Universal 1252:
- Original
- Front consonants are less prone to develop in accordance with consonant gradation than back consonants.
- Standardized
- Front consonants are less prone to develop in accordance with consonant gradation than back consonants.
- Keywords
- consonant gradation
- Domain
- phonology
- Type
- implication
- Status
- diachronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- sample of 48 languages in Ultan 1970
- Source
- Ultan 1970: C20
- Counterexamples
1. Consonant gradation refers to the systematic occurrence of consonant alternation which has no grammatical function (consonant change) or which does (consonant mutation). (Ultan 1970: C1).2. Good examples: Dinka (W. Nilotic, Nilo-Saharan), Loko (Mande, Niger-Congo), Nzema (Kwa, Niger-Congo), Welsh (Celtic, Indo-European), Finnish (Finnic, Uralic).