Skip to content

Universal 809: wide & narrow vowels ⇒ (nasal & oral stops) & (labials & dentals)

Posted in Universals Archive

Universal 809: wide & narrow vowels ⇒ (nasal & oral stops) & (labials & dentals)

Original
In child language, these two consonantal oppositions (nasal vs. oral stop, labials vs. dentals) are followed by the first vocalic opposition: a more narrow vowel is opposed to the wide vowel.
Standardized
IF there is vocalic opposition of wide vs. narrow, THEN there are two consonantal oppositions: nasal vs. oral stops and labials vs. dentals.
Keywords
narrow, wide, vowel, nasal, oral, stop, labial, dental
Domain
phonology
Type
implication
Status
achronic but presumably diachronically motivated
Quality
absolute
Basis
languages mentioned in Jakobson 1941
Source
Jakobson 1941: 49
Counterexamples

One Comment

  1. FP
    FP

    1. Explicitly stated as a universal acquisitional sequence, but can be assumed to be intended also as a universal implication. 2. See discussion in Hawkins (1987).

    1. May 2020

Comments are closed.