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Universal 187:
- Original
- No language adds to the pair /t/ – /d/ a voiced aspirate /dh/ without having its voiceless counterpart /th/.
- Standardized
- IF there are /t/, /d/, and the voiced aspirate /dh/, THEN there must already be the voiceless aspirate /th/.
- Keywords
- aspirate, voice
- Domain
- phonology
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic but presumably diachronically motivated
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- unspecified
- Source
- Jakobson 1958 [1971]: 528
- Counterexamples
- Kelabit (W. Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian) (Blust 1973)
Cf. Nartey’s less restrictive claim (#799): If there is a voiced obstruent, then most likely its voiceless cognate is present as well.