Siebs's law - Misplaced Pages

Proto-Indo-European sound law

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Siebs's law (/ˈziːps/ ZEEPS) is a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) phonological rule named after the German linguist Theodor Siebs . According to this law, if an s-mobile is added to a root that starts with a voiced or aspirated stop, that stop is allophonically devoiced.

Compare:

PIE *bʰr̥Hg- > Latin fragor,

but *s-bʰr̥Hg- > PIE *spʰr̥Hg- > Sanskrit sphūrjati.

Discussion

Siebs proposed this law in the Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen ('Journal for Comparative Linguistic Research in the Field of Indo-European Languages'), as Anlautstudien ('Initial Sound Studies'). Oswald Szemerényi rejected this rule, explaining that it is untenable and cites the contradiction present in Avestan zdī from PIE *s-dʰi "be!" as counterproof. However, the PIE form is more accurately reconstructed as *h₁s-dʰí from *h₁es- (so not an s-mobile) and thus Siebs' law appears to demand that the sibilant and aspirated stop are both adjacent and tautosyllabic, something which is known to only occur in word-initial position in Proto-Indo-European anyway.

References

Siebs 1904, p. 277–324.
Szemerényi 1999, p. 144.

Sources

Collinge, N. E. (1985). The Laws of Indo-European. John Benjamins Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-915027-75-0.
Szemerényi, Oswald (1999). Introduction to Indo-European Linguistics. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-823870-6.
Siebs, Theodore (1904). Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen.

v t e Proto-Indo-European language
Phonology	Accent Centum and satem Glottalic theory Laryngeal theory s-mobile Sound laws boukólos rule *kʷetwóres rule Glossary of sound laws Brugmann's Bartholomae's Fortunatov's Grassmann's Osthoff's Pinault's Siebs's Sievers's (Edgerton's converse) Stang's Szemerényi's Weise's
Morphology	Ablaut Caland system h₂e-conjugation Narten present Nasal infix Root Thematic vowel Vṛddhi
Parts of speech	Nominals (nouns and adjectives) Numerals Particles Pronouns Verbs copula Vocabulary
Main sources	Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch (IEW) Lexikon der indogermanischen Verben (LIV) Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme (LIPP) Nomina im Indogermanischen Lexikon (NIL) Indo-European Etymological Dictionary (IEED)
Artificial compositions	Schleicher's fable The king and the god
Theories	Kurgan hypothesis Schleicher theories Anatolian hypothesis Armenian hypothesis Outdated theories: Beech argument North European hypothesis
Society	Proto-Indo-European mythology Proto-Indo-European society Indo-European migrations Proto-Indo-European homeland Salmon problem
See also	Indo-European studies Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture (EIE)

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