Universal 1047:
- Original
- If there is tonal ascent, then there is also tonal descent.
- Standardized
- IF there is tonal ascent, THEN there is also tonal descent.
- Keywords
- tone, contour
- Domain
- phonology
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- sample of almost 200 languages in Greenberg & Kaschube 1976
- Source
- Greenberg & Kaschube 1976: 11
- Counterexamples
This is to account for patterns such as: downdrift; terrace tone systems; only pitch drop may function as accent, not pitch rise. Cf. Hyman 1977: 43: a pitch fall is more basic as a strategy in the realization of stress than is a pitch rise.