Category: Universals Archive

Universal 648: Original In a language in which categories of definiteness are employed to show degrees of respect or social distance, the one used as…

Universal 664: yes-no question inversion ⇒ SV (=subject precedes verb) Original The presence of yes-no question inversion implies a basic order type in which subject…

Universal 680: Original If a language has dummy auxiliary Negative construction, then there must be another way of negation in this language. Standardized IF there…

Universal 696: Original Standardized IF there are more than four vowels, THEN / ε / and generally also / C / will be among them.…

Universal 712: Original Standardized IF there is no opposition of front and back fricatives, THEN the s-sound is not sharply differentiated from an ∫-articulation. Keywords…

Universal 728: Original Vowels on rising tones are longer than those on falling tones, other things being equal. Standardized IF a vowel is on a…

Universal 744: Original The Nominal-Switch Universal (part 1):In cases where a nominal Nominal/Locational-switch is motivated by conditions of Time-Stability, the nominal strategy will encode the…

Universal 760: Original … palatal noninjective stops have a strong tendency to be replaced by alveopalatal affricates. Standardized Palatal noninjective stops have a strong tendency…

Universal 776: /h/ ⇒ primary fricative Original A language is very unlikely to have /h/ unless it also has a primary fricative. Standardized IF there…

Universal 792: secondary nasal consonant ⇒ primary nasal consonant Original No language has Secondary Nasal Consonants unless it has one or more Primary Nasal Consonants.…