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Universal 1786:

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 1786:

Original
Standardized
IF a vowel followed by a back velar nasal result in a nasal vowel, THEN a nasal vowel as the result of a vowel followed by a labial nasal already exists.
Keywords
nasalization, nasal, vowel, velar, bilabial
Domain
phonology
Type
implication
Status
diachronic
Quality
statistical
Basis
survey of 600 Chinese dialects in Chen 1974; 8 North Italian dialects: Bolognese, Cairese, Imoloese, Lughese, Ravennate, Riminese, Milanese, Bergamese; Rhaeto-Romance (Taveschan dialect); Latin (Hajek 1997)
Source
Chen 1973c, Chen 1974: 912-13, Ruhlen 1973: 12, cited in Hajek 1997: 8, 161
Counterexamples
Lightner (1973) and Foley (1975, 1977) argue the exact opposite: nasal deletion (and the distinctive nasalization that normally results) spreads progressively in an ordered fashion from “weakest” (the velar nasal) to “strongest” (the bilabial nasal).

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    Connel & Hajek (1991), discussing the claim that there is a hierarchy governing the attrition of nasals according to place of articulation, argue that other factors may need to be taken account of, before a true universal tendency, if one exists, can be established. Among others are the relative durations of the consonants in question, their position within the word, and possibly the degre of nasality.

    1. May 2020

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