Weise's law

Proto-Indo-European language sound law

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In historical linguistics, Weise's law describes the loss of palatal quality some consonants undergo in specific contexts in the Proto-Indo-European language. In short, when the consonants represented by *ḱ *ǵ *ǵʰ, called palatovelar consonants, are followed by *r, they lose their palatal quality, leading to a loss in distinction between them and the plain velar consonants *k *g *gʰ. Some exceptions exist, such as when the *r is followed by *i or when the palatal form is restored by analogy with related words. Although this sound change is most prominent in the satem languages, it is believed that the change must have occurred prior to the centum–satem division, based on an earlier sound change which affected the distribution of Proto-Indo-European *u and *r. The law is named after the German linguist Oskar Weise, who first postulated it in 1881 as the solution to reconciling cognates in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit.

The Proto-Indo-European language is the hypothetical parent language of the Indo-European languages. The language is believed to have been spoken around the 4th millennium BC,^[1] though some linguists argue that the 6th or 7th millennia BC are more likely.^[2] No record of the language exists, but its forms have been reconstructed through the comparative method.^[3]

Weise's law is a sound change that affects a series of sounds in the Proto-Indo-European language called palatovelar consonants, sometimes called dorso-palatal or simply palatal consonants.^[4] The precise pronunciation of these sounds is not known, though they are described as being articulated both with the back part of the tongue and the hard palate of the mouth, represented with *ḱ, *ǵ, and *ǵʰ.^[5] They are contrasted with plain velar consonants, also referred to as dorso-velar or simply velar consonants, which are described as being articulated with the back part of the tongue and the soft palate, represented by *k, *g, and *gʰ.^[5] Both of these sets were further contrasted with the labiovelar consonants, likely pronounced with a simultaneous articulation with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate and the rounding of the lips, represented by *kʷ, *gʷ, and *gʷʰ.^[6] These three contrastive sets are often known collectively as guttural consonants.^[7]

Although almost no attested language in the Indo-European language family distinguishes between these three sets of consonants,^[8] historical linguists divide the Indo-European daughter languages into two categories based on how these sounds developed over time, either into centum or satem languages. The terms centum and satem are derived from the Proto-Indo-European word *dḱm̥tóm, later shortened into *ḱm̥tóm, meaning 'one hundred'.^[9][10] Centum languages, named after the Latin word for 'one hundred', are those languages in which the palatovelar sounds underwent depalatalization – that is, lost their palatal quality – thereby merging with the plain velars, creating only a two-way contrast between plain velars and labiovelar sounds.^[11] By contrast, satem languages, named after the Avestan word for 'one hundred' (𐬯𐬀𐬙𐬆𐬨 satəm), are those in which the labiovelar sounds lost their labialization, causing a lack of differentiation with the plain velar sounds called a merger. The palatovelar sounds, on the other hand, underwent assibilation – also called satemization in this particular context – whereby these palatovelars became sibilant consonants.^[12] Sibilant consonants comprise affricates, such as [t͡ʃ] (as in chat), and fricatives, such as [s] (as in sunk).^[13][14]

Oskar Weise first described a problem in correspondences between Ancient Greek and Sanskrit cognates in an 1881 article for the Indo-Europeanist periodical Articles on the Science of the Indo-European Languages (German: Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen) entitled "Is initial γ dropped before λ?" (Ist anlautendes γ vor λ abgefallen?).^[15] In it, he notes an imbalance in the relationship between Ancient Greek and Sanskrit cognates, writing:

If we examine the Indic words beginning with guttural + r or l and compare them with their Greek reflexes, we will notice that all those which have retained the guttural in Indic intact show guttural + ρ, whereas Greek guttural + λ only occurs regularly when the palatal sibilants [ś], j, h appear in Indic. The absence of exceptions in this rule automatically prohibits the assumption that coincidence prevailed here. Of course, this excludes cases where r (or l) is not immediately after the guttural, but there is a vowel in between, although the rule stated above often applies here too.^[16]

According to Alwin Kloekhorst in 2011, Weise's original article has "been largely forgotten by the scholarly world", but its findings have appeared sporadically in linguistic literature with some of it needing revision in light of other research.^[17] In 1894, Antoine Meillet described the law and defended it as established fact in a dissertation for the Société de Linguistique de Paris on the difficulty of determining gutturals in Proto-Indo-European, citing Weise as its progenitor.^[18] In 1978, Frederik Kortlandt similarly considered Weise's findings strong but limited in scope, citing both Weise's and Meillet's works on the law in his own research on the Balto-Slavic languages.^[19] In 1995, Robert S. P. Beekes also described the process derived from the law, but did not reference its origins with Weise.^[17][20] Kloekhorst presented a defense of the law at a conference in 2008,^[21] followed by a more complete account – Weise's Law: Depalatalization of Palatovelars before *r in Sanskrit – published in 2011.^[22] The 2011 defense conglomerates several different sources on the topic, some referencing Weise and some not, and summarizes its general characteristics, its relative chronology, and possible violations; its contents are a revision of his work done in 1999.^[23] Kloekhorst has been credited with reviving interest in the law.^[24]