Universal #784

Legacy number: 784

 Number  781
 Original  In a given language the number of voiceless primary oral stops is nearly always greater than the number of voiced ones.
 Standardized  The number of voiceless primary oral stops is nearly always greater than the number of voiced ones.
 Keywords  consonant, oral, stop, voice
 Domain  phonology
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  almost absolute
 Basis  317 language sample from Nartey 1979
 Source  Nartey 1979: 21, cited also in Lass 1984: 15

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Counterexamples
Wapishana (Arawakan), Kiari, Chuave (both Trans-New Guinea, Papuan), Irish (Celtic, Indo-European), Shilha (Berber, Afro-Asiatic), Sokotri [=Modern S. Arabic] (Semitic, Afro-Asiatic), Songhai (Nilo-Saharan), Adzera (Markham, Austroasiatic), Tama (E. Sudanic, Nilo-Saharan) (Nartey 1979: 22);
Papago (Uto-Aztecan), Lealo Chinantec (Oto-Manguean), Bocotá (Chibchan)(Yasugi 1995: 66).
Notes
Primary oral stops are those speech sounds made with a pulmonic air stream and a complete closure of two articulators (as in the single articulations /p,t/) or four articulators (as in the double articulations /kp, gb/). The release of such sounds may be sudden (as in the stops /p,t/) or delayed (as in the affricates /pf, ts/) (Nartey 1979: 17).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Primary oral stops are those speech sounds made with a pulmonic air stream and a complete closure of two articulators (as in the single articulations /p,t/) or four articulators (as in the double articulations /kp, gb/). The release of such sounds may be sudden (as in the stops /p,t/) or delayed (as in the affricates /pf, ts/) (Nartey 1979: 17).