Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838. The law affects the "doubling" or Verschärfung of PIE * -y- and * -w- to Proto-Germanic * -jj- and * -ww-, which further "hardened" to -ggj-/-ggv- in Northern and to -ddj-/-ggw- in Eastern dialects, while in West Germanic the group results in a diphthong. The conditions of the sound change were long debated, since there is a seemingly random distribution of affected and unaffected words.

PropertyValue
dbpprop:abstract
  • Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838. The law affects the "doubling" or Verschärfung of PIE * -y- and * -w- to Proto-Germanic * -jj- and * -ww-, which further "hardened" to -ggj-/-ggv- in Northern and to -ddj-/-ggw- in Eastern dialects, while in West Germanic the group results in a diphthong. The conditions of the sound change were long debated, since there is a seemingly random distribution of affected and unaffected words. At first, dependence on word accent was assumed, parallel to Verner's Law. One currently accepted solution, first proposed by Smith (1941), postulates dependency on the presence of a PIE laryngeal. According to Lehmann (2007), the lengthening occurs as in the contexts of PIE * -VwH-, * -iyH-, * -ayH-, * -aHy- (where V is any short vowel, and H is any laryngeal). An example is Old Norse tryggva "make trusty", Gothic triggwa "alliance", Old High German treuwa "faith", all from Proto-Germanic * triwwō, PIE * drewā. The egg word is problematic: Gothic * addjis (Crimean Gothic ada), Old Norse egg, Old High German ei, Old English ǣg may be from Proto-Germanic * ājjam, PIE * oh₂yom. The plurals Old Norse eigir, Old English ǣgru exhibit an s-stem, Proto-Germanic * ajjaz-.
dbpprop:relatedInstance
rdfs:comment
  • Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838. The law affects the "doubling" or Verschärfung of PIE * -y- and * -w- to Proto-Germanic * -jj- and * -ww-, which further "hardened" to -ggj-/-ggv- in Northern and to -ddj-/-ggw- in Eastern dialects, while in West Germanic the group results in a diphthong. The conditions of the sound change were long debated, since there is a seemingly random distribution of affected and unaffected words.
rdfs:label
  • Holtzmann's law
skos:subject
foaf:page
is dbpprop:redirect of