Here's a breakdown of some key universals in phonology:
1. Distinctive Features:
* These are the basic building blocks of sounds. Features like voicing, place of articulation, manner of articulation, etc., describe the acoustic and articulatory properties of sounds.
* The set of distinctive features used to describe sounds is largely universal, although languages may have different ways of combining them.
* Example: The features [+voiced] and [+stop] are found across languages, even if the specific phonemes they combine to form (like /b/, /d/, /g/) vary.
2. Phonetic Categories:
* While languages might have different sets of phonemes, the categories of sounds they use are often similar.
* Examples include vowels, consonants, glides, liquids, etc.
* Example: Every language has vowels, even if the exact vowel inventory differs.
3. Syllabic Structure:
* Languages generally have similar syllabic structures, with a nucleus (typically a vowel) and optional onset and coda consonants.
* Example: Most languages allow consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) syllables.
4. Phonological Rules:
* While specific rules vary, the types of rules languages use to manipulate sounds are often similar.
* Examples: Assimilation (sounds becoming more similar), deletion (sounds being omitted), metathesis (sounds switching positions).
* Example: Many languages have a rule of vowel harmony, where vowels in a word are made more similar to each other.
5. The Sonority Hierarchy:
* This hierarchy ranks sounds based on how open the vocal tract is during articulation. Sounds higher on the hierarchy are generally more sonorous (like vowels).
* Example: Vowels are typically the most sonorous, followed by glides, liquids, nasals, stops, and fricatives. This hierarchy influences the possible combinations of sounds within syllables.
6. Optimality Theory:
* This theory proposes that languages have constraints on their phonological systems.
* Example: Constraints like "no complex codas" or "no obstruent clusters at the beginning of a word" can explain why certain sound combinations are preferred or dispreferred.
7. Markedness:
* This concept suggests that certain sounds or structures are more "marked" or complex than others.
* Example: Sounds with multiple articulatory features (like affricates) are often considered more marked than simple sounds (like stops).
Important Notes:
* The universals in phonology are not absolute rules; there are always exceptions.
* Some universals might be better described as tendencies or statistical patterns.
* Understanding phonological universals is important for developing theories of language acquisition, language change, and language typology.
This list is not exhaustive, and ongoing research continues to uncover more phonological universals.