Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1684: Original No language permits conditional deranking under identity with a non-subject while at the same time forbidding conditional deranking under subject identity. Standardized…

Universal 1700: Original The Head Law:A syllable head is the more preferred: (a) the closer the number of speech sounds in the head is to…

Universal 1716: pronominal possessors co-occur with definite articles ⇒ nominal possessives co-occur with pronominal possessors Original If possessive determiners co-occur with definite articles, then nominal…

Universal 1732: Original The definite article never carries more gender, number, and/or case inflection in adnominal use than it does in pronominal use. Standardized IF…

Universal 1748: Original If there are synonyms for an ordinal numeral, then there are also synonyms for ordinals for all lower numbers. Standardized IF there…

Universal 1764: Original The basic direction of merging of the consonant endings is unmistakable: invariably from the front to the back. Standardized IF back and…

Universal 1780: Original If a language has fricative + stop onset clusters, then it has stop + fricative onset clusters. Standardized IF there are fricative…

Universal 1797: Original Preferential Vowel-Lengthening Parameter:Vowel lengthening preferably occurs before the cluster nasal + fricative than nasal + stop.Vowel lengthening preferably occurs before the cluster…

Universal 1813: Original Standardized IF there is a nasalized high back rounded vowel, THEN there is a high back rounded vowel. Keywords vowel, nasal, high,…

Universal 1829: Original Standardized IF there is a prenasalized labialized voiced velar stop, THEN there is also a prenasalized voiced bilabial stop. Keywords stop, velar,…