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1. May 2020
FP
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Universal 1674:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1674:

Original
Standardized
IF there is a phoneme all of whose allophones are variants of /x/, THEN there is a phoneme whose characteristic variant is /©/.
Keywords
velar, fricative, allophone
Domain
phonology
Type
implication
Status
achronic
Quality
absolute
Basis
languages mentioned in Terentjev, includung Islandic, Old Irish, Old Breton (all Celtic), Spain (Romance), Modern Greek (Greek), Shugni-Rushan (Iranian) languages, e.g. Wakhi, and Jazguljami, Avestan (Iranian )
Source
Terentjev 1969: 127-8
Counterexamples
Languages with the voiceless velar ficative /x/ that lack the corresponding voiced correlate, e.g., Munjan (Iranian, IE), Polish, Russian (Slavic, IE), Assyrian (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Piro (Arawakan) (Gamkrelidze 1975: 249-251).
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One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Cf. Gamkrelidze’s statement (#922): The presence of the voiced velar fricative phoneme in a system presupposes the simultaneous presence of the voiceless velar fricative.

    1. May 2020

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