Universal #775

Legacy number: 775

 Number  772
 Original  In a given language the number of primary fricatives is very unlikely to be greater than the number of stops and affricates together.
 Standardized  The number of primary fricatives is very unlikely to be greater than the number of stops and affricates together.
 Keywords  fricative, stop, affricate
 Domain  phonology
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  317 language sample from Nartey 1979
 Source  Nartey 1979: 12

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Discussion
Counterexamples
Aleut, Greenlandic (both Eskimo-Aleut);Sokotri=Modern S. Arabic, Egyptian Arabic (both Semitic, Afro-Asiatic) ;Guarani (Equatorial), Maidu (Maiduan);E. Armenian (Armenian, Indo-European), Kurdish (Indo-Iranian, Indo-European);Azerbaijani (Turkic, Altaic), Cheremis (Finnic, Uralic), Kabardian (N. Caucasian), Zulu (Bantu, Niger-Congo) (Nartey 1979: 12)
Notes
Primary fricatives are those speech sounds produced by the narrowing of two articulators so as to produce a turbulent air stream. (This excludes [h]). (Nartey 1979: 3).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Primary fricatives are those speech sounds produced by the narrowing of two articulators so as to produce a turbulent air stream. (This excludes [h]). (Nartey 1979: 3).