Universal 802: back consonant ⇒ front consonant

Universal 802: back consonant ⇒ front consonant

Original

No language has back consonants without containing front consonants.

Standardized

IF there are back consonants, THEN there will be front consonants.

Keywords

back, front, consonant

Domain

phonology

Type

implication

Status

achronic but presumably diachronically motivated

Quality

almost absolute

Basis

languages mentioned in Jakobson 1941

Source

Jakobson 1941: 53

Counterexamples

Tahitian (E. Malayo-Polynesian, Austronesian), Kasimok-Tartar (Turkic, Altaic)