Category: Universals Archive

Universal 656: Original The probability of homophony is inversely related to the number of principal phonemes and to the length of sequence units (phrases, words,…

Universal 672: Original See Graphics Standardized see Graphics Keywords order, noun, adjective, attributive, verb, object, topic, comment, preposition, postposition dependent-marking, analytic, synthetic morphosyntax, word accent,…

Universal 688: Original In exclusively prefixing languages, if symmetrical reduplicative compounds exist, they will be overwhelmingly of the alliterative type. Standardized IF bound morphology is…

Universal 704: Original The number of height distinctions in front vowels is equal to or greater than the number in back vowels. Standardized IF there…

Universal 720: Original A language which permits successive shifts of tone level in opposite directions within a word permits words with only one shift of…

Universal 736: predicate adjectives encoded nonverbally ⇒ predicate nominals encoded nonverbally Original The Adjective-Nominal Universal (alternative version):If predicative adjectives are encoded nonverbally, then predicate nominals…

Universal 752: glottalic obstruents & sonants ⇒ ejective obstruent is unvoiced Original IF a language has glottalic obstruents and sonants, THEN the ejective obstruent is…

Universal 768: Original If a language has only two primary fricatives, the second one is most likely to be /f/. Standardized IF there are only…

Universal 784: Original The preferred number of primary oral stops in a given language is between four and eight. Standardized The preferred number of primary…

Universal 800: isolating ⇒ classifiersagglutinative v flexive ⇒ classes Original Languages that tend towards isolating (such as most of those in east and south-east Asia)…