Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws
E195336
The Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws is a linguistic principle asserting that phonetic changes in a language occur regularly and without exceptions under the same conditions, forming the basis for systematic historical-comparative linguistics.
All labels observed (5)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Neogrammarian hypothesis of exceptionless sound laws | 1 |
| Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws canonical | 1 |
| Neogrammarian school | 1 |
| Neogrammarian sound law hypothesis | 1 |
| Neogrammarians | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1734369 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws Context triple: [Grimm's law, influenced, Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws]
-
A.
Verner's law
Verner's law is a historical linguistic principle explaining a systematic set of consonant alternations in the Germanic languages that refined and expanded upon Grimm's law.
-
B.
Grimm's law
Grimm's law is a fundamental linguistic principle describing the systematic consonant shifts that distinguish the Germanic languages from other Indo-European branches.
-
C.
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law is a historical sound change in early Germanic languages that caused the loss of nasal consonants before fricatives, leaving characteristic vowel changes in Anglo-Frisian and related dialects.
-
D.
High German consonant shift
The High German consonant shift was a major sound change in early Germanic dialects that transformed the consonant system and helped distinguish High German (and related varieties like Lombardic) from other West Germanic languages.
-
E.
Indo-European phonology
Indo-European phonology is the branch of linguistics that reconstructs and analyzes the sound systems and sound changes of the Proto-Indo-European language and its descendant languages.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws Target entity description: The Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws is a linguistic principle asserting that phonetic changes in a language occur regularly and without exceptions under the same conditions, forming the basis for systematic historical-comparative linguistics.
-
A.
Verner's law
Verner's law is a historical linguistic principle explaining a systematic set of consonant alternations in the Germanic languages that refined and expanded upon Grimm's law.
-
B.
Grimm's law
Grimm's law is a fundamental linguistic principle describing the systematic consonant shifts that distinguish the Germanic languages from other Indo-European branches.
-
C.
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law is a historical sound change in early Germanic languages that caused the loss of nasal consonants before fricatives, leaving characteristic vowel changes in Anglo-Frisian and related dialects.
-
D.
High German consonant shift
The High German consonant shift was a major sound change in early Germanic dialects that transformed the consonant system and helped distinguish High German (and related varieties like Lombardic) from other West Germanic languages.
-
E.
Indo-European phonology
Indo-European phonology is the branch of linguistics that reconstructs and analyzes the sound systems and sound changes of the Proto-Indo-European language and its descendant languages.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
linguistic hypothesis
ⓘ
principle of historical linguistics ⓘ theoretical framework in phonology ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs |
Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws
ⓘ
surface form:
Neogrammarian sound law hypothesis
doctrine of exceptionless sound laws ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
diachronic phonology
ⓘ
phonetic change ⓘ sound change ⓘ |
| associatedWithCentury | 19th century ⓘ |
| associatedWithCountry | Germany ⓘ |
| associatedWithMovement |
Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
surface form:
Neogrammarian school
|
| associatedWithPlace | Leipzig school of linguistics ⓘ |
| basedOn | regularity of sound change ⓘ |
| contrastedWith | views that allow arbitrary exceptions in sound change ⓘ |
| coreIdea |
apparent exceptions to sound laws are due to analogy or other secondary processes
ⓘ
phonetic changes in a language occur regularly under the same conditions ⓘ regular sound correspondences can be used to reconstruct proto-languages ⓘ sound change is exceptionless when all relevant conditions are specified ⓘ sound laws apply mechanically to all relevant lexical items ⓘ |
| criticizedFor |
overstating the exceptionlessness of sound change
ⓘ
underestimating the role of analogy ⓘ |
| epistemicStatus | foundational but partially revised in later linguistics ⓘ |
| field |
Indo-European studies
ⓘ
comparative linguistics ⓘ historical linguistics ⓘ phonology ⓘ |
| hasConsequence |
apparent irregularities must be explained by analogy or borrowing
ⓘ
phonetic environment conditions sound change ⓘ sound change is independent of meaning ⓘ sound change is not teleological ⓘ |
| historicalContext | formulated in late 19th-century German linguistics ⓘ |
| influenced |
20th-century phonology
ⓘ
modern historical-comparative methodology ⓘ structuralist linguistics ⓘ the concept of regular sound correspondences ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
August Schleicher's work
ⓘ
comparative Indo-European philology ⓘ |
| methodologicalRole |
guides reconstruction of unattested proto-forms
ⓘ
provides justification for systematic comparison of languages ⓘ |
| relatedConcept |
analogy in language change
ⓘ
exceptionless sound change ⓘ phonetic conditioning ⓘ regular sound correspondence ⓘ sound law ⓘ |
| supports |
comparative method in historical linguistics
ⓘ
systematic reconstruction of proto-forms ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws Description of subject: The Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws is a linguistic principle asserting that phonetic changes in a language occur regularly and without exceptions under the same conditions, forming the basis for systematic historical-comparative linguistics.
Referenced by (5)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Neogrammarian hypothesis of exceptionless sound laws
subject surface form:
Hermann Osthoff
this entity surface form:
Neogrammarians
this entity surface form:
Neogrammarian sound law hypothesis
Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws
→
associatedWithMovement
→
Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws
self-linksurface differs
ⓘ
this entity surface form:
Neogrammarian school