Universal #1679

Legacy number: 1679

 Number  1674
 Original  <img src="../img/graphics/1679.gif" alt="">
 Standardized  IF there is a phoneme all of whose allophones are variants of /x/, THEN there is a phoneme whose characteristic variant is /©/.
 Formula 
 Keywords  velar, fricative, allophone
 Domain  phonology
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  absolute
 Basis  languages mentioned in Terentjev, includung Islandic, Old Irish, Old Breton (all Celtic), Spain (Romance), Modern Greek (Greek), Shugni-Rushan (Iranian) languages, e.g. Wakhi, and Jazguljami, Avestan (Iranian )
 Source  Terentjev 1969: 127-8

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Languages with the voiceless velar ficative /x/ that lack the corresponding voiced correlate, e.g., Munjan (Iranian, IE), Polish, Russian (Slavic, IE), Assyrian (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Piro (Arawakan) (Gamkrelidze 1975: 249-251).
Notes
Cf. Gamkrelidze’s statement (#922): The presence of the voiced velar fricative phoneme in a system presupposes the simultaneous presence of the voiceless velar fricative.
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Cf. Gamkrelidze's statement (<a class="innerLink" href="browse.php?entry_id=922"><img src="../img/entry.gif" border="0">): The presence of the voiced velar fricative phoneme in a system presupposes the simultaneous presence of the voiceless velar fricative.