Category: Universals Archive

Universal 726: Original A low (open) vowel has a lower pitch than a high (close) vowel, other things being equal. Standardized IF a vowel is…

Universal 742: Original The Adjective-Switch Universal:If the nominal strategy partakes in an Adjective-switch, and if that switch is monitored by Time Stability, the nominal strategy…

Universal 758: Original A recurrent feature of injectives which deserves special mention and treatment is that the injective corresponding to a noninjective dental is often…

Universal 774: Original The number of secondary fricatives in a given language is never greater than that of primary fricatives. Standardized The number of secondary…

Universal 790: Original In a given language, the number of Primary Nasal Consonants is never greater than the number of obstruents. Standardized IF there are…

Universal 806: vowel harmony ⇒ ä Original In all languages which have vowel harmony, the vowel ä exists. Standardized IF there is vowel harmony, THEN…

Universal 822: correlative ⇒ verb-final; Original Correlatives are limited to verb-final languages, and in fact, are largely limited to “loose” verb-final ones, namely which permit…

Universal 838: Rel N ⇒ ¬ clause-initial marker Original In prenominal relative clauses there is never an obligatory clause-initial marker. (There may or may not…

Universal 854: Original In final clusterss a voiced stop is only followed immediately by a stop differing only in being unvoiced if there is a…

Universal 870: Original In initial clusters, the existence of at least one sequence consisting of voiced obstruent + semivowel implies the existence of at least…