Verner's law

(vʉrnərz, ver-)

an explanation for a series of apparent exceptions to Grimm's law, stating that the Proto-Germanic word-medial voiceless spirants (f, t̸h, h, s), derived from the Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops (p, t, k) and voiceless spirant (s), regularly became voiced (v, t̸h, g, z), respectively, and final (s) became (z), when the vowel immediately preceding these did not in Proto-Indo-European bear the principal accent of the word

Origin: formulated (1875) by Karl Verner (1846-96), Dan philologist

See Verner's law in American Heritage Dictionary 4

noun
A law stating essentially that Proto-Germanic noninitial voiceless fricatives in voiced environments became voiced when the previous syllable was unstressed in Proto-Indo-European. For example, both the th- and the -d of English third are descended from Proto-Germanic voiceless *th, but the second was voiced by Verner's Law.

Origin:

Origin: After Karl Adolph Verner (1846-1896), Danish philologist

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