verner's law

2 definitions found

verner's law - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Verner's law \Ver"ner's law\ (Philol.)
     A statement, propounded by the Danish philologist Karl Verner
     in 1875, which explains certain apparent exceptions to
     Grimm's law by the original position of the accent. Primitive
     Indo-European k, t, p, became first in Teutonic h, th, f, and
     appear without further change in old Teutonic, if the accent
     rested on the preceding syllable; but these sounds became
     voiced and produced g, d, b, if the accent was originally on
     a different syllable. Similarly s either remained unchanged,
     or it became z and later r. Example: Skt. sapt[=a] (accent on
     ultima), Gr. 'e`pta, Gothic sibun (seven). Examples in
     English are dead by the side of death, to rise and to rear.
     [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

verner's law - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  Verner's law
      n 1: a qualification of Grimm's law