The glossary is a table which lists all the features used in the game. The table provides the name of the feature as it appears in the game “Guess the Language!”©, a definition for each of these attributes and the question that a player should use. The last column presents some linguistic data to provide a concrete example of what a language in which that feature is attested looks like. English is always used for comparison.
| Feature label | Definition | Question | Evidence | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hand-arm | Some languages have a word that denotes a segment of the arm which also includes the hand. | Does your language have a word which refers at the same time to the hand and (a segment) of the arm? | No English, Yes Czech ruka 'arm' ruka 'hand' |
| 2 | ‘Cha’ for tea | In some languages the word tea, derives from the root cha (whereas for other languages it derives from te). | Does your language use the word derived from cha? | No English, Yes Portuguese chá 'tea' |
| 3 | 20 base | Some languages have a ventigesimal (i.e. base 20) numeric system, instead of a decimal one. | Does your language have a ventigesimal, or elements of a ventigesimal numeric system? | No English, Yes French quatre-vingts four(times)-twenty 'Eighty' |
| 4 | Reduplication | Some languages productively use the repetition of phonological material within a word for semantic or grammatical purposes. | Does your language display productive reduplication? | No English, Yes Mokilese roar ‘give a shudder’ roarroar ‘be shuddering’ |
| 5 | Politeness | Some languages make a distinction between a polite form and a familiar one in personal pronouns. | Does your language have at least a politeness distinction in pronouns? | No English, Yes Spanish (polite) ¿puedeustedfirmaraquí,por favor? Could you sign here, please? (familiar) ¿puedesfirmaraquí, por favor? Could you sign here, please? |
| 6 | Grammatical gender | Some languages mark gender on nouns in an arbitrary way (e.g. common nouns referring to inanimate objects are marked for gender). | Does your language have a grammatical gender-marking on nouns? | No English, Yes Italian la strada the-fem street-fem 'the house' Il vicolo the-masc alley-masc 'the alley' |
| 7 | Definite article | Some languages have definite articles to indicate that the referent of the nominal phrase is supposed to be known to the hearer. | Does your language have definite articles? | No Latin, Yes English mulier 'the woman' |
| 8 | Indefinite article | Some languages have indefinite articles to indicate that the referent of the nominal phrase is either unspecified or supposed to be unknown to the hearer. | Does your language have indefinite articles? | No Modern Standard Arabic, Yes English رئيس /rayiys/ 'a president' |
| 9 | Self and reflexive | Some languages use the same set of pronouns as reflexives and intensifiers. Reflexive pronouns indicate coreference between the subject and a non-subject argument of a transitive verb. Intensifiers reinforce the pronouns they refer to. | Does your language have intensifiers which are distinct from reflexive pronouns? | No English, Yes German Er sah sich in der Spiegelreihe 'He saw himself in the mirror' (Reflexive) Er hat selbst die Konferenzeröffnet 'He himself opened the conference' (Intensifier) |
| 10 | Tone | Some languages use tone to express lexical distinctions. | Does your language use tone? | No English, Yes Chinese |
| 11 | Pro-drop | Some languages allow a subject pronoun to be dropped, languages of this kind are referred as pro-drop. | Is your language pro-drop? | No English, Yes Greek Κάνεις αθλητισμό Káneisathlētismó? do.2.sg sport 'Do you exercise?' |
| 12 | Future morphology | Some languages have verbal morphology dedicated to the expression of future time, whereas others do not, and rely on periphrastic constructions to encode future reference. | Does your language have future verbal morphology? | No English, Yes French Je partirai demain I leave.fut tomorrow 'I will leave tomorrow' |
| 13 | Imperative morphology | Some languages have verbal morphology dedicated to the expression of imperative (e.g. second person singular and/or plural imperatives). | Does your language have imperative verbal morphology? | No English, Yes Limbu a.Ips-Ø-ɛʔ! sleep-2sg-imp ‘Sleep!’ b.Ips-amm-ɛʔ! sleep-2pl-imp ‘Sleep!’ |
| 14 | Past morphology | Some languages do not have dedicated verbal morphology for the expression of past time. | Does your language have dedicated morphology for the expression of past time? | Yes, English, No Indonesian air itudingin water that cold ‘The water is/was cold.’ |
| 15 | Order Adj N | In some languages, every adjective precedes the head noun in a nominal phrase, whereas in others, either the adjectives occur after the noun or display a variable order. | In your language, do all adjectives precede the noun? | No Apatani, Yes English akiatu dog(N) small(Adj) ‘the small dog’ |
| 16 | SVO | In some languages the basic word order of a declarative sentence is: Subject-Verb-Object. | Does your language have the basic SVO order? | No Irish, Yes English Scioban cat an t-eiraball den luch Cut.past the cat the tail off-the mouse ‘The cat cut the tail off the mouse’ |
| 17 | Order Possessor - N | In some languages the noun denoting the possessor precedes the noun referring to the possessed item. | In your language, do possessors precede the possessed item? | No Krongo, Yes English níimòmá-Kùkkú mother gen-Kukku ‘Kukku’s mother’ |
| 18 | Order Prep-N | In some languages the prepositions precede their noun, whereas in other languages they follow it and, in fact, they are called postpositions. | Does your language have prepositions? | No Hungarian, Yes English A könyvazasztalalatt van. The book the table under is ‘The book is under the table’ |
| 19 | Wh-fronting | In some languages, Wh words (i.e. questions words like what, why, where,etc.) always occur at the front of a sentence. | Does your language have Wh-fronting? | No Lango, Yes English òkélòò-nɛ̀nòŋà Okelo 3sg-see.perfwho ‘Who did Okelo see?’ |