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Kpelle language

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PDFVolume 21. Mande languages
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Genealogy

Mande → Western → Southwestern Mande

Geography

Main country: Guinea (show on the map)

Identifiers

Features

Phonemic structure

[A‑1] Number of degrees of vowel height Four [A‑1‑3]
[A‑2] Vowel height degrees Close, close-mid, open-mid and open [A‑2‑5]
[A‑3] Degrees of vowel backness Front, central and back [A‑3‑4]
[A‑4] Number of length degrees No length degrees [A‑4‑1]
[A‑5] Vowel opposition in labialization Present for front vowels [A‑5‑2]
[A‑6] Vowel opposition in nasalization Present for front, central and back vowels [A‑6‑4]
[A‑7] Vowel opposition in pharyngealization No vowel opposition in pharyngealization [A‑7‑1]
[A‑8] Vowel opposition in ATR No vowel opposition in ATR [A‑8‑1]
[A‑9] Diphthongs and triphthongs No diphthongs and triphthongs [A‑9‑1]
[A‑13] Inventory of obstruents by place of articulation Labial, coronal, dorsal and guttural [A‑13‑3]
[A‑14] Inventory of labial obstruents by place of articulation Bilabial and labiodental [A‑14‑2]
[A‑15] Inventory of coronal obstruents by place of articulation Dental [A‑15‑1]
[A‑16] Inventory of guttural obstruents by place of articulation Velar and labiovelar [A‑16‑4]
[A‑18] Additional articulatory oppositions of obstruents By labialization [A‑18‑2]
[A‑19] Inventory of sonorants by manner of articulation Nasal, liquid and glide [A‑19‑3]
[A‑20] Inventory of sonorants by place of articulation Labial, coronal, dorsal and guttural [A‑20‑17]
[A‑21] Additional articulatory oppositions of sonorants By labialization [A‑21‑4]

Prosodic phenomena

[B‑1] Stress character No stress [B‑1‑1]
[B‑6] Number of tone levels Two [B‑6‑1]
[B‑8] Tone carrier Syllable [B‑8‑1]
[B‑9] Length character Non-phonological [B‑9‑2]
[B‑10] Target of vowel harmony Foot [B‑10‑8]
[B‑11] Feature of vowel harmony Backness [B‑11‑2]
[B‑13] Other suprasegmental phenomena Nasalization [B‑13‑1]

Syllable

[C‑1] Syllable onset Both null and non-null onset possible [C‑1‑5]
[C‑2] Syllable coda Only null coda possible [C‑2‑2]

Phonologic structure and phenomena

[D‑1] Restrictions on the phonemic structure of segment morphemes in the initial position Limited set of consonants possible [D‑1‑4]
[D‑2] Restrictions on the phonemic structure of segment morphemes in the final position Only vowels possible [D‑2‑2]
[D‑4] Differences between content and function words No differences [D‑4‑1]
[D‑6] Differences between roots and affixes No differences [D‑6‑1]

Morphological type of language

[E‑1] Type of language by type of morpheme combination in a word Agglutinative with some fusional features [E‑1‑2]
[E‑4] Type of language by degree of morpheme cohesion Analytic with elements of synthetism [E‑4‑3]

Nominal classifications

[F‑1] Number of agreement classes No agreement classes [F‑1‑1]
[F‑8] Opposition by person/non-person Lexical [F‑8‑1]
[F‑9] Expression of animacy/inanimacy Lexical [F‑9‑1]

Number

[G‑1] Number in nouns Singular and plural [G‑1‑1]
[G‑2] Single number marking Unmarked [G‑2‑2]
[G‑3] Honorific forms in pronouns and verbs Absent [G‑3‑1]
[G‑4] Agreement in number No agreement in number [G‑4‑1]
[G‑5] Form of a noun in numeral phrases Singular [G‑5‑1]
[G‑6] Numeral system Decimal with elements of quinary [G‑6‑8]

Case meanings

[H‑1] Number of noun cases One-two [H‑1‑1]
[H‑2] Subject and object marking Function words [H‑2‑4]
[H‑6] Means of expressing spatial relations Noun affixes and postpositions [H‑6‑11]
[H‑8] Case marking of animate and inanimate nouns Same [H‑8‑1]
[H‑9] Secondary cases Absent [H‑9‑2]

Verbal categories

[I‑1] Voice forms expression Category of voice is absent [I‑1‑1]

Deictic categories

No filled features for this language.

Parts of speech and inflection

No filled features for this language.

Word formation

No filled features for this language.

Simple sentence

No filled features for this language.

Complex sentence

No filled features for this language.

Unfilled features

The encyclopedia contains no information

Feature is not applicable to this language