Boukólos rule
Encyclopedia
The boukólos rule is a phonological rule of the Proto-Indo-European language
(PIE). It states that a labiovelar stop dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop next to the vowel or its corresponding glide . The rule is named after an example, the Ancient Greek
word "cowherd", from PIE . That the second constituent of this word was originally can be seen from the analogously constructed "goatherd" < . The same dissimilated form is the ancestor of Proto-Celtic , the source of Welsh
(which would have had -b- rather than -g- if it had come from a form with *-kʷ-).
Another example could be the Greek negation , which Warren Cowgill
has interpreted as coming from pre-Greek *ojukid < , meaning approximately "not on your life". Without the boukólos rule, the result would have been } .
The rule is also found in Germanic
, mainly in verbs, where labiovelars are delabialised by the epenthetic -u- inserted before syllabic resonants:
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...
(PIE). It states that a labiovelar stop dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop next to the vowel or its corresponding glide . The rule is named after an example, the Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
word "cowherd", from PIE . That the second constituent of this word was originally can be seen from the analogously constructed "goatherd" < . The same dissimilated form is the ancestor of Proto-Celtic , the source of Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
(which would have had -b- rather than -g- if it had come from a form with *-kʷ-).
Another example could be the Greek negation , which Warren Cowgill
Warren Cowgill
Warren Cowgill was a professor of linguistics at Yale University and the Encyclopædia Britannica’s authority on Indo-European linguistics. He was unusual among Indo-European linguists of his time in believing that Indo-European should be classified as a branch of Indo-Hittite, with Hittite as a...
has interpreted as coming from pre-Greek *ojukid < , meaning approximately "not on your life". Without the boukólos rule, the result would have been } .
The rule is also found in Germanic
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
, mainly in verbs, where labiovelars are delabialised by the epenthetic -u- inserted before syllabic resonants:
- Old High German queman ("to come"), past participle cuman ("come"), from Proto-Germanic *kwemanaN and *kumanaz
- Gothic saiƕan, Old High German sehan ("to see"), past plural OHG sāgun ("saw"), from Proto-Germanic *sehwanaN and *sēgun (-g- results from earlier -h- through Verner's lawVerner's lawVerner's law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *þ, *s, *h, *hʷ, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively the fricatives *b, *d, *z,...
)