Work

Burst for the hard world: voiceless stops in words for hard objects and striking actions across two cross-linguistic databases

Year: 2026

Type: preprint

Abstract: Across hundreds of languages, words for striking actions (hit, cut, break, throw) favour voiceless stops (p, t, k) over nasals (m, n, ng). We pre-specified concept sets and tested them against random sets in the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (319 languages) and NorthEuraLex (107 languages). Striking actions held in both databases. Hard objects held in IDS only, and person words leaned nasal. The record contains the preprint, Figure 1, all analysis code and the dated pre-specification file. Not peer reviewed.

Source: Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.24031831

Author: Hall, Maggie

Language: English

Topic: Linguistics and language evolution

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

OpenAlex ID: W7225467156

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