Svan language

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Volume 9. Caucasian languages
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Genealogy

Caucasian → Kartvelian → North Kartvelian

Geography

Main country: Georgia (show on the map)

Area maps from the encyclopedia (in Russian)

Kartvelian and North Caucasian languages

Map designer: Yuri Koryakov

Identifiers

Glottolog: svan1243
ISO-639-3: sva
PHOIBLE: svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243, svan1243
WALS: sva

Features

Phonemic structure

[A‑5]	Presence of length degrees	Present [A‑5‑1]
[A‑6]	Number of length degrees	Two [A‑6‑1]
[A‑7]	Presence of vowel opposition in labialization	Absent [A‑7‑2]
[A‑9]	Presence of vowel opposition in nasalization	Absent [A‑9‑2]
[A‑13]	Diphthongs and triphthongs	Only diphthongs present [A‑13‑2]
[A‑14]	Types of diphthongs	Rising (ascending) and falling (descending) [A‑14‑3]
[A‑15]	Inventory of obstruents by laryngeal features	Ejectives present [A‑15‑3]
[A‑16]	Inventory of obstruents by manner of articulation	Plosives, affricates and fricatives [A‑16‑3]
[A‑17]	Inventory of obstruents by place of articulation	Labial, coronal, palatal, guttural and laryngeal [A‑17‑2]
[A‑18]	Inventory of labial obstruents by place of articulation	Only bilabial [A‑18‑1]
[A‑19]	Inventory of coronal obstruents by place of articulation	Dental and alveolar [A‑19‑6]
[A‑20]	Inventory of guttural obstruents by place of articulation	Velar [A‑20‑1]
[A‑21]	Inventory of postuvular obstruents by place of articulation	Both pharyngeal and glottal [A‑21‑3]
[A‑22]	Additional articulatory oppositions of obstruents	Absent [A‑22‑1]
[A‑23]	Inventory of sonorants by manner of articulation	Nasal, liquid and vibrant [A‑23‑2]
[A‑24]	Inventory of sonorants by place of articulation	Labial and coronal [A‑24‑7]
[A‑25]	Additional articulatory oppositions of sonorants	Absent [A‑25‑1]

Prosodic phenomena

[B‑1]	Basic prosodic unit	Stress [B‑1‑1]
[B‑2]	Prosodic unit carrier	Syllable [B‑2‑1]
[B‑3]	Character of prosodic unit by its choice	Phonological [B‑3‑1]
[B‑4]	Stress type (quality characteristics)	Pitch-accent and dynamic [B‑4‑4]
[B‑5]	Stress fixedness	Flexible [B‑5‑1]
[B‑7]	Stress pattern in inflection	Flexible [B‑7‑1]

Syllable

[C‑1]	Syllable onset	Most syllables have a non-null onset [C‑1‑2]
[C‑2]	Syllable coda	Most syllables have a non-null coda [C‑2‑2]
[C‑3]	Consonant clusters in syllable	Consonant clusters are possible at both the onset and the coda of syllable [C‑3‑4]

Phonologic structure and phenomena

[D‑2]

Types of restrictions on the phonemic structure in the initial position

No consonant clusters [D‑2‑7]

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	Synthetic [E‑4‑5]

Nominal classifications

[F‑1]	Number of agreement classes	No agreement classes [F‑1‑1]
[F‑7]	Nouns classifying categories	Absent [F‑7‑1]

Number

[G‑1]	Number in nouns	Singular and plural [G‑1‑1]
[G‑2]	Single number marking	Unmarked [G‑2‑2]

Case meanings

[H‑1]

Number of noun cases

Three-seven [H‑1‑2]

Verbal categories

[I‑1]	Voice forms expression	Morphonological alternation and affixes [I‑1‑16]
[I‑2]	Voice stacking in the same verb form	Absent [I‑2‑2]
[I‑4]	Voice forms coincidence	Absent [I‑4‑1]

Deictic categories

No filled features for this language.

Parts of speech and inflection

[K‑2]	Articles	Only indefinite [K‑2‑2]
[K‑7]	Number of conjugation types	Three types of conjugation [K‑7‑3]
[K‑8]	Verb agreement types	Subject and subject-object [K‑8‑4]

Word formation

No filled features for this language.

Simple sentence

[M‑3]	Dominant word order	SOV [M‑3‑2]
[M‑4]	Order of nouns and its modifier	Modifier precedes noun [M‑4‑1]

Complex sentence

[N‑4]	Compound sentence types	Subordination and compounding [N‑4‑4]
[N‑5]	Compound sentence syndesis and asyndeton	Both syndesis and asyndeton possible [N‑5‑3]

Unfilled features

The encyclopedia contains no information

[A-1] Number of degrees of vowel height
[A-2] Vowel height degrees
[A-3] Opposition in openness/closedness for vowel height degrees
[A-4] Degrees of vowel backness
[A-11] Vowel opposition in pharyngealization
[A-12] Vowel opposition in ATR
[A-26] Inventory of fricatives by place of articulation
[B-15] Length character
[B-16] Target of vowel harmony
[B-17] Feature of vowel harmony
[B-18] Trigger of vowel harmony
[B-19] Other suprasegmental phenomena
[B-20] Types of phonation
[D-1] Restrictions on the phonemic structure in the initial position
[D-3] Restrictions on the phonemic structure in the final position
[D-4] Types of restrictions on the phonemic structure in the final position
[D-5] Variants of characteristics of the syllabic structure of words
[D-6] Differences between content and function words
[D-7] Types of differences between content and function words
[D-8] Differences between native and borrowed words
[D-9] Types of differences between native and borrowed words
[D-10] Differences between roots and affixes
[D-11] Types of differences between roots and affixes
[D-12] Functional type of alternations
[D-13] Type of altenations
[E-2] Fusional type features
[E-3] Agglutinative type features
[F-5] Attributive agreement in gender
[F-6] Agreement of cardinal numerals in gender
[F-8] Opposition by person/non-person
[F-9] Expression of animacy/inanimacy
[G-3] Honorific forms in pronouns and verbs
[G-4] Agreement in number
[G-5] Form of a noun in numeral phrases
[G-6] Numeral system
[H-2] Subject and object marking
[H-3] Case of nominal predicate
[H-4] Case marking of possessive relations
[H-5] Other means of expressing possessive relations
[H-6] Means of expressing spatial relations
[H-7] Dependent nouns in possessive constructions
[H-8] Case marking of animate and inanimate nouns
[H-9] Secondary cases
[I-3] Double voice forms
[I-5] Tense forms
[I-6] Aspect and tense expression
[I-7] Expression of tense categories
[I-8] Syncretic expression of several verb meanings
[I-9] Marking of person in present tense verbs
[I-10] Transitivity marker
[J-1] Pronominal words
[J-2] Expression of deictic categories
[J-3] Function words expressing spatial orientation of action
[J-4] Content words expressing spatial orientation of action
[J-5] Morphological expression of (in)definiteness
[J-6] Words expressing (in)definiteness
[J-7] Grammatical ways to express politeness
[J-8] Expression of negation
[J-9] Negation marker position
[K-1] Personal pronouns inflection
[K-4] Article place
[K-5] Position of article in noun phrase
[K-6] Grammar categories of article
[K-9] Agreement categories expressed in participle
[K-10] Tense expressed by participle
[K-11] Adverb grammar categories
[K-12] Agreement categories expressed in adjective
[K-13] Cumulative expression of several categories in adjective
[K-14] Attribute agreement of adjectives
[K-15] Attributive agreement types
[K-16] Inflectional categories of noun
[K-17] Cumulative expression of several categories in noun
[K-18] Inflection means
[K-19] Word form model
[L-1] Word formation means
[L-2] Derivation affixes
[L-3] Stems relations in stem compounding
[M-2] Word order fixedness
[M-5] Pro-drop
[N-1] Clauses order in compound sentence
[N-2] Dependent clause distinctions in complex sentences
[N-3] Dependent clause predicate

Feature is not applicable to this language

[A-8] Vowel opposition in labialization
[A-10] Vowel opposition in nasalization
[B-6] Fixed stress types
[B-8] Strictly fixed stress type (by position in a word)
[B-9] Limited stress carriers
[B-10] Tonema types
[B-11] Number of level tones
[B-12] Level tone types
[B-13] Number of contour tone levels
[B-14] Contour tonema types
[F-2] Morphological expression of agreement classes
[F-3] Syntactic expression of agreement classes
[F-4] Other means of expressing agreement classes
[K-3] Indefinite article and numeral 'one'