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Universal 885: front rounded vowel ⇒ back rounded vowel
- Original
- There are no languages with rounded front vowels but without rounded back vowels.
- Standardized
- IF there is a rounded front vowel, THEN there is a rounded back vowel.
- Keywords
- rounded, front, back, vowel, height
- Domain
- phonology
- Type
- implication
- Status
- achronic
- Quality
- almost absolute
- Basis
- 170 languages surveyed in Sedlak 1969
- Source
- Jakobson 1957 [1971]: 526 (also cited in Uspensky 1965: 194), Sedlak 1969: 31
- Counterexamples
- Working class Central Scots English (Germanic, Indo-European) with [y] but not [u] (Lass 1984: 77).
Cf. Sedlak’s original statement: “A front rounded vowel implies a back rounded vowel at the same tongue height”.