Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
543 entries · page 8 of 11
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1266 | IF there is assimilation of fully voiced vowels, THEN there will be assimilation of partially voiced or voiceless vowels. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, voicing |
| 1267 | IF there is assimilation of vowels with normal duration, THEN there will be assimilation of reduced vowels. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, duration |
| 1268 | IF there is assimilation of tense vowels, THEN there will be assimilation of lax vowels. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, tenseness |
| 1269 | IF there is assimilation of front vowels, THEN there will be assimilation of back vowels. | phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, backness |
| 1270 | IF there is assimilation of unrounded vowels, THEN there will be assimilation of rounded vowels. |
phonology | implication | assimilation, vowel harmony, rounding |
| 1286 | IF there are n retroflexed consonants, THEN there will be at least n non-retroflexed apical consonants. | phonology | implication | retroflexion, apical, consonant |
| 1287 | 1. TARGETS OF PALATALIZATION a. in terms of place of articulation: IF a less back consonant is palatalized, THEN all more back consonants are also palatalized. (BACK-to-FRONT scale: velar > dental > labial). b. in terms of manner of articulation: IF a less sonorant consonant is palatalized, THEN all more sonorant consonants are also palatalized. (SONORITY scale: sonorant > sibilant > stop / non-strident). 2. TRIGGERS OF PALATALIZATION a. in terms of place of articulation: IF a less high front vowel palatalizes a preceding consonant, THEN all more high vowels also palatalize this consonant. b. in terms of consonantality: IF a nuclear vowel palatalizes a preceding consonant, THEN a corresponding glide also palatalizes this consonant. (e.g., [y] > [i]) |
phonology | implication | palatalization |
| 1288 | IF nasality co-occurs in the neighborhood of a vowel or is inherent in the vowel itself of a given height m, THEN nasality must co-occur also in the neighborhood of or be inherent in a vowel of any lesser degree of height. Instantiations of this general implication: IF a less low vowel is nasalized, THEN any more low vowels are also nasalized. IF a more low vowel is denasalized, THEN any less low vowels are also denasalized. IF a consonant is nasalized preceding a less low vowel, THEN this consonant is also nasalized preceding any more low vowels. IF a consonant is denasalized preceding a more low vowel, THEN this consonant is also denasalized preceding any less low vowels. Upon nasalization, vowels tend to lower rather than to rise. |
phonology | implication | nasalization, denasalization, vowel height |
| 1330 | In every human language, redundancy, measured in phonological terms, hovers near 50%. | phonology, morphology, syntax | unconditional | redundancy |
| 1331 | Every human language makes use of distinction of vowel color. | phonology | unconditional | vowel |
| 1332 | A historical tendency toward phonological symmetry is universal. | phonology | unconditional | phoneme inventory |
| 1333 | There are gaps, asymmetries, or “configurational pressures” in every phonological system, no matter when examined. | phonology | unconditional | phoneme inventory |
| 1334 | Every phonological system contrasts phonemes that are typically stops with phonemes that are never stops. | phonology | unconditional | stop, phoneme inventory |
| 1335 | No phonological system has fewer than two contrasting positions of articulation for stops. | phonology | unconditional | stop |
| 1336 | IF there are contrasts of vowel tenseness, backness, length, etc., THEN there will be a contrast of height in that system. | phonology | implication | vowel, tongue height |
| 1337 | If we define a ‘vowel system’ to include all the segmental phonemes that occur as syllable peaks, then every language has a vowel system. = Every language has segmental phonemes that occur as syllable peaks. |
phonology | unconditional | phoneme, syllable |
| 1344 | IF voiced obstruents occur word-finally, THEN voiceless obstruents also occur word-finally. | phonology | implication | consonant, obstruent, voice |
| 1412 | The higher the number of principle phonemes, the higher the probability of redundancy. | phonology | implication | phoneme, redundancy |
| 1413 | In interjections one or more marginal phonemes occur with a percentage which is characteristic only for principle phonemes. | phonology | unconditional | phoneme, interjection |
| 1414 | In all languages possessing the vowel /ä/, the /a/ is articulated more backward (velar) than in languages which have no /ä/. | phonology | implication | vowel, backness |
| 1415 | IF only one member of a customary phoneme opposition exists, THEN the existing member of the opposition can take over (fully or partially) the articulatory peculiarities of the lacking member. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | phoneme, opposition |
| 1425 | There is a tendency for languages having nasalized vowels to show more asymmetry than languages having long vowels. | phonology | unconditional | nasal, length, vowel |
| 1426 | IF there are voiceless obstruents word-finally, THEN there are sonorant consonants word-finally. | phonology | implication | obstruent, sonorant, voice, word-final |
| 1427 | Secondary fricatives are the results of diachronic developments from clusters. | phonology | target < source | fricative, cluster |
| 1428 | Secondary oral stops, apart from borrowings, are the results of diachronic developments from clusters. | phonology | target < source | stop, cluster |
| 1503 | IF there are serial verb constructions, THEN there will be VO ordering with verb serialization, one object per verb, isolating morphology, simple syllable structure, and lexical/or grammatical tone distinctions. | prosodic phonology, morphology, syntax | implication | serial verb, order, isolating, syllable, tone |
| 1504 | Loan words maintain formal anomalies only of those types that are present in other peripheral classes of language. IF an anomaly arises from the transition of a nonperipheral element into a peripheral one, THEN there are already anomalies of this type in the periphery of the given language. | phonology | no genuine implication; rather: provided that | borrowing |
| 1505 | IF there are anomalous allophones of any phonemes in onomatopoetic and expressive forms of a language, THEN allophones of this type are also present in other elements in emphatic speech. | phonology, semantics | implication | allophone, emphasis, expressive, onomatopoeia |
| 1506 | IF there are regular violations of the tonal pattern in imperative or vocative forms, THEN there is a special redistribution of tones in questions, commands, addresses, emphatic utterances. | phonology, morphology | implication | tone, imperative mood, vocative, interrogative sentence, emphasis, anomaly |
| 1507 | When there is an anomaly of stress in the appellative elements of a language, IF the language does not have fixed final stress THEN this anomalous stress falls on the last syllable of words, but IF the language does have fixed stress on the final syllable THEN the anomalous stress falls on the first syllable. | phonology, syntax | implication | stress, syllable |
| 1605 | IF the feature [nasal] is compatible with obstruent stops, THEN it is also compatible with fricatives; IF the feature [nasal] is compatible with fricatives, THEN it is also compatible with liquids; IF the feature [nasal] is compatible with liquids, THEN it is also compatible with semivowels; IF the feature [nasal] is compatible with semivowels, THEN it is also compatible with vowels. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasal harmony, hierarchy |
| 1606 | IF the feature [nasal] is a dependent of the Spontaneous Voicing node (SV-node), THEN there are prenalized stops. | phonology | implication | |
| 1607 | IF high vowels are regressively nasalized, THEN low vowels are regressively nasalized as well. | phonology | implication | nasalization, regressive, low, high, vowel |
| 1608 | IF front vowels are nasalized, THEN back vowels are nasalized as well. | phonology | implication | nasalization, front, back, vowel |
| 1609 | IF vowels are nasalized before nasals that are syllable-initial, THEN vowels are nasalized before a nasal followed by non-continuants. IF vowels are nasalized before a nasal followed by non-continuants, THEN also before a nasal followed by continuants. IF vowels are nasalized before a nasal followed by continuants, THEN vowels are nasalized when nasal is final. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasalization |
| 1610 | IF nasalization spreads from a contextually nasalized vowel to a liquid, THEN it also spreads to oral glides. IF nasalization spreads from a contextually nasalized vowel to an oral glide, THEN it also spreads to glottal stop, h and adjacent vowels. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasalization |
| 1612 | IF the feature [nasal] spreads through supralaryngeal segments (like in the implicational sequence above), THEN it spreads also through vowels. IF the feature [nasal] spreads through laryngeal segments, THEN it spreads also through vowels. IF the feature [nasal] spreads through supralaryngeal segments, THEN it does not necessarily spread through laryngeal segments. IN OTHER WORDS: spreading through supralaryngeal segments is independent of spreading through laryngeal segments. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasalization |
| 1613 | Languages would not be expected to exhibit phonological constrasts such as [-nasal] laryngeal segments and [+nasal] laryngeal segments. | phonology | unconditional | nasalization, laryngeal (h, glottal stop) |
| 1674 | IF a consonant is palatalized before [e], THEN necessarily it will be also palatalized before [i]. | phonology | implication | palatalization, consonant |
| 1675 | IF one of the two tones in contiguous syllables is low, THEN a contour tone is more likely to appear than otherwise. | prosodic phonology | implication | tone, contour tone |
| 1677 | The consonant types on the right end of the hierarchy exercise a greater tone-lowering effect, while those at the left end of the hierarchy excercise a smaller tone-lowering effect. | prosodic phonology | implicational hierarchy | tone, low, consonant |
| 1679 | IF there is a phoneme all of whose allophones are variants of /x/, THEN there is a phoneme whose characteristic variant is /©/. | phonology | implication | velar, fricative, allophone |
| 1680 | IF there is a phoneme all of whose allophones are variants of /†/, THEN there is a phoneme whose characteristic variant is /ð/. | phonology | implication | dental, fricative, allophone |
| 1681 | IF there is a phoneme all of whose allophones are variants of /f/, THEN there is a phoneme whose characteristic variant is /∫/ or /v/. | phonology | implication | labial, fricative, allophone |
| 1700 | Universal Hierarchy of Consonantal Strength: voiceless plosives > voiced stops > voiceless fricatives > voiced fricatives > nasals > lateral liquids (l-sounds) > central liquids (r-sounds) > high vowels > mid vowels > low vowels. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | consonant, strength, sonority |
| 1701 | The Shell Law: In general, a shell seems to be the more preferred, the less similar the head and (the mirror image of) the coda are. In particular, identical speech sounds flanking the nucleus are disfavoured, all the more so the less their Consonantal Strength is. The antipathy increases notably if the identical speech sounds flanking the nucleus are not the only ones within their margins. |
phonology | implication | syllable, head, coda, nucleus, consonant, strength, sonority |
| 1702 | The Body Law (conjectured): There must be degrees of preference for combinations of nuclei with heads. For instance, ongliding nuclear speech sounds often impose additional restrictions on the structure of heads. |
phonology | implication | syllable, head, nucleus |
| 1703 | The Rhyme Law (conjectured): There must be degrees of preference for combinations of nuclei with codas. For instance, offgliding nuclear speech sounds often impose additional restrictions on the structure of codas. |
phonology | implication | syllable, nucleus, coda |
| 1704 | The Syllabic Tone Law (conjectured): IF there are non-level tones on syllables of less than two voiced moric speech sounds, THEN there will also be non-level tones on syllables of two or more voiced moric speech sounds. |
prosodic phonology | implication | tone, level, accent, pitch accent, mora, short vowel |
| 1705 | The Head Law: A syllable head is the more preferred: (a) the closer the number of speech sounds in the head is to one, (b) the greater the Consonantal Strength value of its onset, and (c) the more sharply the Consonantal Strength drops from the onset toward the Consonantal Strength of the following syllable nucleus. |
phonology | implication | syllable, head, nucleus, consonant, strength, sonority |