Universals Archive
A database of proposed crosslinguistic laws and tendencies in grammar across the world’s languages. 2,029 published entries.
543 entries · page 9 of 11
| # | Standardized / Original | Domain | Type | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1706 | The Coda Law: A syllable coda is the more preferred: (a) the smaller the number of speech sounds in the coda, (b) the less the Consonantal Strength of its offset, and (c) the more sharply the Consonantal Strength drops from the offset toward the Consonantal Strength of the preceding syllable nucleus. |
phonology | implication | syllable, coda, nucleus, consonant, strength, sonority |
| 1707 | The Nucleus Law: A nucleus is the more preferred: (a) the steadier its speech sound, and (b) the less the Consonantal Strength of its speech sound. |
phonology | implication | syllable, nucleus, consonant, strength, sonority |
| 1708 | A syllable will be the more preferred, the less the Consonantal Strength of its offset is. (Corrollary of the Coda and Nucleus Laws (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1706"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">, <a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1707"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">)) |
phonology | implication | syllable, coda, nucleus, consonant, strength |
| 1709 | A syllable will be the more preferred, the greater the Consonantal Strength of its onset is. (Corrollary of the Head Law (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=1705"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">)) |
phonology | implication | syllable, coda, nucleus, consonant, strength |
| 1710 | The Weight Law (aka Stressed Syllables Law or Prokosch's Law): In stress accent languages an accented syllable is the more preferred, the closer its syllable weight is to two moras, and an unaccented syllable is the more preferred the closer its weight is to one mora. (The optimal stressed syllable is bimoric, the optimal unstressed syllable is unimoric.) |
prosodic phonology | implication | stress accent, syllable, mora |
| 1711 | The Law of Initials: Word-medial syllable heads are the more preferred, the less they differ from possible word-initial syllable heads of the language system. |
phonology | implication | syllable, head, word, phonotactics |
| 1712 | The Law of Finals: Word-medial syllable codas are the more preferred, the less they differ from possible word-final syllable codas of the language system. |
phonology | implication | syllable, coda, word, phonotactics |
| 1713 | The Strength Assimilation Law: If Consonantal Strength is assimilated in a syllable contact, the Consonantal Strength of the stronger speech sound decreases. |
phonology | implication | syllable, consonant, strength, sonority, phonotactics |
| 1714 | The Contact Law: A syllable contact A$B is the more preferred, the less the Consonantal Strength of the offset A and the greater the Consontal Strength of the onset B; more precisely, the greater the characteristic difference CS(B)–CS(A) between the Consonantal Strength of B and that of A. |
phonology | implication | syllable, consonant, strength, sonority |
| 1715 | The Attractiveness of Rhymes: A rhyme is the more attractive: (a) the more heavily its syllable is accented relative to the following syllable, (b) the shorter it is, and (c) the less the Consonantal Strength of its elements is, especially towards its offset. |
prosodic phonology | implication | syllable, rhyme, consonant, strength, sonority, complexity, accent |
| 1716 | Lutz's Law: Heterosyllabication of an internuclear cluster is the more preferred, the more attractive the rhyme of that syllable is which would remain of the first syllable if the cluster were tautosyllabicated in the second syllable. |
phonology | implication | syllable, rhyme, consonant cluster |
| 1717 | The Attractiveness of Bodies: A body is the more attractive: (a) the more heavily its syllable is accented relative to the preceding syllable, (b) the shorter it is, and (c) the less the Consonantal Strength of its elements is, especially towards its onset. |
phonology | implication | syllable, head, nucleus, accent, consonant, strength, sonority |
| 1718 | Quality of Contact Embedding: A syllable contact A$B is the better embedded, the more attractive the rhyme of the first syllable would be if the cluster AB were tautosyllabicated in the second syllable, and the more attractive the body of the second syllable would be if the cluster AB were tautosyllabicated in the first syllable. |
phonology | implication | syllable, rhyme, consonant cluster |
| 1719 | General Syllabication Law: A syllabication is the more preferred: (a) the better the resulting syllable contact is and (b) the better that syllable contact is embedded. |
phonology | implication | syllable |
| 1720 | Higher Order Law: All syllabic complexities are less disfavoured in stressed syllables than in unstressed syllables. |
phonology | implication | syllable, complexity, stress |
| 1745 | There are no endoclitics, i.e., clitics inside words do not exist. | phonology, syntax | unconditional | clitics, endoclitics |
| 1764 | Vowels are shorter before voiceless obstruents than before voiced obstruents or sonorants. | phonology | implication | vowel, voice, obstruent, sonorant, length |
| 1765 | IF there is consonantal deletion in initial position, THEN there will be consonantal deletion in intervocalic position. IF there is consonantal deletion in intervocalic position, THEN there will be consonantal deletion in final position. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | consonant, weakening, initial, intervocalic, final, hierarchy |
| 1766 | Hierarchy of major-class and manner features in the context of consonantal weakening: Ø < glides < liquids < nasals < +v fricatives < -v fricatives/-v stops < -v stops.<br> The consonants more to the left on the hierarchy are classified as weaker, leading to eventual deletion, diachronically speaking. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | consonant, weakening, hierarchy |
| 1767 | IF front consonants are deleted, THEN back consonants are as well. | phonology | implication | consonant, back, front, deletion |
| 1768 | IF labials undergo phonological weakening, THEN dentals will have undergone phonological weakening. IF dentals undergo phonological weakening, THEN velars will have undergone phonological weakening. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | consonant, weakening, labial, dental, velar |
| 1769 | IF back and mid consonants (stops and nasals) have merged word-finally, THEN front and mid consonants have merged already. |
phonology | implication | consonant, front, back, merger |
| 1770 | IF dental or labial nasals are effaced [deleted?}, THEN velar nasals are deleted too. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, velar, labial, dental, deletion |
| 1771 | IF heterosyllabic (intervocalic) nasals are effaced [deleted?], THEN tautosyllabic (preconsonantal) nasals are effaced too. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, heterosyllabic, tautosyllabic, deletion, intervocalic, preconsonantal |
| 1772 | IF stressed nasals in stressed syllables are effaced [deleted?], THEN nasals in unstressed syllables are effaced too. | phonology | implication | nasal, stress, deletion |
| 1773 | IF nasals are effaced [deleted?] after short vowels, THEN nasals are effaced after long vowels too. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, length, deletion |
| 1774 | IF nasals are effaced [deleted?] after inherently weak vowels, THEN nasals are effaced after inherently strong vowels too. |
phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, vowel, strength, deletion |
| 1775 | IF comparatively strong (syllable-initial) nasals are effaced [deleted?], THEN there must already have been effacement of comparatively weak (syllable-final) nasals. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, strength, syllable, deletion |
| 1776 | IF nasalization occurs before a stop, THEN it will occur before a continuant. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, stop, continuant |
| 1777 | IF nasalization occurs before a vowel, THEN it will occur before a consonant. | phonology | implication | nasal, consonant, vowel |
| 1778 | IF denasalization applies to /o/, THEN it also applies to /e/. | phonology | implication | nasal, denasalization, vowel |
| 1779 | IF nasalization occurs before /f/, THEN it also occurs before /≈/. | phonology | implication | nasal, nasalization, vowel, consonant |
| 1780 | IF nasalized /i/ lowers to nasalized /e/, THEN nasalized /e/ also lowers to nasalized /a/. | phonology | implication | nasal, lowering, vowel |
| 1781 | When there is final vowel deletion: IF /o/ undergoes elision at the end of a word, THEN /e/ will undergo elision as well. IF /e/ and /o/ undergo elision at the end of a word, THEN /o/ must be elided before /e/. |
phonology | implication | vowel, elision, apocope |
| 1782 | IF there is assibilation of labials, THEN there must be assibilation of dentals. IF there is assibilation of dentals, THEN there must be assibilation of velars. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | assibilation, labial, dental, velar |
| 1783 | IF assibilation occurs before /a/, THEN it must occur before /e/. IF assibilation occurs before /e/, THEN it must occur before /i/. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | assibilation, vowel |
| 1784 | IF there is a voiced affricate reflex, THEN there will also be a voicless affricate reflex. | phonology | implication | affricate, reflex, voice |
| 1785 | IF there are fricative + stop onset clusters, THEN there are stop + fricative onset clusters. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, fricative, stop |
| 1786 | IF there are stop + fricative onset clusters, THEN there are stop + stop onset clusters. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, fricative, stop |
| 1787 | IF there are fricative + stop onset clusters, THEN there are fricative + fricative onset clusters. | phonology | implication | consonant cluster, initial, fricative, stop |
| 1791 | IF a vowel followed by a back velar nasal result in a nasal vowel, THEN a nasal vowel as the result of a vowel followed by a labial nasal already exists. | phonology | implication | nasalization, nasal, vowel, velar, bilabial |
| 1792 | Vowel Length Parameter: Vowel nasalization and N-deletion, as seperate and successive processes, occur preferentially in the context of long vowels before spreading to short vowels. |
phonology | implication | nasalization, nasal, deletion, vowel, length |
| 1793 | IF N-deletion occurs first in stressed/tonic syllables, THEN it will have already occurred in unstressed/atonic syllables. | phonology | implication | nasal, deletion, vowel, stress, tonic, atonic |
| 1794 | IF nasalization occurs in unstressed/atonic syllables, THEN it will occur in stressed/tonic syllables. | phonology | implication | nasal, nasalization, vowel, stress, tonic, atonic |
| 1795 | IF N-deletion occurs in post-tonic unstressed syllables, THEN it will have already occurred in pretonic unstressed syllables. IF N-deletion occurs in pretonic unstressed syllables, THEN it will have already occurred in tonic stressed syllables. IF denasalization occurs in tonic stressed syllables, THEN it will have already occured in pretonic unstressed syllables. IF denasalization occurs in pretonic unstressed syllables, THEN it will have already occured in post-tonic unstressed syllables. |
phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasal, deletion, denasalization, stress, tonic, atonic |
| 1796 | IF nasalization is phonologized first on proparoxytonic vowels before nasals, THEN nasalization will have already been phonologized on paroxytonic vowels before nasals. IF nasalization is phonologized first on paroxytonic vowels before nasals, THEN nasalization will have already been phonologized on oxytonic vowels before nasals. |
prosodic phonology | implicational hierarchy | nasalization, nasal, oxytone, vowel |
| 1797 | IF nasals are deleted word-finally preceding vowels, THEN they are deleted word-finally before consonants. IF nasals are deleted word-finally preceding consonants, THEN they are deleted word-medially before consonants. |
prosodic phonology | implicational hierarchy | deletion, nasal, consonant, vowel |
| 1798 | IF there is nasal deletion preceding stops, THEN there is nasal deletion preceding fricatives. | phonology | implication | nasal, deletion, stop, fricative |
| 1799 | IF there is nasalization before intervocalic nasals, THEN there will have already been nasalization in tautosyllabic ($VN)sequences. | phonology | implication | nasal, nasalization, intervocalic, tautosyllabic |
| 1800 | IF there is tautosyllabic distinctive nasalization in preconsonantal position, THEN there will have already been tautosyllabic distinctive nasalization in word-finally. | phonology | implication | nasalization, final, preconsonantal, tautosyllabic |