Horowitz Franklin Eugene. Sievers' Law and the Evidence of the Rigveda

Mouton, 1974. — 76 p. — (Janua Linguarum. Series Practica 216).Among the monumental achievements of the linguists of the 1870’s was the establishment of a theory of the Proto-Indo-European resonant system which, in its basic features, has remained a cornerstone of the study of Indo-European phonology to this day. How- ever, one aspect of resonant behavior has been less amenable to satisfactory analysis: the conditions under which prevocalic re- sonants following consonants appear in syllabic or in non-syllabic form. In 1878 Eduard Sievers offered a tentative formu- lation of these conditions, and others fol- lowing him, particularly Franklin Edgerton, claimed to have established “Sievers' law" on a firm foundation. Yet those who have adduced evidence in support of this law, especially evidence drawn from the Rigveda, have never acquitted themselves of the charge that they are guilty of serious misinter- pretation of the data, a charge first stated as early as 1888 by Hermann Oldenberg.
The object of the present monograph is to subject some of the evidence of the Rigveda to a re-examination in which the steps are so ordered that the danger of circular reasoning is avoided where possible and made explicit where unavoidable. The results indicate that certain extreme formulations of Sievers’ law are untenable, but that equally inadequate are recent studies which seem to leave the entire structure in ruins. A coherent pattern does in fact emerge from the evidence, one that, it is hoped, will offer a more secure foundation for further research.