Sievers' law

The Sieversche law is discovered by the German philologist Eduard Sievers Germanic or Indo According to the law, which governs the distribution of -j - and -ij - and -w- and - uw- according to the quantity of the preceding syllable. The law states that the semi-vowels is -j - and -w- after a long syllable preceded by a vowel homorganer. As Frederik Otto Lindeman has also been published for this sound law, the law is also known under the name Sievers / Lindeman. Similar processes in the Vedic Franklin Edgerton have led to propose extensions to the Sieverschen law, but they are controversial in the research.

Examples

Sievers law occurs after langsilbiger base: Gothic haírdeis ' shepherd ' < Gmc * herđijaz < IE * kerd ʰ jos

Sievers law remains off after kurzsilbiger base: Gothic harjis ' army ' < Gmc * harjaz < IE * korjos

In the second case would, however there is an innovation, as Germanic * harjaz in Gothic, according to law * haris result ( Bammesberger 1990:40 ).