Proto-Indo-European Phonology - Phonological Rules

Phonological Rules

A number of phonological rules can be reconstructed for Proto-Indo-European. Some of them are disputed to be valid for "PIE proper", and are claimed to be later innovations in some of the daughter branches. Some of these laws are:

1. Bartholomae's law: TʰT > TTʰ

   Passive participle of *bʰewdʰ 'to learn, become aware of': *bʰudʰ-to- > *bʰud-dʰo- > (Grassmann's law) Sanskrit buddhá.

   Law has been preserved in Indo-Iranian branch where it operates as a synchronic rule. There are some traces of it in Ancient Greek and Germanic, and possibly in Latin.

2. TT > TsT: The cluster of two dental stops had dental fricative */s/ inserted between them.

   *h₁ed-ti 'eats' > *h₁etsti > Hittite ezzi.

   This has been preserved in Hittite where cluster *tst is spelled as z (pronounced as ).

3. TK > KT > "Kþ" ("thorn clusters"): Dental stops that were placed behind PIE dorsals in the same syllable metathesized in all branches except in Tocharian and Anatolian (the earliest one that were to split from PIE matrix). Subsequent outcomes were varied.

   *h₂ŕ̥tḱos 'bear' > *h₂ŕ̥ḱþos > Latin ursus, Ancient Greek árktos, Sanskrit ṛ́kṣas but Hittite ḫartaggas /ḫartkas/ without metathesis.

   *dʰgʷʰítis 'decaying, decline, ruin' > *gʷʰþítis > Ancient Greek phthísis, Sanskrit kṣítis, perhaps Latin sitis

4. Siebs' law: If s-mobile is added to the root that starts with voiced or aspirated stop, that stop is devoiced.

   *bʰr̥Hg- > Latin fragor, but *sbʰr̥Hg- > *spr̥Hg- > Sanskrit sphūrjati

5. Stang's law: *Vwm > *Vːm; i.e. */w/ disappears and the preceding vowel lengthens in the last syllable behind word-final */m/. Some also add rules: *Vmm > *Vːm and *Vh₂m > *Vːm; and also *Vyi > *Vːy.

   *dyéwm 'sky' (accusative singular) > *dyḗm > Sanskrit dyā́m, acc. sg. of dyaús

   *gʷowm 'cattle' (acc. sg.) > *gʷōm > Sanskrit gā́m, acc. sg. of gaús

   accusative singular of *dom- 'house' is *dṓm, not **dómm̥.

6. Szemerényi's law: -VRs > VːR, -VRh₂ > VːR i.e. in word-final sequences of vowel, sonorant and */s/ or */h₂/ the fricative or laryngeal was dropped and the preceding vowel lengthened. This affected nominative singulars of numerous masculine and feminine nouns, as well as the nominoaccusative of neuter collectives.

   *ph₂tér-s 'father' > *ph₂tḗr > Ancient Greek patḗr, Sanskrit pitā́

7. Laryngeal deletion rules: See below.