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Indo European sound laws

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Indo-European sound laws

As the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) broke up, its sound system diverged as well, according to various sound laws in the daughter Indo-European languages.

Contents

Especially notable is the palatalization that produced the satem languages, along with the associated ruki sound law. Other notable changes are Grimm's law and Verner's law in Proto-Germanic; an independent change similar to Grimm's law in Armenian; loss of prevocalic *p- in Proto-Celtic; Brugmann's law in Proto-Indo-Iranian; Winter's law and Hirt's law in Balto-Slavic; and merging of voiced and breathy-voiced stops, and /a/ and /o/, in various "northern" languages. Bartholomae's law in Indo-Iranian, and Sievers' law in Proto-Germanic and (to some extent) various other branches, may or may not have been common Indo-European features. A number of innovations, both phonological and morphological, represent areal features common to the Italic and Celtic languages; among them are the development of labiovelars to labial consonants in some Italic and Celtic branches, producing "p-Celtic" and "q-Celtic" languages (likewise "p-Italic" and "q-Italic", although these terms are less used). Another grouping with many shared areal innovations is Greek, Indo-Iranian, and Armenian; among the common phonological innovations are Grassmann's law in Greek and Indo-Iranian, and weakening of pre-vocalic /s/ to /h/ in Greek, Iranian and Armenian.

Consonants

The following table shows the Proto-Indo-European consonants and their reflexes in selected Indo-European daughter languages. Background and further details can be found in various related articles, including Proto-Indo-European phonology, Centum and satem languages, the articles on the various sound laws referred to in the introduction, and the articles on the various IE proto-languages, language groups and language phonologies. For development of the laryngeals and syllabic consonants, see the vowels table below.

Notes for table 1:

Consonant clusters

Proto-Indo-European also had numerous consonant clusters, such as *st, *ḱs. In most cases in most languages, each consonant in a cluster develops according to the normal development given in the table above. Many consonant clusters however also show special developments in multiple languages. Some of these are given by the following table (with cases of otherwise predictable development in gray):

Notes to Table 2:

Notes:
  • 6 Before or after a (PIE) u.
  • 8 Between vowels.
  • 9 Before a sonorant.
  • 10 Before secondary (post-PIE) front-vowels.
  • 11 After r, u, k, i (Ruki sound law).
  • 12 Before a stressed vowel.
  • 17 Before a consonant or original laryngeal.
  • 19 After r, l, m, n, t, d, possibly other consonants?
  • 21 At the beginning of a word.
  • 22 Before or after an obstruent (p, t, k, etc.; s).
  • 24 Between vowels, or between a vowel and r, l (on either side).

    • Vowels and syllabic consonants

    This table shows the Proto-Indo-European vowels and syllabic consonants (as reconstructed both before and after the acceptance of laryngeal theory), and their reflexes in selected Indo-European daughter languages. Background and further details can be found in various related articles, including Proto-Indo-European phonology, the articles on the various sound laws referred to in the introduction, and the articles on the various IE proto-languages, language groups and language phonologies.

    Notes
  • 1 Before wa.
  • 2 Before r, h. Gothic, but not other Germanic languages, merges /e/ and /i/.
  • 3 The existence of PIE non-allophonic a is disputed.
  • 4 In open syllables (Brugmann's law).
  • 5 Under stress.
  • 6 Before palatal consonants.
  • 7 The so-called breaking is disputed (typical examples are *proti-h₃kʷo- > Ved. prátīkam ~ Gk. πρόσωπον; *gʷih₃u̯o- > Ved. jīvá- ~ Arm. keank‘, Gk. ζωός; *duh₂ro- > Ved. dūrá- ~ Arm. erkar, Gk. δηρός)
  • 8 In a final syllable.
  • 9 Before velars and unstressed
  • 10 Before ā in the following syllable.
  • 11 Before i in the following syllable.
  • 12 In a closed syllable.
  • 13 In the neighbourhood of labials.
  • 14 In the neighbourhood of labiovelars.
  • 15 ā > ē in Attic and Ionic dialects only.
  • 16 Between consonants, or at the end of a word after a consonant.
  • 17 At the beginning of a word, followed by a consonant.
  • 18 In initial syllables only.
  • 19 In non-final syllables only.
  • 20 Before i, ī, or /j/ in the next syllable in Proto-Germanic (i-umlaut).
  • 21 Before h, w, or before r, l plus a consonant ("breaking").
  • 22 Before a back vowel in the next syllable (a restoration).
  • 23 Before a non-high vowel in the next syllable (a-mutation).
  • 24 Before a stop or m.

    • Examples

    See the list of Proto-Indo-European roots hosted at Wiktionary.

    *p

    *pṓds, ~ *ped-, "foot".

  • Vedic Sanskrit: pád-
  • Avestan: pâdha
  • Slovenian: pòd, "floor"
  • Lithuanian: pėda, "foot bottom"
  • Armenian: otn
  • Tocharian: A pe, B pai
  • Luwian: pa-da-, pa-ta-
  • Greek: poús, podós
  • Latin: pēs, pedis
  • Scottish Gaelic: edh, "pace"
  • Gothic: fotus (*p -> f by Grimm's Law)

    • *t

    *tréyes, "three".

  • Vedic Sanskrit: tráyas
  • OCS: trьje
  • Lithuanian: trỹs
  • Albanian: tre
  • Greek: treĩs
  • Latin: trēs
  • Irish: trí
  • Arm.ere
  • Old Norse: þrir (*t -> þ by Grimm's Law)

    • *ḱ

    *ḱm̥tóm, "hundred" (from earlier *dk̂m̥tóm)

  • Vedic Sanskrit: śatám
  • Later Avestan: satəm
  • OCS: sьto
  • Lithuanian: šimtas
  • Tocharian: A känt, B känte
  • Greek: hekatón
  • Latin: centum (i.e., kentum)
  • Welsh: cant
  • Gothic: hund- (from proto-Germanic *xund)

    • *k

    *kreuh₂, "raw flesh"

  • Vedic Sanskrit: kravíṣ-, "raw meat"
  • Lithuanian: kraûjas, "blood"
  • OCS: krьvь, "blood"
  • Greek: kréas, "meat"
  • Latin: cruor, "raw blood"
  • Irish: cró, "blood, gore"
  • Old English: hrō, "raw"

    • Sound laws within PIE

    A few phonological laws can be reconstructed that may have been effective prior to the final breakup of PIE by internal reconstruction.

  • Sievers' law (Edgerton's law, Lindeman's option)
  • Bartholomae's law
  • Szemerényi's law
  • Stang's law
  • Siebs' law

    • References

    Indo-European sound laws Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA


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