Szemerényi's law
Encyclopedia
Szemerényi's law is a Proto-Indo-European
phonological
rule, named after Hungarian linguist Oswald Szemerényi
, according to which word-final clusters of vowels (V), resonants (R) and of either */s/ or */h₂/ are simplified by dropping the word-final fricative (} was phonetically itself probably a back fricative), with compensatory lengthening
of the preceding vowel.
This law affected numerous nominative singulars of masculine and feminine nouns, as well as the nominoaccusatives of neuter collectives in }
Compare:
After the application of the law, the resulting word-final *-n would then be dropped, at least if the preceding segment was (unaccented) *ō. The resulting long vowels had already begun in PIE to spread analogically to other nominative singular forms in which they were not phonologically justified by the law (e.g. PIE 'foot'), and word-final sonorants other than *-n were sometimes dropped, which demonstrates that this law was already morphologized in the period of "PIE proper".
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
phonological
Proto-Indo-European phonology
The phonology of the Proto-Indo-European language has been reconstructed by linguists, based on the similarities and differences among current and extinct Indo-European languages...
rule, named after Hungarian linguist Oswald Szemerényi
Oswald Szemerényi
Oswald John Louis Szemerényi was a Hungarian Indo-Europeanist with strong interests in comparative linguistics in general....
, according to which word-final clusters of vowels (V), resonants (R) and of either */s/ or */h₂/ are simplified by dropping the word-final fricative (} was phonetically itself probably a back fricative), with compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda...
of the preceding vowel.
This law affected numerous nominative singulars of masculine and feminine nouns, as well as the nominoaccusatives of neuter collectives in }
Compare:
- PIEProto-Indo-European languageThe Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
'father' > > Ancient Greek patḗr, Sanskrit pitā́
After the application of the law, the resulting word-final *-n would then be dropped, at least if the preceding segment was (unaccented) *ō. The resulting long vowels had already begun in PIE to spread analogically to other nominative singular forms in which they were not phonologically justified by the law (e.g. PIE 'foot'), and word-final sonorants other than *-n were sometimes dropped, which demonstrates that this law was already morphologized in the period of "PIE proper".