The World Atlas of Language Structures
| Authors: | Matthew S. Dryer, Martin Haspelmath, et al. |
|---|---|
| Updated: | Tue 24 December 2013 |
| Source: | https://wals.info/ |
| Type: | digital database |
| Languages: | cross-linguistic |
| Keywords: | phonology, semantics, linguistics, grammar, lexical, database, language-structure |
| Open Access: | yes |
| License: | CC BY 4.0 |
| Publications: | Dryer, M., Haspelmath, M., Gil, D., Comrie, B. (Eds.). (2005). The World Atlas of Language Structures. Oxford University Press. |
| Citation: | Dryer, M. & Haspelmath, M. (Eds.). (2013). The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. https://wals.info/ |
| Summary: | The World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) is a large database of structural (phonological, grammatical, lexical) properties of languages gathered from descriptive materials (such as reference grammars) by a team of 55 authors. WALS contains different features, which is a structural property of language that describes one aspect of cross-linguistic diversity. A WALS feature has between 2 and 28 different values, shown by different colours on the maps. Most features correspond straightforwardly to chapters, but some chapters are about multiple features. |