Category: Universals Archive

Universal 775: Original Every language must have at least one Primary Nasal Consonant in its inventory. Standardized Every language must have at least one Primary…

Universal 791: Original The preferred number of primary nasal consonants in a language is between two and four. Standardized The preferred number of primary nasal…

Universal 807: Original The more complex a phonemic category is, the weaker is its capacity to split. Standardized IF a phonemic category is complex, THEN…

Universal 823: Original If postnominal relative clauses contain a distinctive verbal affix, the verb appears in clause-initial position. Standardized IF postnominal relative clauses contain a…

Universal 839: clause initial marker ( in Rel Cl) ⇒ N Rel Original Only postnominal clauses may contain an obligatory initial relative particle or nominal…

Universal 855: Original No succession of consonants only differing in that one is unvoiced and the other is glottalized occurs in initial or final clusters…

Universal 871: Original In final clusters, the existence of at least one combination of sonant + voiced obstruent implies the existence of at least one…

Universal 887: agglutinative ⇒ pitch accent;flexive ⇒ stress accent Original If a language is agglutinative, then accent is primarily pitch.If a language is flexive, then…

Universal 903: omnisyllabic tone ⇒ purely emotional/affective particles Original … omnisyllabic tone languages typically have a repertoire of particles whose only job is to convey…

Universal 919: /©/ ⇒ /x/ Original Standardized IF there is the voiced velar fricative phoneme /©/, THEN there will be the voiceless velar fricative phoneme…