Universal #958

Legacy number: 958

 Number  955
 Original  In languages with both dissolvable and non-dissolvable medial clusters, the former will be significantly more frequent than the latter.
 Standardized  IF there are both dissolvable and non-dissolvable medial clusters, THEN the former will be significantly more frequent than the latter.
 Keywords  phonotactics, consonant cluster
 Domain  phonology
 Type  no genuine implication; rather: provided that
 Status  achronic
 Quality  statistical
 Basis  unspecified
 Source  Saporta 1963: 67

← Back to Universals Archive

Discussion
Notes
A dissolvable cluster is defined as a sequence whose first part occurs in final position and whose second part occurs in initial position.Is supposed to illustrate "the general principle of economy whereby the presence of the complex pattern implies the presence of the more simple one".
Comment
Frans Plank · 3 Aug 2006
A dissolvable cluster is defined as a sequence whose first part occurs in final position and whose second part occurs in initial position.

Is supposed to illustrate "the general principle of economy whereby the presence of the complex pattern implies the presence of the more simple one".