Raritätenkabinett (Rara)

reduplication of verb to form finite verb of restrictive relative clauses with non-actor …

Wetan (Eastern Indonesian, Austronesian)

reduplicationfinite verbrestrictive relative clasue

plural marking of a small subset of nouns (persons, kin) by lengthening of the vowel of t…

Hawaiian, Samoan (Polynesian, Austronesian)

numberpluralvowel lengthening

negation expressed negatively, by omission of material present in affirmative clause (mar…

Tamil, Kannada, Toda, and elsewhere in South Dravidian; Mal…

negation

verb inflection with non-zero exponent for 3rd person (subject or object agreement/cross-…

Standard English (Germanic, IE)

verb inflectionperson3rd

zero exponence for plural, non-zero for singular (not singulative!) as well as dual

Imonda (Trans-New Guinea, "Papuan")

numberpluralsingular

inverse number marking: same exponent denoting singular, dual, or plural in different de…

Kiowa-Tanoan family [a family possession, hence an infreque…

number

absolutive singular (marking intransitive subject) as the morphologically most complex no…

Chukchi (Chukchi-Kamchatkan)

absolutivereduplication

absolutive (marking intransitive subject and transitive direct object) as the morphologic…

(a) Nias (Sundic, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian)<…

absolutiveergativefocus

nominative (marking intransitive and transitive subject) as the morphologically marked ca…

some older Germanic lgs (IE); Old French (Italic, IE); Orom…

nominativeaccusative

stem suppletion of an adjectival word (viz., the cardinal numeral 'one') determined by ge…

Classical Greek (Hellenic, IE)

adjectivegender

stem suppletion of a noun ('man, person') essentially determined by number, with one stem…

Slovene (Slavonic, IE)

nounnumberdual

number suppletion of the indefinite pronoun, with the singular form identical to the num…

Standard German (Germanic, IE)

indefinite pronouninterrogative pronounnumber

labial flap /vb/ (See Image)

over 60 languages in Africa (Afroasiatic: Chadic; Niger-Con…

labial flap

bilabial trill /è/,(i) prenasalized bilabial stop with trilled release, or(ii) trilled fr…

(i) Nias (Sundic, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian),…

bilabialtrill

laminal (tongue-blade) trill (see Image)

Czech (Slavonic, IE)

laminaltrill

apical trills at three places of articulation (fronted alveolar, alveolar, retroflex) (se…

Toda (Dravidian)

apicaltrill

velar fricative (see Image) as the sole fricative (if this is what it is), rather than th…

Iwaidjian (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

fricativevelar

eight or nine liquids, with three rhotics and five or six laterals

Iwaidjian (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

liquidlateralrhotic

the full gamut of (voiceless) palato-alveolar, alveolar, bilabial, and (dialectally) vela…

German (Germanic, IE)

affricatesalveolarpalato-alveolar

four-way phonemic contrast of dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar, and retroflex stops

Nunggubuyu (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

stopsdentalalveolar

lack of bilabial nasal and possibly bilabial stops

Iroquois; Tlingit (Na-Dene)

bilabialnasalstops

three-way quantity contrast of both vowels and consonants

Estonian (?), Livonian (?), Saami (?) (all Uralic)

vowelconsonant

phonemic contrast between diphthong and vowel followed by glide (see Image)

Maastricht Dutch (Germanic, IE)

diphthongglide

Resolved Moraic Trochee as foot type

(esp. older) Germanic (IE); Cayuvava (Andean-Equatorial) (?)

moraic trocheeresolved

endoclitics occurring not only inside morphologically complex words, but even within mono…

(a) English (Germanic, IE) (?);<br> (b) Udi (NE Caucasian)

cliticendoclitic

kinship verbs, i.e., pure kinship relations normally expressed by canonical transitive ve…

Iwaidjian lgs (Australian); Central Guerrero Nahuatl (Aztec…

verbkinship

adverb as a distinct word class but not adjective

Kambera (Malayo-Polynesian); Kwaza (unclassified, S. Rondôn…

adverbadjective

object before subject in basic word order

OVS: Coos (Coosan);Apalaí, Arekuna-Taupilang, Bacairí, Hian…

subject object

expression of numerical approximation ('about 5', 'about the fifth') by inversion of word…

Russian and other East Slavonic lgs (Slavonic, IE)

numeral

(finite) verb-second word order in main declarative clauses (i.e., specifically VERB-seco…

many Germanic languages (IE), excluding English (ignoring a…

V2

(finite) verb-second word order in main declarative clauses generally optional, but oblig…

Old English (Germanic, IE)

V2

(finite) verb-second word order in main declarative clauses only if the first constituent…

Modern English (Germanic, IE)

V2

parasitic gaps (rather than an overt resumptive pronouns), licensed in main clauses if an…

Bavarian, West Flemish (Germanic, IE), Polish (Slavonic, IE…

parasitic gap

some noun-phrase internal agreement but no agreement at clause level

(some) Pama-Nyungan (Australian); modern Continental Scandi…

NPclause

relative pronoun as the only target for agreement in animacy

Modern Standard English (Germanic, IE)

relative pronounanimacy

attributive adjectives agreeing (in gender, number, case) when they precede their noun bu…

German (Germanic, IE)

nounadjective

use of metathesis (CV ~ VC) for grammatical purposes, viz. to express distinctions of asp…

Rotuman (Oceanic, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian);…

metathesisaspectdefiniteness

case distinction exclusively by tone

Eastern (or Para-)Nilotic (Nilo-Saharan); (some) Cushitic, …

casetone

endoclitics occurring not only inside morphologically complex words, but even within mono…

(a) English (Germanic, IE) (?);<br> (b) Udi (NE Caucasian)

cliticendoclitic

verb-final and postpositions, but bound morphology (almost) exclusively prefixal

Athabaskan lgs [a family possession?]

affix orderword order

infix positioned after the last consonant of the onset of the stem, i.e., after the first…

Tagalog (Philippine Austronesian), Atayal (Formosan Austron…

infix

infix positioned after the vowel of the penultimate syllable of the stem

Alabama (Muskogean)

infix

infix positioned after the second syllable of the stem

Dakota (Siouan) (?)

infix

an asymmetric gender system, with genders distinguished in singular but not in plural, bu…

older West Germanic languages (Indo-European)

gendernumbernumerals

of all cardinal numerals, only that for 'four' agreeing in gender

Chechen, Ingush, Tsova-Tush (NE Central, or Nakh, Daghestan…

numeralgender

different forms of the verb 'to say' depending on the sex of the person whose speaking is…

Ket (isolate, "Paleosiberian")

genderspeech reporting

labial flap /vb/ (See Image)

over 60 languages in Africa (Afroasiatic: Chadic; Niger-Con…

labial flap

bilabial trill /è/,(i) prenasalized bilabial stop with trilled release, or(ii) trilled fr…

(i) Nias (Sundic, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian),…

bilabialtrill

laminal (tongue-blade) trill (see Image)

Czech (Slavonic, IE)

laminaltrill

apical trills at three places of articulation (fronted alveolar, alveolar, retroflex) (se…

Toda (Dravidian)

apicaltrill

velar fricative (see Image) as the sole fricative (if this is what it is), rather than th…

Iwaidjian (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

fricativevelar

eight or nine liquids, with three rhotics and five or six laterals

Iwaidjian (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

liquidlateralrhotic

the full gamut of (voiceless) palato-alveolar, alveolar, bilabial, and (dialectally) vela…

German (Germanic, IE)

affricatesalveolarpalato-alveolar

four-way phonemic contrast of dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar, and retroflex stops

Nunggubuyu (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

stopsdentalalveolar

lack of bilabial nasal and possibly bilabial stops

Iroquois; Tlingit (Na-Dene)

bilabialnasalstops

phonemic contrast between diphthong and vowel followed by glide (see Image)

Maastricht Dutch (Germanic, IE)

diphthongglide

phonemic secondary 'labio-palatalization'(simultaneous labial rounding and palatal constr…

Twi (Kwa, Niger-Congo); French (Romance, IE)

palatalization

voiceless apico-dental plosive followed by a voiceless bilabial trill behaving as a singl…

in about a dozen words each in Wari' and Oro Win (Chapakura…

apico-dental plosivebilabial trillcomplex segments

a divine gender (for nouns for gods, saints, comets, and other supernatural referents), c…

Jicaltepec Mixtec (Oto-Manguean)

gendernoun

gender contrast of nouns, but not of pronouns (except interrogative ones, in Teop)

Turkana (Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan); Teop (Bougainville, Oceani…

nounpronoun

gender contrast (MASC/FEM) in personal pronouns for 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes also 1st plur…

Tàhàggart, Tuareg, Kabyle, Proto-Berber (?!) (Berber, Afroa…

personal pronounpersonnumber

gender contrast in personal pronouns exclusively in 1st person singular

Tocharian A (IE); Thai (Daic, Austroasiatic)

personal pronoun1st person

gender contrast (MASC/FEM) in personal pronouns exclusively in 1st person plural, both in…

Shirumba (Heiban, Kordofanian)

personal pronouninclusiveexclusive

a mixed (aka "common", "resolution", "indefinite") gender in 3rd person (probably also 2n…

all Central Khoisan lgs, and widespread also elsewhere in K…

mixed gendernumber

contrast in pronouns for 2nd and 3rd person for sex of the referent and also of the speak…

Diuxi Mixtec (Oto-Manguean)

personal pronoun

contrast in pronouns for 3rd person for number (SG/PL), gender (both of the referent and …

Yuchi (isolate, east central Oklahoma, USA)

personal pronounnumberkinship

contrast in personal pronouns for moyety, kin class, and generation level membership

Adnyamadhanha and other Australian lgs

personal pronounmoyetykinship

choice of 3rd person personal pronoun determined by gender (MASC/FEM/NEUT, contrasting in…

German (Germanic, IE)

personal pronounadverbanimacy

inflection of the great majority of words – nominal, pronominal, verbal –for sex of the s…

Yana (Hokan)

deixis

pronoun of most respectful address recruited from pronoun of identity ((allerhöchst)diese…

18th century German (Germanic, IE)

pronoun of addressrespectsocial distance

inclusive/exclusive contrast for 2nd person ('you several, non-SAPs included/excluded')

SE Ambrym (Austronesian), Port Sandwich (Austronesian) (?);…

inclusiveexclusive2nd person

dual with 1st person exclusive but not with 1st person inclusive

Yagua (Ge-Pano-Carib); Tübatulabal (Uto-Aztecan) (?); Savos…

inclusiveexclusivedual

a three-way distinction among personal pronouns between 'singular speaker', 'singular non…

Balante (West Atlantic, Niger-Congo)

personal pronoun

an ambal (aka 'paral', only referring to natural pairs) in addition to a dual (referring …

Tocharian A and B (IE) (especially B, since in A the dual i…

dualambal

a quadral number with personal pronouns

Sursurunga, Tangga (both Patpatar-Tolai, Austronesian) (?)

quadralpersonal pronoun

independent personal pronouns for 1st and 3rd (animate) person inflecting for both number…

Modern Standard English (Germanic, IE)

personal pronoun1st2nd

no number inflection at all on any personal pronouns

Mura Pirahã (isolate, Macro-Chibchan); Kawi (Old Javanese, …

personal pronoun

number marking (for plural and dual) on personal pronouns (suppletive) as well as on expr…

Bahnar (or Bahnaric in general?) (Mon-Khmer, Austro-Asiatic)

personal pronounideophone

duals up and down the referential hierarchy (ignoring INCL/EXCL) PRONOUNS NOUNS1ST …

see above, or see Image - if you can

dualpersonal pronouns

"conjunct vs. disjunct" system of (bound) person marking, with the conjunct form referrin…

Awa Pit, Tsafiki (Barbacoan); Newar, Lhasa-Tibetan, Lhomi (…

personal pronounsperson

number distinction (singular/plural) only on 2nd person pronouns, as well as on determine…

Malagasy (West Indonesian, Austronesian)

personal pronoun

laminal (tongue-blade) trill (see Image)

Czech (Slavonic, IE)

laminaltrill

velar fricative (see Image) as the sole fricative (if this is what it is), rather than th…

Iwaidjian (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

fricativevelar

three-way quantity contrast of both vowels and consonants

Estonian (?), Livonian (?), Saami (?) (all Uralic)

vowelconsonant

a derivational rule for forming nouns denoting plants from nouns denoting their fruits, a…

French (Romance, IE) Dutch (esp. Flemish; Germanic IE)

denominal nouns

a derivational rule for forming nouns denoting a disease, an inflammation, or an affectio…

Ancient Greek (Hellenic, IE) and European languages borrowi…

denominal nouns

place of articulation of vowels exploited for iconic expression of size (e.g., for diminu…

Korean (isolate); Bahnar (Mon-Khmer, Austro-Asiatic)

vowelplace of articulationsize

phonemic secondary 'labio-palatalization'(simultaneous labial rounding and palatal constr…

Twi (Kwa, Niger-Congo); French (Romance, IE)

palatalization

plural marking of a small subset of nouns (persons, kin) by lengthening of the vowel of t…

Hawaiian, Samoan (Polynesian, Austronesian)

numberpluralvowel lengthening

verb inflection with non-zero exponent for 3rd person (subject or object agreement/cross-…

Standard English (Germanic, IE)

verb inflectionperson3rd

zero exponence for plural, non-zero for singular (not singulative!) as well as dual

Imonda (Trans-New Guinea, "Papuan")

numberpluralsingular

absolutive singular (marking intransitive subject) as the morphologically most complex no…

Chukchi (Chukchi-Kamchatkan)

absolutivereduplication

absolutive (marking intransitive subject and transitive direct object) as the morphologic…

(a) Nias (Sundic, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian)<…

absolutiveergativefocus

b-ö-f 'ox'

French

cattle

a basic colour term for TURQUOISE

Tsakhur (Nakh-Daghestanian)

colour terms

(a) two basic colour terms for BLUE and LIGHT BLUE (b) and at the same time none for PURP…

(a) Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian (East Slavonic, IE); Gua…

colour terms

two basic colour terms for RED1 and RED2

Hungarian (Ugric, Uralic)

colour terms

apical trills at three places of articulation (fronted alveolar, alveolar, retroflex) (se…

Toda (Dravidian)

apicaltrill

eight or nine liquids, with three rhotics and five or six laterals

Iwaidjian (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

liquidlateralrhotic

the full gamut of (voiceless) palato-alveolar, alveolar, bilabial, and (dialectally) vela…

German (Germanic, IE)

affricatesalveolarpalato-alveolar

four-way phonemic contrast of dental, alveolar, palato-alveolar, and retroflex stops

Nunggubuyu (non-Pama Nyungan, Australian)

stopsdentalalveolar

phonemic contrast between diphthong and vowel followed by glide (see Image)

Maastricht Dutch (Germanic, IE)

diphthongglide

a ternary constraint on prosodic word size: minimal word must be a trimoraic foot

Gilbertese (Micronesian)

prosodic wordminimal wordtrimoraic foot

trimoraic and quadrimoraic syllables as a normal syllable type in the native vocabulary, …

Gilbertese (Micronesian)

syllable type

Foot Harmony: If at least one foot of a word constitutes a canonical /∪'- / iamb, th…

Yidiny (Pama-Nyungan, Australian)

iambtrocheefoot harmony

a sizable inventory of basic smell terms, i.e., one with more than two or three items

Des(s)ana (Tucanoan, Andean-Equatorial); Totonaca (Totonaca…

smell terms

labial flap /vb/ (See Image)

over 60 languages in Africa (Afroasiatic: Chadic; Niger-Con…

labial flap

bilabial trill /è/,(i) prenasalized bilabial stop with trilled release, or(ii) trilled fr…

(i) Nias (Sundic, Western Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian),…

bilabialtrill

lack of bilabial nasal and possibly bilabial stops

Iroquois; Tlingit (Na-Dene)

bilabialnasalstops

word-stress on postinitial syllable (or mora)

less than 3% of languages, including Araucanian and a few U…

postinitial syllable

word-stress (in non-focussed or naturally focussed phrases) phonetically implemented by l…

Saipan and Guam dialects of Chamorro (Austronesian; the Rot…

low pitch

'four' as a regular base for a numeral system

Nyali (aka Huku, Bantu, Niger-Congo), Afudu (affiliation?, …

use of metathesis (CV ~ VC) for grammatical purposes, viz. to express distinctions of asp…

Rotuman (Oceanic, Eastern Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian);…

metathesisaspectdefiniteness

case distinction exclusively by tone

Eastern (or Para-)Nilotic (Nilo-Saharan); (some) Cushitic, …

casetone

negation expressed negatively, by omission of material present in affirmative clause (mar…

Tamil, Kannada, Toda, and elsewhere in South Dravidian; Mal…

negation

nominative (marking intransitive and transitive subject) as the morphologically marked ca…

some older Germanic lgs (IE); Old French (Italic, IE); Orom…

nominativeaccusative

tense not only marked on verbs, but simultaneously on other words too, including nouns (t…

Kayardild, Lardil, Baagandji, Pitta-Pitta (Australian); Tit…

tenseagreement