To understand "WALS-Pamela (001-040)," one must look at the intersection of global linguistic data and the work of prolific American linguist . In the context of the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS) , a "feature" (or data point) represents a structural property of a language—such as its vowel inventory or word order—mapped across thousands of languages. Mapping the World of Words
WALS is a massive database containing 192 features and over 58,000 data points. The first 40 features (001–040) specifically cover fundamental structural categories: WALS-Pamela (001-040)
Pamela Munro is a key contributor to WALS, particularly regarding North American indigenous languages. While she is not the author of every feature in the 001–040 range, her extensive descriptive work on languages like Chickasaw , Luiseño, and Mojave provides the "primary source" data that populates these features. To understand "WALS-Pamela (001-040)," one must look at
This section transitions into how words are formed, covering topics like the number of genders and nominal plurality. The Role of Pamela Munro The Role of Pamela Munro For example, her
For example, her research on Chickasaw phonology directly informs WALS features regarding syllable structure and uncommon consonants. This collaborative effort allows linguists to compare rare grammatical traits from her field research against a global sample of over 2,600 languages. Reference Munro 1976a - WALS Online