Category: Universals Archive

Universal 1706: Original The Law of Initials:Word-medial syllable heads are the more preferred, the less they differ from possible word-initial syllable heads of the language…

Universal 1722: Original If the article co-occurs with the noun that is accompanied by adnominal possessives that are not marked for genitive, it also does…

Universal 1738: Original On the NP analysis pronouns are arguably anomalous in lacking an overt noun head – unless pronouns are taken to be a…

Universal 1754: Original For all languages, if person and/or number is marked on non-finite forms, then it is also marked on finite forms. Standardized IF…

Universal 1770: Original If there is effacement of comparatively strong (syllable-initial) nasals, then there must have already been effacement of comparatively weak (syllable-final) nasals. Standardized…

Universal 1786: Original Standardized IF a vowel followed by a back velar nasal result in a nasal vowel, THEN a nasal vowel as the result…

Universal 1802: Original The presence of a voiced alveolar sibilant fricative implies the presence of a voiceless alveolar sibilant fricative. Standardized IF there is a…

Universal 1818: Original Standardized IF there is a labialized voiceless uvular stop, THEN there is a voiceless uvular stop. Keywords stop, labial, uvular, voice Domain…

Universal 1834: Original Standardized IF there is a voiceless dental-alveolar nasal, THEN there is also a voiceless bilabial nasal. Keywords nasal, dental-alveolar, bilabial, voice Domain…

Universal 1850: Original Nonlaterals (trills or flaps) have the property of lowering a preceding vowel. Standardized Vowels tend to be lower preceding non-laterals (trills or…