Cowgill's law (Greek)

In Ancient Greek, Cowgill's law says that a former vowel becomes between a resonant (, , , ) and a labial consonant (including labiovelars), in either order. It is named after the American Indo-Europeanist Warren Cowgill.

Examples:

• 'night' < PIE (cf. , Vedic < , , gen. sg. )
• 'leaf' < PIE (cf. )
• 'mill' < PIE (cf. )
• 'nail' (stem ) < early PG < PIE (cf. < PGerm )

Note that when a labiovelar adjoins an affected by Cowgill's law, the new will cause the labiovelar to lose its labial component (as in and , where the usual Greek change > has not occurred).

See also

• Glossary of sound laws in the Indo-European languages

References