Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1817: Original Standardized IF there is a labialized voiceless uvular ejective stop, THEN there is a labialized voiceless uvular fricative. Keywords stop, fricative, labial,…

Universal 1833: Original Standardized IF there is a voiceless palatal approximant, THEN there is also a voiceless labial-velar approximant. Keywords approximant, palatal, labial-velar, voice Domain…

Universal 1849: Original A laryngealized voiced palatal approximant [j] does not occur without the voiceless glottal fricative [h]. Standardized IF there is laryngealized a voiced…

Universal 1865: Original Baby talk has shorter sentences, fewer subordinate clauses, fewer grammatical relations, more repetitions than normal adult-to-adult speech, often omits inflections and function…

Universal 1881: 1st vs. 2nd/3rd person split (past) ⇒ 1st vs. 2nd/3rd person split (future) Original Languages which show a split between 1st versus 2nd/3rd…

Universal 1897: Original The use of variation of any pronominal category to show degrees of respect or social distance is more widespread among different langages…

Universal 1913: Original VO languages tend to have an unmarked accusative. Standardized IF basic order is VO, THEN the “promoted” direct object tends to be…

Universal 1929: Original If there is a word-form loan of a free-choice indefinite in a language, then there is a word-form loan of other than…

Universal 1945: Original In deixis, person and related spatial, 1st and 3rd person never align as against 2nd. 2nd person may align with 1st or…

Universal 1961: Original Vowel co-occurrence displays an associative tendency.Consonant co-occurrence displays a dissociative tendency. Standardized Within words (or also relevant other domains, such as stems),…