Ingvaeonic Nasal Spirant Law

In historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law (also called the Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic nasal spirant law) is a description of a phonological development in some dialects of West Germanic, which is attested in Old English, Old Frisian, and Old Saxon. In this sound change, in certain combinations vowel + nasal + fricative, the nasal disappeared, with compensatory lengthening of the vowel. ("Spirant" is an older term for "fricative".) The sequences in question are -ns-, -mf-, and -nĂ¾-. The sequence -nh- had undergone a similar change in late Proto-Germanic several hundred years earlier, so this is not unique to the Ingvaeonic languages.

Read more about Ingvaeonic Nasal Spirant Law:  Examples, English, Dutch, German

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