Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
543 entries · page 3 of 11
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 759 | There are at most four injective obstruents. | phonology | unconditional | consonant, obstruent, injective |
| 760 | IF there is at least one posterior (compact) injective, THEN there will be least one anterior (diffuse) injective. | phonology | implication | consonant, injective, posterior, anterior, compact, diffuse |
| 761 | The injective corresponding to a noninjective dental is often retracted to the alveolar or alveopalatal position and is consistently apical, often with accompanying retroflexion. | phonology | unconditional | consonant, injective, noninjective, dental, alveolar, alveopalatal, apical, retroflexion |
| 762 | IF there are bilabial, alveolar, and palatal implosives,THEN ¿y is used in place of the expected palatal stop. | phonology | implication | implosive, stop, bilabial, alveolar, palatal |
| 763 | Palatal noninjective stops have a strong tendency to be replaced by alveopalatal affricates. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | palatal, injective, stop, alveopalatal, affricate, noninjective |
| 764 | IF there are glottalic consonants in positions other than syllable-initial, THEN they will also occur syllable-initially. | phonology | implication | syllable, initial, glottalic, consonant |
| 765 | Injectives tend not to cluster with plain consonants. | phonology | unconditional | injective, consonant cluster |
| 766 | A voiced injective, like an ordinary breathy or voiced consonant, may raise tone or have no effect at all, but may not lower tone. | phonology | unconditional | consonant, injective, voice, tone |
| 767 | IF there are unvoiced ejectives, THEN there will be plain stops. | phonology | implication | ejective, stop, voice |
| 768 | When ... the injective in the dental or alveolar position has become retracted and/or retroflexed, there is a tendency for its glottalic feature to be lost since it has become redundant. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | injective, glottalic, dental, alveolar, retracted, retroflexed |
| 769 | There is at least one primary fricative. | phonology | unconditional | primary, fricative |
| 770 | IF there is only one primary fricative, THEN its primary allophone is most likely to be /s/. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | fricative, sibilant |
| 771 | IF there are only two primary fricatives, THEN the second one is most likely to be /f/. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | fricative |
| 772 | The number of voiceless primary fricatives is highly likely to be greater than the number of voiced ones. | phonology | implication | fricative, voice |
| 773 | IF there is a voiced primary fricative, THEN there is also the corresponding unvoiced primary fricative. | phonology | implication | fricative, voice |
| 774 | The preferred number of primary fricatives in a given language is two. | phonology | unconditional | fricative |
| 775 | The number of primary fricatives is very unlikely to be greater than the number of stops and affricates together. | phonology | implication | fricative, stop, affricate |
| 776 | IF there are secondary fricatives, THEN there will be primary fricatives. | phonology | implication | fricative |
| 777 | The number of secondary fricatives is never greater than that of primary fricatives. | phonology | implication | fricative |
| 778 | Every language must have at least one Primary Nasal Consonant in its inventory. | phonology | unconditional | nasal, consonant |
| 779 | IF there is an /h/, THEN there will most likely also be a primary fricative. | phonology | implication | fricative |
| 780 | There are at least three primary oral stops. | phonology | unconditional | consonant, oral, stop |
| 781 | IF there are only three primary oral stops, THEN their primary allophones are most likely to be /p t k/. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant, oral, stop, allophone |
| 782 | IF there is an affricated stop, THEN there is most likely to be at least three plain stops. | phonology | implication | affricate, stop |
| 783 | IF there is only one primary affricated stop, THEN the primary allophone is most likely to be /t∫/. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | affricate, allophone |
| 784 | The number of voiceless primary oral stops is nearly always greater than the number of voiced ones. | phonology | implication | consonant, oral, stop, voice |
| 785 | IF there is a voiced primary oral stop, THEN its the voiceless equivalent is highly likely to be present too. | phonology | implication | consonant, oral, stop, voice |
| 786 | The number of primary oral affricates will be less than the number of primary oral stops. | phonology | implication | oral, affricate, stop, primary |
| 787 | The preferred number of primary oral stops in a given language is between four and eight. | phonology | unconditional | consonant, oral, stop |
| 788 | IF there are secondary oral stops, THEN there are most likely primary ones as well. | phonology | implication | consonant, oral, stop |
| 789 | The number of secondary oral stops is not likely to be greater than that of primary oral stops. | phonology | implication | oral, stop, secondary, primary |
| 790 | IF there is a glottal stop, THEN there must be a primary oral stop. | phonology | implication | consonant, oral, glottal, stop |
| 791 | IF there is a Primary Nasal Consonant other than apical /n/, THEN there is also a Primary Nasal Consonant /n/. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, apical, allophone |
| 792 | IF there are only two Primary Nasal Consonants, THEN the first one is apical (/n/), and the other is /m/, that is its most characteristic allophone is labial. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | nasal, consonant, labial, apical, allophone |
| 793 | IF there are n obstruents, THEN there will not be more than n Primary Nasal Consonants. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, obstruent |
| 794 | The preferred number of primary nasal consonants in a language is between two and four. | phonology | unconditional | nasal, consonant |
| 795 | IF there are Secondary Nasal Consonants, THEN there will be at least one Primary Nasal Consonant. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant |
| 796 | IF there are n Secondary Nasal Consonants, THEN there will not be more than n Primary Nasal Consonants. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant |
| 797 | IF there is only one place of articulation for a given type of consonant, THEN it is most likely to be the alveo/dental region. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | consonant, alveolar, dental |
| 798 | There are more voiceless obstruents than voiced ones. | phonology | implication | consonant, obstruent, voice |
| 799 | IF there is a voiced obstruent, THEN most likely its voiceless counterpart is present as well. | phonology | implication | consonant, obstruent, voice |
| 800 | The preferred set of consonants in a given language is: /p, t, k, t∫, f, s, m, n/. | phonology | unconditional | consonant |
| 805 | IF there are back consonants, THEN there will be front consonants. | phonology | implication | back, front, consonant |
| 806 | IF /h/ precedes unstressed syllables, THEN it also precedes secondary stressed syllables. IF /h/ precedes secondary stressed syllables, THEN it precedes primary stressed syllables. |
prosodic phonology | implication | /h/, stress, aspiration, syllable, unstressed, primary, secondary |
| 807 | IF there is postvocalic aspiration Vh, THEN there is prevocalic aspiration hV. | phonology | implication | /h/, aspiration, vowel |
| 808 | IF there is an opposition of a stop and an affricate, THEN there will be a fricative of the same series. | phonology | implication | affricate, stop, fricative |
| 809 | IF there is vowel harmony, THEN the vowel ä will be present. | phonology | implication | vowel harmony |
| 810 | IF a phonemic category is complex, THEN its capacity to split is weak. IF a phonemic category is simple, THEN its capacity to split is strong. |
phonology | mutual implication | phoneme, complexity |
| 811 | IF there are fricatives, THEN there will be stops. | phonology | implication | fricative, stop |
| 812 | IF there is vocalic opposition of wide vs. narrow, THEN there are two consonantal oppositions: nasal vs. oral stops and labials vs. dentals. | phonology | implication | narrow, wide, vowel, nasal, oral, stop, labial, dental |