Stang's law

Proto-Indo-European language sound law

This article is about the sound law in Proto-Indo-European. For the accentual law in Proto-Slavic, see Ivšić's law.

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Stang's law is a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) phonological rule named after the Norwegian linguist Christian Stang.

Overview

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The law governs the word-final sequences of a vowel, followed by a semivowel (*y or *w) or a laryngeal (*h1, *h2 or *h3), followed by a nasal. According to the law these sequences are simplified such that laryngeals and semivowels are dropped, with compensatory lengthening of a preceding vowel.

This rule is usually cited in more restricted form as: *Vwm > *Vːm and *Vh2m > *Vːm (*V denoting a vowel and *Vː a long vowel).

Often the rules *Vmm > *Vːm and also *Vyi > *Vːy are added:^[1]

PIE *dyéwm 'sky' (accusative singular) > *dyḗm > 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 *gwowm 'cow' (acc. sg.) > *gwōm > Sanskrit gā́m, acc. sg. of gaús, Greek (Homeric and dialectal) βών (bṓn), acc. sg. of βοῦς (boûs) 'cow'
acc. sg. of PIE *dom- 'house' is *dṓm, not **dómm̥.
acc. sg. of PIE *dhoHn-éh2 'grain' after laryngeal colouring is the disyllabic *dhoHnā́m, not trisyllabic **dhoHnáh2m̥ > **dhoHnā́m̥

References

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^ Benjamin W. Fortson (2004). Indo-European Language and Culture: An Introduction . Blackwell Publishing. pp. 63–64. ISBN 1-4051-0316-7.^{[dead link ‍]}

v t e Proto-Indo-European language
Phonology	Accent Centum and satem Glottalic theory Laryngeal theory s-mobile Sound laws asno law boukólos rule *kwetwóres rule Glossary of sound laws Brugmann's Bartholomae's Fortunatov's Grassmann's Osthoff's Pinault's Siebs's Sievers's (Edgerton's converse) Stang's Szemerényi's Weise's
Morphology	Ablaut Caland system h2e-conjugation Narten present Nasal infix Root Thematic vowel Vṛddhi
Parts of speech	Nominals (nouns and adjectives) Numerals Particles Pronouns Verbs copula Vocabulary
Main sources	Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (IEW) Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben (LIV) Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme (LIPP) Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon (NIL) Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (IEED)
Artificial compositions	Schleicher's fable The king and the god
Theories	Kurgan hypothesis Schleicher theories Anatolian hypothesis Armenian hypothesis Outdated theories: Beech argument North European hypothesis
Society	Proto-Indo-European mythology Proto-Indo-European society Indo-European migrations Proto-Indo-European homeland Salmon problem
See also	Indo-European studies Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (EIE)