Category: Universals Archive

Universal 700: Original Languages with nine or more vowels generally have /o/. Standardized IF there are more than eight vowels, THEN /o/ will be among…

Universal 716: Original Systems in which high tones are marked are more frequent than systems in which low tones are marked. Standardized More frequently, when…

Universal 732: Original The Zero Universal:If a language employs zero/nonverbal copula encoding at all, it will employ this strategy in the encoding of identity statements.…

Universal 748: nominal encoding of predicate adjective ⇒ nominal merging Original The Universal of Nominal Merging*:A language may have nominal merging only if it allows…

Universal 764: unvoiced ejective ⇒ plain stop Original … unvoiced ejectives never exist without plain stops. Standardized IF there are unvoiced ejectives, THEN there will…

Universal 780: Original Standardized IF there is only one primary affricated stop, THEN the primary allophone is most likely to be /t∫/. Keywords affricate, allophone…

Universal 796: voiced obstruent ⇒ unvoiced obstruent Original The presence of a voiced obstruent in a given language is most likely to imply the presence…

Universal 812: distributive stress ⇒ ¬ reduced vowel Original Languages with distributive stress have no reduced vowels. Standardized IF there is distributive stress, THEN there…

Universal 828: rigid OV ⇒ RelN & ¬ right-extraposed clause Original The most consistent OV languages (e.g. Japanese and Turkish) have prenominal relatives and no…

Universal 844: Original A similar statement (cf. ) for initial clusters holds in almost all cases (that is, the existence of at least one cluster…