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Universal 1608:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1608:

Original
Permeability of classes of consonants to nasalization:

vowels > {[h], glottal stop (=laryngeal segments)} > w, y (=oral glides) > r,l (=liquids) > obstruents.

(where glides, liquids, and obstruents are referred as supralaryngeal segments).

Standardized
IF the feature [nasal] spreads through supralaryngeal segments (like in the implicational sequence above), THEN it spreads also through vowels.
IF the feature [nasal] spreads through laryngeal segments, THEN it spreads also through vowels.
IF the feature [nasal] spreads through supralaryngeal segments, THEN it does not necessarily spread through laryngeal segments.

IN OTHER WORDS: spreading through supralaryngeal segments is independent of spreading through laryngeal segments.

Keywords
nasalization
Domain
phonology
Type
implicational hierarchy
Status
achronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
37 languages sample (Cohn 1987)
Source
Cohn 1987 as summed up in Cohn 1993a: 336-337
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Slight modification of the hierarchy proposed by Schourup (1972) and catalogued in #1610. The hierarchy characterizes the permeability of classes of consonants to nasalization.

    1. May 2020

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