Universal #820

Legacy number: 820

 Number  817
 Original  Voiced > voiceless neutralization takes place most commonly in final position and never intervocally.
 Standardized  IF voiced > voiceless neutralization occurs in positions other than final, THEN it will occur in final position.
Voiced > voiceless neutralization never occurs intervocally.
 Keywords  voice, neutralization, intervocalic
 Domain  phonology
 Type  implication
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  languages in Ferguson 1963
 Source  Ferguson 1963, cited in Décsy 1987: 77

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Counterexamples
Italian, Spanish (both Indo-European), Finnish (Uralic), Japanese (Japanese-Ryukyuan), and Chinese (Sino-Tibetan).
Notes
Good examples: Slavic languages, High German (all Indo-European), Central Siberian languages (e.g., Mongol, Buryat, Paleosiberian).
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
Good examples: Slavic languages, High German (all Indo-European), Central Siberian languages (e.g., Mongol, Buryat, Paleosiberian).