List of Cultural Universals

List of Cultural/Linguistic Universals. Sorted by most true to least true. (EU %) = Euroversal Key:

⚫ Absolute Universal
⚫ > 99% of languages/cultures
⚫ > 95% of languages/cultures
⚫ > 90% of languages/cultures
⚫ > 75% of languages/cultures
⚫ > 50% of languages/cultures

Phonology

⚫ C/V ratio 1.11 ≤ r ≤ 19
⚫ 7 consonants
⚫ 2 vowels
⚫ number of phonemes: 142 > n > 10
⚫ 99.56% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess a velar consonant
⚫ 99.1% number of phonemes: 78 > n > 12
⚫ 99.1% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess Bilabials
⚫ 98.2% (EU ⚫ 100%) Lack Clicks
⚫ 98.1% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess Nasals
⚫ 95.8% (EU ⚫ 100%) Lack Pharyngeals
⚫ 95.3% number of phonemes: 56 > n > 15
⚫ 94.68% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess /m/
⚫ 93.4% (EU ⚫ 66.7%) Lack Front Rounded Vowels
⚫ 92.4% (EU ⚫ 81.0%) Lack Dental Fricatives
⚫ 91.4% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess Fricatives
⚫ 90.2% number of phonemes: 48 > n > 16
⚫ 89.36% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess /k/
⚫ 84.04% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess a lateral consonant
⚫ 83.15% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess /p/
⚫ 82.9% (EU ⚫ 90.5%) Lack Uvulars
⚫ 77.5% number of phonemes: 42 > n > 20
⚫ 75.8% (EU ⚫ 76.2%) C/V ratio 2 < r < 6.5
⚫ 74.5% Possess a glottal consonant
⚫ 73.8% (EU ⚫ 91.7%) Lack Contrast between Nasalized and Non-Nasalized Vowels
⚫ 72.1% (EU ⚫ 100%) Lack Glottalized Consonants
⚫ 68.4% (EU ⚫ 95.2%) Possess /l/
⚫ 67.9% (EU ⚫ 100%) Have a voicing distinction in either plosives or fricatives
⚫ 58.6% (EU ⚫ 35.3%) Possess /ŋ/
⚫ 58.3% (EU ⚫ 90.0%) Lack Tone
⚫ 57.3% (EU ⚫ 100%) Possess /t k b d/
⚫ 56.2% (EU ⚫ 48.1%) Have Fixed Stress

Phoneme Implication Universals

The following data is taken from Phoible. All implications are >95% true. When // are separate that means the implications are separate. When phonemes are grouped in // that means the implication is grouped.

/g/ → /b/
/l/ → /n/ → /m/
/b/ → /m/, /d/ → /n/
/ŋ/ → /m/, /k/
/x/ or /h/ → /k/
/p/ or /t/ → /k/
/v/ → /f/, /b/

Data From UPSID. All below are absolute universals - please send me any counterexamples I missed. If any phoneme on the left is part of a phonology, every phoneme on the right, and only the phonemes on the right, are also part of the phonology.

Phonemes	Implications
3 Monophthongs	//
≥ 3 Diphthongs	/m a/
≥ 5 Bilabials	/m a/
≥ 5 Nasals	/m N j/
≥ 9 Voiceless Plosives	/p m a/
/9/	/b H m j/
/99/	/b g H S m j h/
/?/	/i/
/"sh/	/p ph "t "th k kh "s S m "n i e a u o/
/G b hh kW x xW/	//
/H/	/m j/
/R/	/p b k g m E/
/S nj/	/m i/
/X q r s/	/m/
/Z/	/i u/
/c/	/p m/
/kh/	/a/
/lj rA/	/p k m/
/nU/	/m j w i a/
Both of /l r/	/m n j/
Both of /t d/	/k m i/
Both of /t z/	/i a u k s m n l/
Diphthong	/p k m/
Front Rounded Vowel	/m/
Nasal Vowel	/a/
Pharyngeal	/m j H/
Pharyngealized	/k S m j/
Silibant	//
Voiceless Approximant	/m i a/
Voiceless Nasal	/hm j i a/
Voiceless Trill	/p k m w j a/
¬ /k/	//
¬ /m/	/p k i/
¬ Approximant	/k i/
¬ Fricative	/m/
¬ Glottal	//
¬ High Vowel	/p m j/
¬ Nasal	/p/
¬ Palatal	/k i/
¬ Silibant	//
¬ Velar	/p b i e E a O o u i~ E~ a~ O~ u~/
¬ Velar Plosive	/a/
¬ Voiced Bilabial	/k ? i u/

Family Stats

Family	Implications
Anatolian	/p t k m n r l s i u "e a/
Baltic	/m n p b t d k g ts dz tS dZ v s z S Z r j i: u: e: &: a:/
Balto-Slavic	/m p b k j/
Celtic	/m n p k f S h v l j E O a/
Germanic	/m n p t k s l E/
Indo-Aryan	/k b g m n s hh l/
Indo-Iranian	/k b g m n s l/
Indo-European	/m k/
Italic	/b d g p t k f s m n l a/
Slavic	/m p b k x j/

Phoneme Stats

Average Consonants, Vowels.

Phonemes	C			V			Inventory
Phonemes	Min	Mean	Max	Min	Mean	Max	Inventory
< 15	6	7.8	9	3	4.8	6	2-3 Labial 2-3 Coronal 1-2 Dorsal 0-2 Laryngeal 1-2 High Vowel 1-2 Front Vowel 1-3 Back Vowel
15 - 16	9	11.5	13	3	4.3	6	3-4 Labial 3-6 Coronal 2-5 Dorsal 0-1 Laryngeal 2 High Vowel 1-3 Front Vowel 1-2 Back Vowel
17	10	11.7	14	3	5.3	7	2-5 Labial 3-6 Coronal 2-4 Dorsal 0-2 Laryngeal 0-2 High Vowel 1-4 Front Vowel 1-2 Back Vowel

Vowel Systems

1^st

2^nd

3^rd

i		u
	a

47.8%

I		U
	a

17.4%

e		o
	a

8.7%

i		u
	@
	a

12.0%

i
"e		"o
	a

i		u
"e
	a

i		uu u
	a

8.0% each

i		u
"e		"o
	a

47.8%

i		u
E		O
	a

12.0%

i		u
E		"o
	a

5.4%

i		u
"e	"@	"o
	a

16.9%

i	i_	u
"e		"o
	a

10.8%

i		u
e		o
		O
	a

5.4%

i		u
e		o
E		O
	a

21.2%

i	i_	u
"e	"@	"o
	a

9.6%

i		u
I		U
"e		"o
	a

5.8%

i		u
e		o
	"@
E		O
	a

7.1%

i		u
I		U
e		o
E		O
	a

12.1%

i i~		u u~
"e "e~		"o "o~
	a a~

21.2%

i i~		u u~
E E~		O O~
	a a~

i		u
I		U
e		o
E	4	O
	a

i		u
I		U
e	@	o
E		O
	a

6.1% each

Morphology

⚫ 97.0% (EU ⚫ 88.2%) Have a distance contrast in demonstratives
⚫ 90.8% (EU ⚫ 100%) Have a Method to Indicate Nominal Plurality
⚫ 89.7% (EU ⚫ 100%) Have Ordinal Numerals
⚫ 88.2% (EU ⚫ 84.6%) With Case Systems have the case morpheme follow the root
⚫ 77.7% (EU ⚫ 95.6%) Have a Morphological Imperative
⚫ 68.1% (EU ⚫ 80.0%) With Verb Inflection Suffix Tenses and Aspects
⚫ 66.1% (EU ⚫ 12.9%) Contrast Comitatives and Instrumentals
⚫ 66.0% (EU ⚫ 100%) Lack Clusivity Contrast
⚫ 65.7% (EU ⚫ 8.0%) Lack a Politeness Contrast in Pronouns
⚫ 65.0% (EU ⚫ 81.8%) Lack a Numeral Classifiers
⚫ 61.7% (EU ⚫ 73.1%) Have a Case System
⚫ 60.8% (EU ⚫ 74.3%) Have a definite article
⚫ 60.4% (EU ⚫ 100%) Have a Past Tense
⚫ 56.7% (EU ⚫ 60.0%) Code Evidentiality
⚫ 56.4% (EU ⚫ 23.1%) Lack Noun Classes
⚫ 55.4% (EU ⚫ 44.1%) Lack an indefinite article
⚫ 54.3% (EU ⚫ 0%) Have at least one type of word where marking plurality is optional
⚫ 51.2% (EU ⚫ 33.3%) Lack the Perfect
⚫ 50.5% (EU ⚫ 75.0%) Lack an Inflectional Future

Syntax

⚫ 79.7% (EU ⚫ 70.2%) Dominant Word Order is SV
⚫ 76.5% (EU ⚫ 73.8%) Dominant Word Order is both SO and SV
⚫ 70.3% (EU ⚫ 94.4%) Noun-RelC
⚫ 64.3% (EU ⚫ 63.4%) Adj-Noun
⚫ 61.3% (EU ⚫ 65.8%) Use a Question Particle
⚫ 54.8% (EU ⚫ 47.4%) Gen-Noun
⚫ 52.6% (EU ⚫ 0%) Noun-Num

Articles

Source: WALS 37A "Definite Articles", WALS 38A "Indefinite Articles"

	+DEF	-DEF
+INDEF	32.0%	8.3%
-INDEF	18.5%	41.2%

Tense

Source: WALS 66A "Past Tense", WALS 67A "Future Tense" (nb. WALS counts inflectional future but grammatical past)

	+PAST	-PAST
+FUTURE	33.8%	15.8%
-FUTURE	26.6%	23.9%

Word Order Implications

If a word order has a majority, it is shown below. Otherwise, it is marked Ø. Features are only listed if they have a majority for at least three word orders.

Feature	WALS	SVO	SOV	VSO	VOS	OSV	OVS
Subj, Obj, Verb	81A	35%	41%	7%	2%	0%	1%
Nominal Categories
Position of Case Affixes	51A	None 68%	Suffixes 56%	None 56%	None 61%	Ø	Ø
Word Order
Obj, Obl, Verb	84A	VOX 91%	Ø	VOX 98%	VOX 100%	Ø	OVX 100%
Adpositions	85A	Prep 82%	Post 92%	Prep 89%	Prep 91%	Post 100%	Post 73%
Genitives	86A	NGen 63%	GenN 90%	NGen 92%	NGen 88%	GenN 100%	GenN 56%
Adjectives	87A	NAdj 80%	NAdj 56%	NAdj 69%	NAdj 62%	NAdj 67%	NAdj 75%
Demonstratives	88A	NDem 72%	DemN 63%	Ø	NDem 52%	NDem 67%	Ø
Numerals	89A	NNum 66%	NNum 53%	NumN 73%	NumN 65%	NumN 57%	Ø
Relative Clauses	90A	NRelC 97%	Ø	NRelC 97%	NRelC 94%	NRelC 100%	NRelC 75%
Interrogative Phrases	93A	Not Init. 73%	Not Init. 81%	Init. 68%	Init. 67%	Not Init. 100%	Ø
Adverbial Subordinator	94A	Init. 88%	Ø	Init. 92%	Init. 83%	Init. 100%	Ø
Simple Clauses
Case Marking - NPs	98A	Neutral 95%	Ø	Neutral 67%	Neutral 63%	Ø	Neutral 67%
Case Marking - Pronouns	99A	Neutral 71%	Ø	Neutral 64%	Ø	Ø	Neutral 67%
Case Marking - Verbs	100A	Accusative 64%	Accusative 58%	Accusative 58%	Accusative 80%	Ergative 100%	Ø
Expression of Pronominal Subjects	101A	Affixes 58%	Affixes 68%	Affixes 53%	Ø	Opt. Pron. 100%	Affixes 100%
Verbal Person Marking	102A	Ø	Ø	Ø	Both 70%	Only A 100%	Both 57%
Negative Morphemes	112A	Ø	Ø	Particle 64%	Particle 53%	Particle 100%	Ø
Polar Questions	116A	Particle 69%	Particle 51%	Particle 72%	Particle 71%	Ø	Intonation 67%

Lexicon

⚫ Huh?
⚫ 87.9% (EU ⚫ 100%) Distinguish hand and finger
⚫ 85.0% (EU ⚫ 100%) Distinguish red and yellow
⚫ 81.7% (EU ⚫ 100%) Have Dedicated Words for both red and yellow
⚫ 72.5% (EU ⚫ 0%) Don't Distinguish green and blue
⚫ 63.8% (EU ⚫ 78.6%) Use a Decimal Numeral System
⚫ 63.0% (EU ⚫ 72.4%) Distinguish hand and arm

Culture

⚫ Personal Names