just SO MANY NUMBERS! I think it's safe to say 'These features are found in less than 50% of languages' and 'these features are found in less than 10% of languages'.

I don't quite get why each category gets two percentages.
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Aeetlrcreejl



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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:13 pm    Post subject: Re: A List of Minority Features in Natlangs. Reply with quote

7. Front rounded vowels.

8. Fixed stress on the second, or third, or antepenultimate syllable. (Most natlangs have either no fixed stress, or penultimate stress, or initial stress; around 10% have ultimate stress.)

2. Any kind of fusional morphology; especially any fusion of case with anything else, especially case and number or case and referentiality.
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Aert



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PostPosted: Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:07 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

aww - do I have to do that again Wink
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Count Iblis



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PostPosted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 12:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think I need to make a conlang that has all of these.
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Hemicomputer



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Posts: 610
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PostPosted: Sat Aug 29, 2009 2:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Holxws has:
A2. Voicing contrast in fricatives but not in plosives.

A3. Missing /p/ or /g/ or both. (both)

A4. Uvular consonants. (/X/ and /R/)

And possibly A13 (It has thilibants, but not clicks or pharyngeals.)

Drumu has:
A3. Missing /p/ or /g/ or both. (just /g/)

A4. Uvular consonants. (/R\/)

A7. Front rounded vowels.

B3. Verbs with one or no inflectional categories, or with ten or more inflectional categories. (12 cases, 5 numbers, as well as marking for interrogative and negative)


@CountIblis: that would be awesome, as well as slightly maddening.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 10:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Aert wrote:
aww - do I have to do that again Wink
No, I don't think so. You can if you want, though.

Tolkien_Freak wrote:
I think the original format was a whole lot easier to read. I like the idea behind the revision, but it's just SO MANY NUMBERS! I think it's safe to say 'These features are found in less than 50% of languages' and 'these features are found in less than 10% of languages'.

I don't quite get why each category gets two percentages.

OK, I'll try again.

Please pardon my trying this more than once.
I'm using this board, where nearly everyone is sympathetic to me and many are quite sympathetic, as a sort of "focus group" for getting this right before I post it on one of those boards that's 15 times bigger.

I appreciate your constructive criticism.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are those first five groups of features over again, this time in an "easy-to-read" (I hope) format.
These are lists of feature-values that are at most 50% as common as the most-common value for the feature.
The percentage to the left of each value represents how common it is compared to the commonest value.

Nominal Syntax:
61: Adjectives without Nouns
1.37% Not without noun
6.85% Marked by mixed or other strategies
9.59% Marked by following word
9.59% Marked by prefix
17.81% Marked by suffix
24.66% Marked by preceding word

60: Genitives, Adjectives and Relative Clauses
2.60% Genitives and relative clauses collapsed
3.90% Moderately differentiated in other ways
10.39% Genitives and adjectives collapsed
19.48% Weakly differentiated
42.86% Adjectives and relative clauses collapsed

59: Possessive Classification
3.20% More than five classes
16.00% Three to five classes

64: Nominal and Verbal Conjunction
9.32% Both expressed by juxtaposition

62: Action Nominal Constructions
14.29% Other
16.67% Double-Possessive
33.33% Mixed
50.00% Ergative-Possessive

58: Obligatory Possessive Inflection
21.39% Exists


Complex Sentences:
122: Relativization on Subjects
4.00% Pronoun-retention
9.60% Relative pronoun
19.20% Non-reduction

124: 'Want' Complement Subjects
5.56% Desiderative particle
9.72% Both construction types exist
31.25% Desiderative verbal affix
50.00% Subject is expressed overtly

128: Utterance Complement Clauses
9.65% Deranked
15.79% Balanced/deranked

123: Relativization on Obliques
18.18% Not possible
23.64% Relative pronoun
25.45% Non-reduction
36.36% Pronoun-retention

125: Purpose Clauses
29.41% Balanced/deranked
37.25% Balanced

127: Reason Clauses
41.11% Balanced/deranked
46.67% Deranked

126: 'When' Clauses
46.43% Balanced/deranked


Morphology:
20: Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives
0.80% Tonal/isolating
1.60% Tonal/concatenative
2.40% Exclusively tonal
4.00% Ablaut/concatenative
10.40% Isolating/concatenative
12.80% Exclusively isolating

21: Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives
2.67% Case + TAM
8.00% Case + referentiality
10.67% Case + number

23: Locus of Marking in the Clause
2.82% Other

22: Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb
3.85% 12-13 categories per word
9.62% 0-1 category per word
13.46% 10-11 categories per word
46.15% 2-3 categories per word
46.15% 8-9 categories per word

25: Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology
4.96% Zero-marking
13.22% Double-marking
38.02% Dependent-marking
38.84% Head-marking

24: Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases
6.12% Other
22.45% Double marking
32.65% No marking

27: Reduplication
12.64% Full reduplication only
20.22% No productive reduplication

26: Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology
14.14% Strong prefixing
24.08% Weakly prefixing
29.84% Weakly suffixing
31.94% Little affixation
34.03% Equal prefixing and suffixing

28: Case Syncretism
14.63% Core cases only
17.89% Core and non-core
28.46% No syncretism


Verbal Categories:
70: The Morphological Imperative
0.68% Second plural
14.38% Second singular
30.48% Second person number-neutral
41.78% No second-person imperatives

80: Verbal Number and Suppletion
1.26% Singular-dual-plural triples, suppletion
3.14% Singular-dual-plural triples, no suppletion
7.55% Singular-plural pairs, no suppletion
9.43% Singular-plural pairs, suppletion

69: Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes
1.75% Tense-aspect tone
21.14% Mixed type
22.10% No tense-aspect inflection
23.85% Tense-aspect prefixes

66: The Past Tense
2.13% Present, 4 or more remoteness distinctions
40.43% Present, 2-3 remoteness distinctions

78: Coding of Evidentiality
3.87% Modal morpheme
5.52% Mixed
13.26% Part of the tense system
35.91% Separate particle

68: The Perfect
6.14% From possessive
18.42% From 'finish', 'already'

79: Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect
8.13% Aspect
19.51% Tense and aspect
29.27% Tense

74: Situational Possibility
8.23% Other kinds of markers
39.87% Affixes on verbs

72: Imperative-Hortative Systems
9.95% Minimal system
10.45% Both types of system

73: The Optative
17.71% Inflectional optative present

71: The Prohibitive
30.22% Special imperative + normal negative

76: Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking
34.29% Overlap for both possibility and necessity

77: Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality
39.23% Direct and indirect


Word Order:
90: Order of Relative Clause and Noun
0.20% Doubly headed
0.99% Adjoined
1.38% Correlative
3.56% Internally headed
9.68% Mixed
23.52% Relative clause-Noun

89: Order of Numeral and Noun
0.39% Numeral only modifies verb
10.68% No dominant order

87: Order of Adjective and Noun
0.39% Only internally-headed relative clauses
13.15% No dominant order
44.40% Adjective-Noun

81: Order of Subject, Object and Verb
0.80% OSV
1.81% OVS
5.23% VOS
17.10% VSO
34.41% No dominant order

85: Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
1.35% Inpositions
5.38% No adpositions
10.00% No dominant order

96: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun
1.35% VO and RelN
25.68% OV and NRel
30.00% OV and RelN
47.30% Other

84: Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb
1.59% XVO
12.17% OXV
19.58% OVX
23.81% XOV

88: Order of Demonstrative and Noun
1.82% Demonstrative prefix
3.04% Demonstrative before and after Noun
5.67% Demonstrative suffix
11.94% Mixed

94: Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause
2.18% Internal subordinator word
16.08% Subordinating suffix
23.71% Mixed
24.52% Final subordinator word

95: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase
2.34% OV and Prepositions
8.90% VO and Postpositions
33.02% Other

92: Position of Polar Question Particles
2.59% Other position
7.77% In either of two positions
14.56% Second position
38.19% Initial

93: Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions
3.69% Mixed
44.46% Initial interrogative phrase

82: Order of Subject and Verb
9.91% No dominant order
16.89% VS

86: Order of Genitive and Noun
13.70% No dominant order

83: Order of Object and Verb
14.06% No dominant order

97: Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun
25.00% VO and AdjN
43.81% Other
49.75% OV and AdjN

91: Order of Degree Word and Adjective
26.83% No dominant order


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is that better?

For this to be useful, I really should also post a "List of Common Features".

I have the "Simple Clauses" mostly done, and intend to do the "Nominal Categories" as well (that last one is the big one).

I don't intend to do the Phonology, nor the Lexicon, nor the "Other".
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Tue Sep 01, 2009 11:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

That definitely looks a lot better ^_^

You don't have to do a separate list of common features, if you just say 'relative frequencies of features in languages' and then list everything, not just categories with a percent under X%.

One more quick comment, which is likely unsolvable - it's just kind of a lot of information all at once. I know I find it hard to find the motivation to read long posts. Maybe that's just me, and you probably can't do anything about it, but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

Quote:
I'm using this board, where nearly everyone is sympathetic to me and many are quite sympathetic,


We love you, Eldin-sama! ^_^
Hopefully it goes over well.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you, T_F.
Perhaps I should post just one group at a time?
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Aert



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PostPosted: Wed Sep 02, 2009 12:40 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

hmm, which are the boards '15 times bigger'?

I've also seen conworlds.info, but there's not much there that I'm really into, so here's much better for me right now Very Happy
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