Month: May 2020

Universal 1105: Original The absolute or nominative form of a noun will be used in citation. Standardized The absolute or nominative form of a noun…

Universal 1104: Original If any case has zero realization, or a zero allomorph, it will be absolutive or nominative. Standardized If any case has zero…

Universal 1103: Original If there is a bound vs. free split, the bound prefixes will be accusative, and case marking on free forms will be…

Universal 1102: Original Yet all human languages classify actions into two basic types: those involving one obligatory participant, which are described by intransitive clauses, and…

Universal 1101: ergative syntactically ⇒ ergative morphologically Original Any language that is syntactically ergative will also have some ergative characteristics at the morphological level. Standardized…

Universal 1100: Original In every ergative language, as in every accusative language, the ‘antecedent’, i. e. the controller, of reflexivity is A (or S, where…

Universal 1099: Original If a language has nasal vowels, it will have at least three, one of which is always a low vowel [ã]. Standardized…

Universal 1098: ¬ consonant clusters ⇒ word-final minimum contrast Original If a language has no consonant clusters, the position of minimum contrast is word-final. Standardized…

Universal 1097: Original If a language has to maintain a high number of vowel distinctions which are perceptually close to each other, then the addition…

Universal 1096: Original There is an overall distinction between Type A and B languages, with the following correlations (i.e. mutual implications) of opposite properties defining…