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Voicing contrasts

  • P_VOICE: Is there a voicing distinction?
  • P_VOICED_PLOSIVES: Is there a voicing distinction in the plosives?
  • P_VOICED_FRICATIVES: Is there a voicing distinction in the fricatives?

Note that this does not just mean "Are there phonetically voiced consonants at all?"; most languages, after all , have voiced nasals at least.

Glottalized consonants

  • P_EJECTIVES: Are there ejective consonants?
  • P_IMPLOSIVES: Are there implosive consonants?
  • P_GLOTTALIZED_RESONANTS: Are there glottalized resonants?

Note that none of these categories contains the glottal stop or breathy consonants.

The sounds captured in a 1.0 valuation of these features might or might not be contrastive.

Uvular consonants

  • P_UVULARS: Does the language have any uvular consonants?
  • P_UVULAR_STOPS: Does the language have uvular stops?
  • P_UVULAR_CONTINUANTS: Does the language have uvular continuants?

Lateral consonants

  • P_LATERALS: Does the language have lateral consonants?
  • P_LATERAL_L: Does the language have a typical lateral consonant like /l/?
  • P_LATERAL_OBSTRUENTS: Does the language have lateral obstruents?

Neither of these categories include lateral clicks in WALS.

Velar nasals

  • P_VELAR_NASAL: Does the language have a velar nasal?
  • P_VELAR_NASAL_INITIAL: Does the language have a velar nasal syllable-initially?

Nasal vowels

  • P_NASAL_VOWELS: Are nasal vowels contrastive in the language?

Rounded front vowels

  • P_FRONT_ROUND_VOWELS: Are there front rounded vowels in the language?

Common consonant classes sometimes missing

  • P_BILABIALS: Does the language have bilabial consonants?
  • P_FRICATIVES: Does the language have fricatives?
  • P_NASALS: Does the language have nasal consonants?

Uncommon consonants

  • P_LABIAL_VELARS: Are there labial-velars (e.g. , "kp" , "gb") in the language?
  • P_CLICKS: Are there clicks in the language?
  • P_TH: Are there interdental , dental , or alveolar non-sibilant fricatives (e.g. , "th") in the language?
  • P_PHARYNGEALS: Are there pharyngeal sounds in the language?

Syllable structure

  • P_COMPLEX_ONSETS: Are sequences of consonants permitted in syllable onsets?
  • P_CODAS: Are codas permitted?
  • P_COMPLEX_CODAS: Is more than one consonant allowed in a syllable coda?
  • P_LONG_VOWELS: Are there distinctive long vowels in the language?

Note that these features are meant to describe the syllable structure of native vocabulary; loan words (e.g. , "sport" , "golf") may or may not obey these constraints.

Tones

  • P_TONE: Are there contrastive tones in the language?

In WALS , this feature counts languages with somewhat marginal and stress-like tone systems like Norwegian and Japanese as well.