Verner's law
noun Linguistics.
the statement by K. Verner of a regularity behind some apparent exceptions in the Germanic languages to Grimm's law, namely, that Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives became voiced when between voiced sounds if the immediately preceding vowel was not accented in Proto-Indo-European.
Origin of Verner's law
First recorded in 1890–95
British Dictionary definitions for verner's law
Verner's law
/ (ˈvɜːnəz) /
noun
linguistics
a modification of Grimm's Law accommodating some of its exceptions. It states that noninitial voiceless fricatives in Proto-Germanic occurring as a result of Grimm's law became voiced fricatives if the previous syllable had been unstressed in Proto-Indo-European
Derived forms of Verner's law
Vernerian (vɜːˈnɛərɪən), adjectiveWord Origin for Verner's law
C19: named after Karl Adolph
Verner (1846–96), Danish philologist, who formulated it