Category: Universals Archive

Universal 699: Original Languages with eight or more vowels have /e/. Standardized IF there are more than seven vowels, THEN /e/ will be among them.…

Universal 715: Original A larger number of tone levels occupy a larger pitch range than a smaller number. Standardized The larger the number of (phonological)…

Universal 731: Original The Auxiliary Universal:If a language allows independent, non-supported, encoding of predicates, this encoding will always comprise event predicates. Standardized IF predicates are…

Universal 747: Aspect ⇒ perfective/imperfective Original The Universal of Tense-Aspect Organization:If a language encodes an aspectual opposition in its verbal system, this opposition will hold…

Universal 763: Original A voiced injective stop … has an effect identical with or more similar to that of ordinary breathy or voiced consonants, i.e.…

Universal 779: affricate stop ⇒ three plain stops Original If a language has an affricated stop, it is most likely that it also has (at…

Universal 795: X voiced obstruents ⇒ ≥X voiceless obstruents Original There is a very highly significant tendency for languages to have more voiceless obstruents than…

Universal 811: cumulative stress ⇒ reduced vowel Original Languages with cumulative stress have reduced vowels. Standardized IF there is cumulative stress, THEN there are reduced…

Universal 827: Original Relative markers of the same form as interrogative pronouns are found only in postnominal ad-relatives* (and their right-extraposed** counterparts) and in correlative…

Universal 843: Original In final clusters, the existence of at least one sequence consisting of a nasal (voiced or unvoiced) followed by a heterogenic obstruent…