Universal 940:
- Original
- Nasal vowels, apart from borrowing and analogical formations, always result from the loss of a Primary Nasal Consonant.
- Standardized
- Nasal vowels, apart from borrowing and analogical formations, always result from the loss of a Primary Nasal Consonant.
- Keywords
- consonant, nasal, vowel
- Domain
- phonology
- Type
- target < source
- Status
- diachronic
- Quality
- absolute
- Basis
- languages in Ferguson 1963
- Source
- Ferguson 1963: 59 (XIV)
- Counterexamples
1. A Primary nasal consonat (PNC) is a phoneme of which the most characteristic allophone is a voiced nasal stop, that is, a sound produced by a complete oral stoppage (e.g., apical, labial), velic opening, and vibration of the vocal cords. A nasal vowel (NV) is a phoneme the most characteristic allophone of which has oral and velic opening and vibration of the vocal cords. (Ferguson 1963: 56, 58). 2. For a similar generalization about the formation of nasal vowels, cf. ##944, 945.Ferguson further specifies the “conventional” origin of a nasal vowel as the loss of a following nasal stop (1974: 11).