Stang's law is a
Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...
(PIE)
phonological
Phonology (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often prefer ...
rule named after the Norwegian linguist
Christian Stang.
Overview
The law governs the word-final sequences of a vowel, followed by a semivowel ( or ) or a
laryngeal ( or ), followed by a nasal. According to the law these sequences are simplified such that laryngeals and semivowels are dropped, with
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, or of a vowel in an adjacent syllable. Lengthening triggered ...
of a preceding vowel.
This rule is usually cited in more restricted form as: and ( denoting a vowel and a long vowel).
Often the rules and also are added:
* PIE 'sky' (accusative singular) > > Sanskrit ''dyā́m'',
acc. sg. of ''dyaús'', Latin ''diem'' (which served as the basis for Latin ''diēs'' 'day'), Greek Ζῆν (''Zên'') (reformed after Homeric Greek to Ζῆνα ''Zêna'', subsequently Δία ''Día''), acc. of Ζεύς (''Zeús'')
* PIE 'cow' (acc. sg.) > > Sanskrit ''gā́m'', acc. sg. of ''gaús'', Greek (Homeric and dialectal) βών (''bṓn''), acc. sg. of βοῦς (''boûs'') 'cow'
* acc. sg. of PIE 'house' is , not .
* acc. sg. of PIE 'grain' after
laryngeal colouring is the disyllabic , not trisyllabic
See also
*
Szemerényi's law
Szemerényi's law () is both a sound change and a Synchrony and diachrony, synchronic phonological rule that operated during an early stage of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). Though its effects are evident in many reconstructed as well as ...
References
Indo-European sound laws
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