Sievers' law
E520888
Sievers' law is a historical phonological rule in Indo-European linguistics that explains the alternation between consonantal and vocalic forms of certain sounds (notably *y and *w) depending on the weight of the preceding syllable.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Sievers' law canonical | 2 |
| Holtzmann's law | 1 |
| Sievers' alternation | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T5460637 — 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: Sievers' law Context triple: [Indo-European phonology, studies, Sievers' law]
-
A.
Dulong–Petit law
The Dulong–Petit law is an early empirical rule in thermodynamics stating that many solid elements have approximately the same molar heat capacity at high temperatures.
-
B.
Kluge's law
Kluge's law is a proposed sound law in Proto-Germanic historical linguistics that explains the development of certain geminate consonants from earlier consonant clusters.
-
C.
Lusser's law
Lusser's law is a reliability engineering principle that states the overall reliability of a system is the product of the reliabilities of its individual components, highlighting how system reliability decreases as more components are added in series.
-
D.
Lorentz–Lorenz equation
The Lorentz–Lorenz equation is a fundamental relation in optics and electromagnetism that connects a material’s refractive index to its molecular polarizability and density.
-
E.
Aitken’s Law
Aitken’s Law is a phonological rule in Scots and Scottish English that governs when vowels are pronounced long or short depending on their phonetic and morphological environment.
- 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: Sievers' law Target entity description: Sievers' law is a historical phonological rule in Indo-European linguistics that explains the alternation between consonantal and vocalic forms of certain sounds (notably *y and *w) depending on the weight of the preceding syllable.
-
A.
Dulong–Petit law
The Dulong–Petit law is an early empirical rule in thermodynamics stating that many solid elements have approximately the same molar heat capacity at high temperatures.
-
B.
Kluge's law
Kluge's law is a proposed sound law in Proto-Germanic historical linguistics that explains the development of certain geminate consonants from earlier consonant clusters.
-
C.
Lusser's law
Lusser's law is a reliability engineering principle that states the overall reliability of a system is the product of the reliabilities of its individual components, highlighting how system reliability decreases as more components are added in series.
-
D.
Lorentz–Lorenz equation
The Lorentz–Lorenz equation is a fundamental relation in optics and electromagnetism that connects a material’s refractive index to its molecular polarizability and density.
-
E.
Aitken’s Law
Aitken’s Law is a phonological rule in Scots and Scottish English that governs when vowels are pronounced long or short depending on their phonetic and morphological environment.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Indo-European sound law
ⓘ
historical linguistics concept ⓘ phonological rule ⓘ sound law ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
Germanic languages
ⓘ
Greek ⓘ Indo-European daughter languages ⓘ Proto-Germanic ⓘ Proto-Indo-European ⓘ Vedic Sanskrit ⓘ |
| basedOn | weight of the preceding syllable ⓘ |
| concerns |
alternation between consonantal and vocalic allophones
ⓘ
glides ⓘ segments *y and *w ⓘ semivowels ⓘ syllable structure ⓘ syllable weight ⓘ |
| field |
Indo-European linguistics
ⓘ
linked to:
Indo-European studies
historical phonology ⓘ phonology ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeName |
Sievers' alternation
ⓘ
linked to:
Sievers' law
|
| hasImpactOn |
phonological theory of glides
ⓘ
prosodic phonology in Indo-European studies ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
consonantal allophone
ⓘ
heavy syllable ⓘ light syllable ⓘ vocalic allophone ⓘ |
| influenced |
analysis of Germanic morphology
ⓘ
reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European forms ⓘ |
| involves |
allophonic alternation
ⓘ
distribution of glides and vowels ⓘ morphophonemic alternations ⓘ prosodic conditioning ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Eduard Sievers ⓘ |
| partOf |
Indo-European sound laws
ⓘ
linked to:
Indo-European phonology
|
| relatedTo |
Indo-European ablaut patterns
ⓘ
moraic structure ⓘ syllable quantity ⓘ |
| states |
that *y and *w appear as consonantal after light syllables
ⓘ
that *y and *w appear as vocalic after heavy syllables ⓘ |
| timeOfFormulation | late 19th century ⓘ |
| usedIn |
comparative reconstruction
ⓘ
etymological analysis ⓘ |
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: Sievers' law Description of subject: Sievers' law is a historical phonological rule in Indo-European linguistics that explains the alternation between consonantal and vocalic forms of certain sounds (notably *y and *w) depending on the weight of the preceding syllable.
Referenced by (4)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Sievers' law
linked to: Sievers' law