Universal #1050

Legacy number: 1050

 Number  1046
 Original  The number of tones on a long vowel seems never to be fewer than on a short vowel.
 Standardized  The number of tones on a long vowel seems never to be fewer than on a short vowel.
 Keywords  vowel, tone, length
 Domain  phonology
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  sample of almost 200 languages in Greenberg & Kaschube 1976
 Source  Greenberg & Kaschube 1976: 10

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Notes
For example Gbaya (Adamawa-Ubangian, Niger-Congo): high and low tones on short vowels; high, low, falling, and rising on long vowels- which are bimoraic, hence falling = HL and rising = LH.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
For example Gbaya (Adamawa-Ubangian, Niger-Congo): high and low tones on short vowels; high, low, falling, and rising on long vowels- which are bimoraic, hence falling = HL and rising = LH.