Brugmann's law
Encyclopedia
Brugmann's law, named for Karl Brugmann
, states that Proto-Indo-European
(the ablaut
alternant of *e) in non-final syllables became *ā in open syllables (syllables ending in a single consonant followed by a vowel
) in Indo-Iranian
. Everywhere else the outcome was *ǎ, the same as the reflexes of PIE *e and *a. The rule seems not to apply to "non-apophonic *o", that is, *o that has no alternant, as in *poti- "master, lord" (thus Sanskrit pati-, not *pāti (there being no such root as *pet- "rule, dominate")). Similarly the form traditionally reconstructed as *owis "sheep" (Sanskrit ǎvi-), which is a good candidate for re-reconstructing as *h₃ewi- with an o-coloring laryngeal rather than an ablauting o-grade.
The theory accounts for a number of otherwise very puzzling facts. Sanskrit
has pitaras, mātaras, bhrātaras for "fathers, mothers, brothers" but svasāras for "sisters", a fact neatly explained by the traditional reconstruction of the stems
as *-ter- for "father, mother, brother" but *swesor- for "sister" (cf. Latin pater, māter, frāter but soror). Similarly, the great majority of n-stem nouns in Indic
have a long stem-vowel, such as brāhmāṇas "Brahmins", śvānas "dogs" (from *k'wones), correlating with information from other Indo-European languages
that these were actually on-stems. But there is one noun, ukṣan- "ox", that in the earliest Indic text, the Rigveda, shows forms like ukṣǎṇas "oxen". These were later replaced by "regular" formations (ukṣāṇas and so on, some as early as the Rigveda itself), but the notion that the short stem vowel might have been from an *en-stem is supported by the unique morphology
of the Germanic forms, e.g. Old English oxa nom.singular "ox", exen plural—the Old English plural stem (e.g., the nominative) continuing Proto-Germanic *uχsiniz < *uχseniz, with two layers of umlaut. As in Indic, this is the only certain Old English n-stem that points to *en-vocalism rather than *on-vocalism.
Perhaps the most convincing confirmation comes from the inflection of the perfect, wherein a Sanskrit root like sad- "sit" has sasada for "I sat" and sasāda for "he, she, it sat". The conventional 19th century wisdom saw this as some kind of "therapeutic" reaction to the Indo-Iranian falling-together of the endings *-a "I" and *-e "he/she/it" as -a, but it was troubling that the distinction was found exclusively in roots that ended with a single consonant
. That is, dadarśa "saw" is both first and third person singular, even though a form like *dadārśa is perfectly acceptable in terms of Sanskrit syllable
structure.
This mystery was solved when the ending of the perfect in the first person singular was reanalyzed on the basis of Hittite evidence as *-h₂e, that is, beginning with an a-coloring laryngeal
. In other words, at the time Brugmann's Law was operative, a form of the type *se-sod-h₂e in the first person did not have an open root syllable. A problem (minor) for this interpretation is that roots
that pretty plainly must have ended in a consonant cluster including a laryngeal, such as jan- < *ǵenh₁- "beget", and which therefore should have had a short vowel throughout (like darś- "see" < *dorḱ-), nevertheless show the same patterning as sad-: jajana 1sg., jajāna 3sg. Whether this is a catastrophic failure of the theory or just leveling is a matter of taste, but after all, those who think the pattern seen in roots like sad- have a morphological, not a phonological, origin, have their own headaches, such as the total failure of this "morphological" development to include roots ending in two consonants. And such an argument would in any case cut the ground out from under the neat distributions seen in the kinship
terms, the special behavior of "ox", and so on.
Perhaps the most worrisome data are adverbs like Sankrit prati, Greek pros (< *proti) (meaning "motion from or to a place or location at a place", depending on the case of the noun it governs) and some other forms, all of which appear to have ablauting vowels. They also all have a voiceless stop after the vowel, which may or may not be significant. And for all its charms, Brugmann's Law has few supporters nowadays (even Brugmann himself eventually gave up on it). Jerzy Kuryłowicz, the author of the brilliant explanation of the sasada/sasāda matter (in his Études indoeuropéennes I), eventually abandoned his analysis in favor of an appeal to the theory of marked vs unmarked morphological categories. This however is untenable: it is a banal commonplace of structural analysis that 3rd person singular is the most "unmarked" verb category (indeed, in very many languages it literally has no person marking at all); but in Indic it is precisely the third person form that "gets" the long (i.e., marked) vowel in Kuryłowicz's analysis, i.e., it is the marked member of the long/short opposition.
Karl Brugmann
Karl Brugmann was a German linguist. He is a towering figure in Indo-European linguistics.-Biography:He was educated at Halle and Leipzig. He was instructor in the gymnasium at Wiesbaden and at Leipzig, and in 1872-77 was assistant at the Russian Institute of Classical Philology at the latter place...
, states that Proto-Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
(the ablaut
Indo-European ablaut
In linguistics, ablaut is a system of apophony in Proto-Indo-European and its far-reaching consequences in all of the modern Indo-European languages...
alternant of *e) in non-final syllables became *ā in open syllables (syllables ending in a single consonant followed by a vowel
Vowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
) in Indo-Iranian
Indo-Iranian languages
The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages. It consists of three language groups: the Indo-Aryan, Iranian and Nuristani...
. Everywhere else the outcome was *ǎ, the same as the reflexes of PIE *e and *a. The rule seems not to apply to "non-apophonic *o", that is, *o that has no alternant, as in *poti- "master, lord" (thus Sanskrit pati-, not *pāti (there being no such root as *pet- "rule, dominate")). Similarly the form traditionally reconstructed as *owis "sheep" (Sanskrit ǎvi-), which is a good candidate for re-reconstructing as *h₃ewi- with an o-coloring laryngeal rather than an ablauting o-grade.
The theory accounts for a number of otherwise very puzzling facts. Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
has pitaras, mātaras, bhrātaras for "fathers, mothers, brothers" but svasāras for "sisters", a fact neatly explained by the traditional reconstruction of the stems
Word stem
In linguistics, a stem is a part of a word. The term is used with slightly different meanings.In one usage, a stem is a form to which affixes can be attached. Thus, in this usage, the English word friendships contains the stem friend, to which the derivational suffix -ship is attached to form a new...
as *-ter- for "father, mother, brother" but *swesor- for "sister" (cf. Latin pater, māter, frāter but soror). Similarly, the great majority of n-stem nouns in Indic
Indo-Aryan languages
The Indo-Aryan languages constitutes a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, itself a branch of the Indo-European language family...
have a long stem-vowel, such as brāhmāṇas "Brahmins", śvānas "dogs" (from *k'wones), correlating with information from other Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
that these were actually on-stems. But there is one noun, ukṣan- "ox", that in the earliest Indic text, the Rigveda, shows forms like ukṣǎṇas "oxen". These were later replaced by "regular" formations (ukṣāṇas and so on, some as early as the Rigveda itself), but the notion that the short stem vowel might have been from an *en-stem is supported by the unique morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
of the Germanic forms, e.g. Old English oxa nom.singular "ox", exen plural—the Old English plural stem (e.g., the nominative) continuing Proto-Germanic *uχsiniz < *uχseniz, with two layers of umlaut. As in Indic, this is the only certain Old English n-stem that points to *en-vocalism rather than *on-vocalism.
Perhaps the most convincing confirmation comes from the inflection of the perfect, wherein a Sanskrit root like sad- "sit" has sasada for "I sat" and sasāda for "he, she, it sat". The conventional 19th century wisdom saw this as some kind of "therapeutic" reaction to the Indo-Iranian falling-together of the endings *-a "I" and *-e "he/she/it" as -a, but it was troubling that the distinction was found exclusively in roots that ended with a single consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
. That is, dadarśa "saw" is both first and third person singular, even though a form like *dadārśa is perfectly acceptable in terms of Sanskrit syllable
Syllable
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds. For example, the word water is composed of two syllables: wa and ter. A syllable is typically made up of a syllable nucleus with optional initial and final margins .Syllables are often considered the phonological "building...
structure.
This mystery was solved when the ending of the perfect in the first person singular was reanalyzed on the basis of Hittite evidence as *-h₂e, that is, beginning with an a-coloring laryngeal
Laryngeal
Laryngeal may mean*pertaining to the larynx*in Indo-European linguistics, a consonant postulated in the laryngeal theory*in phonetics, an alternate term for glottal sounds....
. In other words, at the time Brugmann's Law was operative, a form of the type *se-sod-h₂e in the first person did not have an open root syllable. A problem (minor) for this interpretation is that roots
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
that pretty plainly must have ended in a consonant cluster including a laryngeal, such as jan- < *ǵenh₁- "beget", and which therefore should have had a short vowel throughout (like darś- "see" < *dorḱ-), nevertheless show the same patterning as sad-: jajana 1sg., jajāna 3sg. Whether this is a catastrophic failure of the theory or just leveling is a matter of taste, but after all, those who think the pattern seen in roots like sad- have a morphological, not a phonological, origin, have their own headaches, such as the total failure of this "morphological" development to include roots ending in two consonants. And such an argument would in any case cut the ground out from under the neat distributions seen in the kinship
Kinship
Kinship is a relationship between any entities that share a genealogical origin, through either biological, cultural, or historical descent. And descent groups, lineages, etc. are treated in their own subsections....
terms, the special behavior of "ox", and so on.
Perhaps the most worrisome data are adverbs like Sankrit prati, Greek pros (< *proti) (meaning "motion from or to a place or location at a place", depending on the case of the noun it governs) and some other forms, all of which appear to have ablauting vowels. They also all have a voiceless stop after the vowel, which may or may not be significant. And for all its charms, Brugmann's Law has few supporters nowadays (even Brugmann himself eventually gave up on it). Jerzy Kuryłowicz, the author of the brilliant explanation of the sasada/sasāda matter (in his Études indoeuropéennes I), eventually abandoned his analysis in favor of an appeal to the theory of marked vs unmarked morphological categories. This however is untenable: it is a banal commonplace of structural analysis that 3rd person singular is the most "unmarked" verb category (indeed, in very many languages it literally has no person marking at all); but in Indic it is precisely the third person form that "gets" the long (i.e., marked) vowel in Kuryłowicz's analysis, i.e., it is the marked member of the long/short opposition.