Search

Abstract “Grassmann’s Law” describes the dissimilatory loss of aspiration in one of two non-adjacent aspirated consonants, e.g. Proto-Gk. *hékhō > Gk. ékhō ‘I have’. Grassmann’s Law alternations sometimes remain intact, but are often removed by analogy. Grassmann’s Law in Greek was independent from Grassmann’s Law in Sanskrit, and is probably a post-Mycenaean development. “Grassmann’s Law” (Grassmann 1863, cf. Collinge 1985:47-61 for a detailed survey of initial reaction and subsequent debate) is a phonological rule within the history of Greek that des…

Abstract “Osthoff’s Law” is a phonological process in Greek (and some other IE languages) by which long vowels were shortened when they occurred before sonorants in syllable-coda position that were followed by another consonant, e.g. Gk dat. pl. -ois < PIE *-ōis. Since “Osthoff-shortening” is a typologically natural strategy of “overlength avoidance”, similar shortenings elsewhere in IE are independent of the Greek version of Osthoff’s Law.   “Osthoff’s Law” is a phonological process within the history of Greek (and some other IE languages) by which long vowels…

Abstract ‘Cowgill’s Law’ refers to one or more phonological processes describing the development of PIE *o to Gk. /u/ in restricted environments, thereby accounting for Greek forms with unexpected u-vocalism. (In other contexts, PIE *o > Gk. /o/). Numerous counterexamples suggest that the traditional formulation may be overly general. ‘Cowgill’s Law’ refers to one or more phonological processes (Phonological Change) describing the development of PIE *o to Gk. /u/ in restricted environments. (In all other contexts, PIE *o > Gk. /o/). An influential statement is that of Sihler (1995…

Abstract ‘Schwa secundum’ refers to an epenthetic vowel inserted to break up word-initial consonant clusters in PIE zero grade sequences #(s)TTRV- (T = obstruent, R = sonorant, V = vowel), and perhaps in some similar contexts. The epenthetic vowel in Greek words is /i/, inserted between the two obstruents. ‘Schwa secundum’ refers to an epenthetic vowel inserted to break up certain word-initial consonant clusters in Proto-Indo-European (Fortson 2010:68). In the standard version of this theory (Schindler 1977:31, Mayrhofer 1986:175-177), the word-initial sequence #(s)TTRV…