Universal 1006:
- Original
- No matter which direction the process ( d⇔ð, t⇔† ) is going, the stop outcome is favoured by word-initial, post-nasal or post-liquid stressed positions. The spirant outcome is favoured by post-vocalic positions, including intervocalic, pre-consonantal and pre-junctural.
See IPA.
- Standardized
- No matter which direction the process ( d⇔ð, t⇔† ) is going, the stop outcome is favoured by word-initial, post-nasal or post-liquid stressed positions. The spirant outcome is favoured by post-vocalic positions, including intervocalic, pre-consonantal and pre-junctural.
- Keywords
- spirantization
- Domain
- phonology
- Type
- unconditional
- Status
- unclear whether diachronic and/or achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- Greek, Spanish, Danish, English (all Indo-European), Aramaic, Arabic (both Semitic, Afro-Asiatic)
- Source
- Ferguson 1978b: 435
- Counterexamples
- Ma’lula Aramaic does exactly the opposite. In this dialect, all stops in initial position have become spirants except b-; modern initial stops other than b- are mostly Arabic loanwords. (Ferguson 1978b: 431, fn 12)
All of these hypothesized “universals” may be modified or overridden by conflicting processes, particularly those involving social factors, and some exceptions are unexplained. (Ferguson 1978b: 437)