Table 1. Estimates of stability given by the various methods, converted to relative ranks (from 0.00 = most unstable, to 1.00 = most stable) for easiness of comparison between methods.

ID	Feature		Stability estimates (unstable to stable)
	Name	Area	CM	CC	CR	D	P1	P2	W	M
1	Consonant inventories	P	0.21	0.41	0.11	0.01	0.36	0.56	0.10	0.02
2	Vowel quality inventories	P	0.43	0.79	0.75	0.50	0.65	0.38	0.48	0.40
3	Consonant-vowel ratio	P	–	–	–	0.04	0.48	0.29	0.18	0.07
4	Voicing in plosives and fricatives	P	0.75	0.55	0.44	0.22	0.22	0.49	0.24	0.15
5	Voicing and gaps in plosive systems	P	0.68	0.82	0.88	–	0.16	0.43	0.38	0.43
6	Uvular consonants	P	0.56	0.95	0.87	0.94	0.76	0.04	0.58	0.91
7	Glottalized consonants	P	0.66	0.93	0.91	0.75	0.57	0.85	0.67	0.70
8	Lateral consonants	P	0.55	0.85	0.58	0.46	0.39	0.80	0.46	0.49
9	Velar nasals	P	0.53	0.87	0.84	0.65	0.79	0.67	0.84	0.85
10	Vowel nasalization	P	0.29	0.95	0.74	0.97	0.74	0.96	0.91	0.88
11	Front rounded vowels	P	0.19	1.00	1.00	0.99	0.87	0.01	0.08	0.96
12	Syllable structure	P	0.31	0.76	0.60	0.37	0.16	0.10	0.28	0.43
13	Tone	P	0.46	0.92	0.90	0.90	0.29	0.56	0.75	0.69
14	Fixed stress locations	P	0.24	0.17	0.06	–	0.29	0.25	0.32	0.23
15	Weight-sensitive stress	P	0.26	0.32	0.16	–	0.48	0.35	0.13	0.12
16	Weight factors in weight-sensitive stress systems	P	0.14	0.20	0.02	–	0.50	0.29	0.07	0.03
17	Rhythm types	P	0.21	0.06	0.28	–	0.79	0.47	0.25	0.25
18	Absence of common consonants	P	0.61	0.99	0.99	1.00	0.92	0.96	0.88	0.99
19	Presence of uncommon consonants	P	0.41	0.97	0.92	–	0.60	0.21	0.16	0.68
20	Fusion of selected inflectional formatives	M	0.65	0.68	0.76	–	0.04	0.47	0.50	0.56
21	Exponence of selected inflectional formatives	M	0.87	0.39	0.54	–	0.34	0.44	0.87	0.46
22	Inflectional synthesis of the verb	M	0.38	0.15	0.10	–	0.39	0.35	0.09	0.01
23	Locus of marking in the clause	M	0.88	0.24	0.19	0.19	0.25	0.51	0.36	0.09
24	Locus of marking in possessive noun phrases	M	0.71	0.36	0.17	0.34	0.08	0.38	0.33	0.06
25	Locus of marking: whole-language typology	M	–	–	–	–	0.29	0.66	0.56	0.38
26	Prefixing versus suffixing in inflectional morphology	M	0.90	0.34	0.22	–	0.89	0.82	0.64	0.26
27	Reduplication	M	0.15	0.50	0.29	0.66	0.18	0.57	0.55	0.80
28	Case syncretism	M	0.78	0.77	0.59	–	0.50	0.62	0.96	0.97
29	Syncretism in verbal person/number marking	M	0.64	0.69	0.80	–	0.39	0.59	0.97	0.92
30	Number of genders	NC	0.84	0.64	0.18	0.56	0.67	0.92	0.99	0.86
31	Sex-based and non-sex-based gender systems	NC	0.88	0.74	0.50	–	0.89	0.99	1.00	1.00
32	Systems of gender assignment	NC	0.84	0.72	0.27	–	0.80	0.97	0.95	0.86
33	Coding of nominal plurality	NC	0.69	0.53	0.12	–	0.76	0.80	0.63	0.42
34	Occurrence of nominal plurality	NC	0.25	0.11	0.15	–	0.52	0.69	0.06	0.07
35	Plurality in independent personal pronouns	NC	0.51	0.46	0.05	–	0.22	0.43	0.47	0.13
36	Associative plural	NC	0.37	0.09	0.12	–	0.29	0.33	0.37	0.10
37	Definite articles	NC	0.29	0.29	0.09	0.10	0.52	0.31	0.13	0.04
38	Indefinite articles	NC	0.35	0.17	0.09	0.13	0.29	0.27	0.15	0.04
39	Inclusive/exclusive dist. in independent pronouns	NC	0.56	0.89	0.85	–	0.55	0.89	0.92	0.77
40	Inclusive/exclusive forms for ‘we’	NC	0.86	0.55	0.35	–	0.45	0.98	0.93	0.46
41	Distance contrasts in demonstratives	NC	0.02	0.40	0.34	0.32	0.34	0.71	0.12	0.32
42	Pronominal and adnominal demonstratives	NC	0.05	0.32	0.48	0.63	0.76	0.59	0.78	0.83
43	Third-person pronouns and demonstratives	NC	0.03	0.15	0.02	0.12	0.06	0.27	0.37	0.14
44	Gender dist. in independent personal pronouns	NC	0.64	0.91	0.74	0.49	0.80	0.88	0.76	0.74
45	Politeness distinctions in pronouns	NC	0.49	0.69	0.53	0.31	0.06	0.01	0.11	0.57
46	Indefinite pronouns	NC	0.58	0.22	0.29	–	0.67	0.06	0.52	0.64
47	Intensifiers and reflexive pronouns	NC	0.12	0.35	0.62	–	0.67	0.90	0.90	0.88
48	Person marking on adpositions	NC	0.68	0.81	0.73	0.35	–	–	0.61	0.62
49	Number of cases	NC	0.97	0.24	0.08	0.03	0.29	0.51	0.60	0.09
50	Asymmetrical case marking	NC	0.94	0.45	0.32	0.09	0.21	0.59	0.73	0.34
51	Position of case affixes	NC	0.95	0.53	0.56	–	0.57	0.82	0.71	0.60
52	Comitatives and instrumentals	NC	0.51	0.24	0.40	–	0.39	0.05	0.17	0.27
53	Ordinal numerals	NC	0.47	0.12	0.03	0.07	0.25	0.40	0.60	0.12
54	Distributive numerals	NC	0.16	0.02	0.20	–	0.63	0.41	0.69	0.59
55	Numeral classifiers	NC	0.04	0.43	0.57	0.84	0.73	0.23	0.59	0.87
56	Conjunctions and universal quantifiers	NC	0.05	0.04	0.31	–	0.18	0.12	0.35	0.18
57	Position of pronominal possessive affixes	NC	0.62	0.39	0.24	0.54	0.98	0.87	0.86	0.62
58	Obligatory possessive inflection	NS	0.43	0.89	0.88	0.93	0.29	0.89	0.01	0.72
59	Possessive classification	NS	0.59	0.65	0.40	0.76	0.73	0.86	0.02	0.08
60	Genitives, adjectives, and relative clauses	NS	0.22	0.05	0.60	–	0.39	0.34	0.07	0.05
61	Adjectives without nouns	NS	0.09	0.02	0.77	–	0.45	0.27	0.82	0.22
62	Action nominal constructions	NS	0.08	0.07	0.01	–	0.63	0.21	0.65	0.17
63	Noun phrase conjunction	NS	0.59	0.19	0.89	–	0.03	0.68	0.83	0.76
64	Nominal and verbal conjunction	NS	0.28	0.30	0.45	0.43	0.18	0.19	0.21	0.45
65	Perfective/imperfective aspect	VC	0.41	0.57	0.66	0.68	0.11	0.35	0.54	0.70
66	Past tense	VC	0.83	0.35	0.39	0.47	0.86	0.72	0.79	0.58
67	Future tense	VC	0.74	0.57	0.71	0.59	0.48	0.18	0.34	0.59
68	Perfect	VC	0.72	0.47	0.65	0.18	0.04	0.14	0.25	0.22
69	Position of tense-aspect affixes	VC	0.92	0.66	0.57	–	0.95	0.75	0.72	0.61
70	Morphological imperative	VC	0.76	0.67	0.50	0.21	0.71	0.68	0.32	0.37
71	Prohibitive	VC	0.18	0.43	0.07	–	0.65	0.31	0.28	0.20
72	Imperative-hortative systems	VC	0.24	0.75	0.61	–	0.52	0.15	0.17	0.44
73	Optative	VC	0.11	0.98	0.95	0.96	0.81	0.14	0.90	0.96
74	Situational possibility	VC	0.10	0.67	0.52	–	0.44	0.24	0.43	0.53
75	Epistemic possibility	VC	0.55	0.53	0.26	–	0.06	0.15	0.41	0.24
76	Overlap b/w situational & epistemic modal marking	VC	0.33	0.38	0.33	0.28	0.25	0.03	0.04	0.11
77	Semantic distinctions of evidentiality	VC	0.91	0.74	0.86	0.40	0.76	0.25	0.42	0.36
78	Coding of evidentiality	VC	0.91	0.61	0.70	–	0.60	0.22	0.22	0.31
79	Suppletion according to tense and aspect	VC	0.38	0.72	0.36	0.62	0.11	0.64	0.79	0.66
80	Verbal number and suppletion	VC	0.26	0.93	0.82	0.53	0.97	1.00	0.62	0.63
81	Order of subject, object, and verb	WO	0.98	0.41	0.46	–	0.90	0.74	0.81	0.50
82	Order of subject and verb	WO	0.85	0.96	0.96	0.79	0.95	0.74	0.53	0.90
83	Order of object and verb	WO	1.00	0.84	0.98	0.74	0.99	0.56	0.94	0.84
84	Order of object, oblique, and verb	WO	0.81	0.10	0.63	–	0.48	0.51	0.87	0.57
85	Order of adposition and noun phrase	WO	0.99	0.84	0.98	0.57	0.96	0.78	0.97	0.93
86	Order of genitive and noun	WO	0.98	0.88	0.93	0.87	0.99	0.88	0.93	0.91
87	Order of adjective and noun	WO	0.79	0.83	0.83	0.51	0.87	0.76	0.76	0.83
88	Order of demonstrative and noun	WO	0.96	0.90	0.81	–	0.92	0.77	0.66	0.71
89	Order of numeral and noun	WO	0.79	0.79	0.68	0.71	0.82	0.91	0.85	0.89
90	Order of relative clause and noun	WO	0.57	0.50	0.53	–	0.22	0.41	0.84	0.78
91	Order of degree word and adjective	WO	0.43	0.15	0.64	0.60	0.63	0.64	0.49	0.52
92	Position of polar question particles	WO	0.17	0.26	0.13	0.06	0.67	0.33	0.29	0.21
93	Position of interrogative phrases in content questions	WO	0.53	0.73	0.67	0.44	0.76	0.78	0.66	0.81
94	Order of adverbial subordinator and clause	WO	0.89	0.32	0.43	–	0.18	0.49	0.69	0.54
95	Relationship between OV/VO and PREP/POST	WO	–	–	–	0.38	0.91	0.59	–	0.75
96	Relationship between OV/VO and N REL/REL N	WO	–	–	–	0.25	0.34	0.38	–	0.67
97	Relationship between OV/VO and ADJ-N/N-ADJ	WO	–	–	–	0.15	0.70	0.65	–	0.54
98	Alignment of case marking of full noun phrases	SC	0.95	0.61	0.36	–	0.84	0.69	0.71	0.39
99	Alignment of case marking of pronouns	SC	0.83	0.48	0.37	–	0.44	0.76	0.78	0.29
100	Alignment of verbal person marking	SC	0.74	0.63	0.33	–	0.57	0.83	0.51	0.41
101	Expression of pronominal subjects	SC	0.78	0.50	0.14	–	0.69	0.54	0.43	0.41
102	Verbal person marking	SC	0.93	0.71	0.81	0.24	0.21	0.19	0.19	0.28
103	Third-person zero of verbal person marking	SC	0.81	0.61	0.55	–	0.36	0.49	0.31	0.20
104	Order of person markers on the verb	SC	0.70	0.61	0.47	0.16	0.71	0.46	0.57	0.38
105	Ditransitive constructions: the verb ‘give’	SC	0.31	0.32	0.16	–	0.93	0.85	0.19	0.14
106	Reciprocal constructions	SC	0.48	0.15	0.25	–	0.11	0.56	0.22	0.30
107	Passive constructions	SC	0.20	0.97	0.97	0.69	0.82	0.81	0.39	0.82
108	Antipassive constructions	SC	0.37	0.86	0.49	0.82	0.13	0.65	0.23	0.47
109	Applicative constructions	SC	0.40	0.50	0.23	0.26	0.16	0.71	0.54	0.30
110	Periphrastic causative constructions	SC	0.13	0.09	0.64	–	0.11	0.44	0.10	0.33
111	Nonperiphrastic causative constructions	SC	0.20	0.91	0.47	–	0.29	0.84	0.74	0.80
112	Negative morphemes	SC	0.77	0.54	0.22	–	0.84	0.41	0.34	0.36
113	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation	SC	0.60	0.78	0.78	0.29	0.39	0.61	0.27	0.17
114	Subtypes of asymmetric standard negation	SC	0.46	0.45	0.05	–	0.39	0.53	0.45	0.16
115	Negative indefinite pronouns and predicate negation	SC	0.40	0.28	0.94	–	0.08	0.11	0.03	0.73
116	Polar questions	SC	0.73	0.65	0.43	–	0.48	0.23	0.29	0.51
117	Predicative possession	SC	0.17	0.04	0.04	–	0.71	0.62	0.51	0.28
118	Predicative adjectives	SC	0.66	0.29	0.30	0.72	0.96	0.94	0.99	0.95
119	Nominal and locational predication	SC	0.63	0.59	0.79	0.91	0.91	0.94	0.98	0.99
120	Zero copula for predicate nominals	SC	0.30	0.57	0.71	0.85	0.88	0.10	0.40	0.79
121	Comparative constructions	SC	0.52	0.01	0.67	–	0.02	0.15	0.89	0.72
122	Relativization on subjects	CS	0.33	0.38	0.72	–	0.57	0.11	0.68	0.93
123	Relativization on obliques	CS	0.09	0.07	0.42	–	0.29	0.07	0.57	0.35
124	want complement clauses	CS	0.13	0.13	0.21	–	0.57	0.73	0.40	0.33
125	Purpose clauses	CS	0.35	0.21	0.41	–	0.16	0.49	0.75	0.49
126	when clauses	CS	0.70	0.24	0.26	0.41	0.63	0.37	0.46	0.48
127	Reason clauses	CS	0.45	0.28	0.38	–	0.13	0.10	0.70	0.64
128	Utterance complement clauses	CS	0.07	0.26	0.51	–	0.55	0.17	0.04	0.55
129	‘hand’ and ‘arm’	L	0.02	0.12	0.69	0.78	0.43	0.04	0.63	0.65
130	‘finger’ and ‘hand’	L	0.01	0.20	0.95	–	0.34	0.93	0.49	0.94
131	Numeral bases	L	0.49	0.47	0.19	–	0.54	0.93	0.26	0.25
132	Number of nonderived basic colour categories	L	–	–	–	–	0.06	0.29	0.14	0.19
133	Number of basic colour categories	L	–	–	–	–	0.11	0.18	0.05	0.01
134	‘green’ and ‘blue’	L	–	–	–	–	0.39	0.08	0.44	0.51
135	‘red’ and ‘yellow’	L	–	–	–	–	0.60	–	0.01	0.78
136	M-T pronouns	L	0.27	0.77	0.91	0.81	1.00	0.99	0.20	0.98
137	N-M pronouns	L	0.06	0.81	0.77	0.88	0.84	–	0.81	0.75
138	Etymology of ‘tea’	L	0.33	0.02	0.84	–	0.01	0.07	–	0.67
139	Irregular Negatives in Sign Languages	SL	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
140	Question Particles in Sign Languages	SL	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
141	Writing Systems	O	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
142	Paralinguistic usages of clicks	O	–	–	–	–	0.01	0.02	–	–

ID and Name are as in WALS [39]. D is [35]’s , and are [58]’s “all families” and “accepted families only”, W is [59]’s “metric C”, CM, CC and CR are [43]’s “Mantel”, “Coherence” and “Rank” methods, M represents estimates of Maslova’s stability (as implemented by us). We used -D and -CR to ensure that all estimates have the same directionality. The WALS Area is given as Phonology, Morphology, Nominal Categories, Nominal Syntax, Verbal Categories, Word Order, Simple Clauses, Complex Sentences, Lexicon, Sign Languages and Other. See text for details.