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Weise's 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. (Full article...)
- Most recent similar article(s): This is the only historical linguistics FA. The closest article by topic is probably Homeric Hymns, which involves an ancient language and was TFA on 1 August.
- Main editors: ThaesOfereode (I hold ~87% of all edits on the page and 99.3% authorship)
- Promoted: 22 September 2024
- Reasons for nomination: This is my first FA and first TFA request. Since there are no other FAs covering this topic, I think having this be a TFA would help expand the breadth of topics covered on the Main Page.
- Support as nominator. ThaesOfereode (talk) 17:51, 13 October 2024 (UTC)