def figure_linguistic_type(labels):
    """
    Gets linguistic type for labels

    Parameters
    ----------
    labels : list of lists
        the labels of a tier

    Returns
    -------

        the linguistic type
     """
    if len(labels) == 0:
        return None
    elif len(labels) == 1:
        return labels[0][0]
    label = min(labels, key=lambda x: x[1])
    return label[0]