The Language Sample

The preliminary language sample for the exceptives project consists of 36 languages. The main goal is to create a variety sample: a sample that displays the greatest linguistic variety. It was developed use the sampling criteria in Rijkhoff & Bakker 1998 and Bakker 2010, which relies on Diversity Values (DV), a numerical representation of a language family’s diversity using language classification from Ethnologue (Eberhard et al. 2020). The language sample contains languages from the different families, in proportion to their diversity (see esp. Rijkhoff & Bakker 1998:274).

In addition to the genetic, geographical, and structural balance, we made our initial choices so as to include languages which meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Comprehensive grammars are available
• Language consultants are available, either through the project staff’s connections or via colleagues engaged with the relevant community
• The project staff has experience working on the language

The sample excludes languages where exceptives have already received some attention in the linguistic literature. These languages will be used as a standard of comparison for our findings.

To cite a completed questionnaire, please use the following format:

Last name, First name. Year. Title. Zenodo. DOI.

For example, the following is a citation for the Malagasy questionnaire:

Potsdam, Eric. 2023. Exceptives Questionnaire – Malagasy. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7851055

Language	Family	Geographical Location	Diversity Value
LANGUAGE	FAMILY	GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION	DIVERSITY VALUE
Abaza	NW Caucasian	Caucasus	1.5
American Sign Language	sign languages	North America	1.5
Asante Twi	Niger-Congo	Africa	n/a
Avar	Nakh-Daghestanian	Eurasia	5.25
Basque	isolate	Europe	1.0
Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian	Indo-European	Europe	n/a
Brazilian Portuguese	Indo-European	South America	n/a
Chukchi	Paleosiberian	Asia	2.5
Chuvash (Poshkart Dialect)	Turkic	Eurasia	n/a
Cook Islands Māori	Austronesian	Pacific	141.76
Copala Triqui	Oto-Manguean	Central America	12.15
Dinka	Nilo-Saharan	Africa	46.03
Fula	Niger-Congo	Africa	130.36
Georgian	Kartvelian	Eurasia	1.5
Guarani	Tupi-Guarani	South America	15.15
Hindi	Indo-European	Asia	n/a
Hungarian	Uralic	Europe	5.93
Inuttitut	Eskimo-Aleut	North America	2.9
Irish	Indo-European	Europe	50.34
Italian	Indo-European	Europe	n/a
Japanese	Japonic	Asia	n/a
Karin(j)a	Carib	South America	8.23
Khmer	Austroasiatic	Asia	35.54
K’iche’	Mayan	Central America	n/a
Korean	isolate	Asia	1.0
Malagasy	Austronesian	Africa	141.76
Mandarin Chinese	Sino-Tibetan	Asia	39.13
Modern Hebrew	Semitic	Eurasia	n/a
Mohawk	Iroquoian	North America	4.69
Naasioi	Papua (Trans-New Guinean)	Pacific	86.69
Navajo	Na-Dene	North America	8.28
Nishnaabemwin	Algonquian	North America	7.38
Oromo	Afro-Asiatic	Africa	52.76
Papiamentu	creole	South America	23.38
Purepecha	isolate	Central America	1.0
Q’anjob’al	Mayan	Central America	11.54
Quechua	Quechuan	South America	2.92
Svan	S Caucasian	Caucasus	n/a
Tai	Tai-Kadai	Asia	35.54
Tamil	Dravidian	Asia	11.18
Telugu	Dravidian	Asia	n/a
Thai	Kra-Dai	Asia	n/a
Tibetan	Sino-Tibetan	Asia	39.13
Tok Pisin	creole	Pacific	23.38
Turkish	Turkic	Asia	14.51
Warlpiri	Australian	Australia	58.92
Yiddish	Indo-European	Europe, North America	50.34
Zulu	Niger-Congo	Africa	130.36