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Cowgill's law, named after Indo-Europeanist Warren Cowgill, refers to two unrelated sound changes, one occurring in Proto-Greek and the other in Proto-Germanic.

Cowgill's law in Greek

In Proto-Greek, Cowgill's law^[1] says that a former /o/ vowel becomes /u/ between a resonant (/r/, /l/, /m/, /n/) and a labial consonant (including labiovelars), in either order.

Examples:

Greek: νύξ "night" < PIE *nokʷts (cf. Latin: nox, Ved. nák < *nakts, Gothic: nahts, gen. sg. Hittite: nekuz /nekʷts/)
Greek: φύλλον "leaf" < PIE *bʰolyom (cf. Latin: folium)
Greek: μύλη "mill" < PIE *mol-eh₂- (cf. Latin: molīna)
Greek: ὄνυξ "nail" (stem Greek: ónukh-) < early PG *onokʷʰ- < PIE h₃nogʷʰ- (cf. Old English: nægl < PGerm *nag-laz)

Note that when a labiovelar adjoins an /o/ affected by Cowgill's law, the new /u/ will cause the labiovelar to lose its labial component (as in Greek: núks and Greek: ónuks/ónukh-, where the usual Greek change */kʷ/ > /p/ has not occurred).

Cowgill's law in Germanic

Cowgill's law in Germanic^[2] has no relation to Cowgill's law in Greek other than having been named after the same person. It says that a PIE laryngeal /h₃/, and possibly /h₂/, turns into /k/ in Proto-Germanic when directly preceded by a sonorant and followed by /w/. This law is still controversial, although increasingly accepted. Donald Ringe (2006) accepts it;^[2] Andrew Sihler (1995) is noncommittal.^[1]

Examples are fairly few:

Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz "alive" (whence English quick) < PIE *gʷih₃-wos (cf. Latin: vīvus)
Proto-Germanic *unki acc. du. "us two" (cf. Gothic: unkis, Old English: unc, Old Norse: okkr) < PIE *n̥h₃we (cf. Greek: nṓ; Ved. āvā́m acc. du. "us two" < *āva-ám)
Possibly Old English: tācor "husband's brother" < PIE *dayh₂wḗr (cf. Greek: dāḗr, Ved. devṛ́, Latin: lēvir)

The first two examples, however, have good alternative explanations which don't involve Cowgill's law:

Proto-Germanic *kwikwaz < PIE *gʷi-gʷh₃-(w)ó-.^[3]
Proto-Germanic *unki < PIE *n̥h₁ ge acc./dat. du. "us two at least" (other accusative personal pronouns may have been built the same way: Proto-Germanic *miki acc. sg. "me", *þiki acc. sg. "you (sg.)", and *inki acc./dat. du. "you two" ).^[4]

If the sound law becomes generally accepted, the relative chronology of this law could have consequences for a possible reconstructed phonetic value of /h₃/. Since Germanic /k/ results from earlier PIE /g/, and since the change occurred before Grimm's law applied (according to Ringe), the resulting change would be actually /h₃w/ > /gʷ/. This would have been more likely if /h₃/ was a voiced velar obstruent to begin with. If /h₃/ was a voiced labiovelar fricative as is occasionally suggested, the change would therefore have been: /ɣʷw/ > /ɡʷ/.

Notes

^ ^a ^b Sihler, Andrew L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508345-8.
^ ^a ^b Ringe, Don (2006). From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955229-0.
^ Kroonen, Guus (2013). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series, 11. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. Head: Kwiwa- ~ *Kwikwa-. ISBN 978-90-04-18340-7.
^ Dunkel, George E (2014). Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme [Lexicon of the Indo-European Particles and Pronominal Stems]. Vol. 2. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. pp. 281–282. ISBN 978-3-8253-5926-3.

References

Ringe, Don (2006). From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955229-0.
Sihler, Andrew L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508345-8.

[sihler-1] Sihler, Andrew L. (1995). New Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-508345-8.

[ringe-2] Ringe, Don (2006). From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955229-0.

[kroonen-3] Kroonen, Guus (2013). Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series, 11. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers. Head: Kwiwa- ~ *Kwikwa-. ISBN 978-90-04-18340-7.

[lipp-4] Dunkel, George E (2014). Lexikon der indogermanischen Partikeln und Pronominalstämme [Lexicon of the Indo-European Particles and Pronominal Stems]. Vol. 2. Carl Winter Universitätsverlag. pp. 281–282. ISBN 978-3-8253-5926-3.

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