Universal 777:
- Original
- Languages usually have at least three primary oral stops.
- Standardized
- There are at least three primary oral stops.
- Keywords
- consonant, oral, stop
- Domain
- phonology
- Type
- unconditional
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- statistical
- Basis
- 317 language sample from Nartey 1979
- Source
- Nartey 1979: 17, cited also in Lass 1984: 153
- Counterexamples
- Hawaiian (Remote Oceanic, Austronesian), Maidu (Maiduan) (Nartey 1979: 16)
1. Cf. Hockett’s claim (#1335): No phonological system has fewer than two contrasting positions of articulation for stops.2. Primary oral stops are those speech sounds made with a pulmonic air stream and a complete closure of two articulators (as in the single articulations /p,t/) or four articulators (as in the double articulations /kp, gb/). The release of such sounds may be sudden (as in the stops /p,t/) or delayed (as in the affricates /pf, ts/) (Nartey 1979: 17).