In this article, we will delve into the topic of Meillet's law, which has generated great interest and discussion in different areas. In order to fully understand its importance and impact, we will explore its origins, evolution and impact on today's society. Through a detailed analysis, we will examine the various perspectives and opinions that exist around Meillet's law, as well as the possible implications it has in the current context. Likewise, we will delve into relevant case studies that will help to better understand its scope and relevance today. By collecting updated and relevant information, we aim to generate a debate around Meillet's law that will enrich knowledge and promote deep reflection on this significant topic.
Meillet's law is a Common Slavic accent law, named after the French Indo-Europeanist Antoine Meillet, who discovered it.
According to the law, Slavic words have a circumflex on the root vowel (i.e., the first syllable of a word), if that word had a mobile accent paradigm in Proto-Slavic and Proto-Balto-Slavic, regardless of whether the root had the Balto-Slavic acute register. Compare:
Meillet's law should most probably be interpreted as polarization of accentual mobility in Slavic, due to which accent in the words with mobile accentuation had to be on the first mora, instead on the first syllable (in places in paradigm with initial accent). This is the reason in the words belonging to mobile paradigms in Slavic accent shifts from the first syllable to the proclitic, e.g. Russian accusative singular of mobile-paradigm gólovu, but ná golovu 'on the head', Serbo-Croatian glȃvu, but nȁ glāvu.
Meillet's law appears to not have taken effect in the infinitive of verbs. This form normally had ending accent in mobile paradigms, but some Balto-Slavic mobile verbs had root accent in the infinitive as a result of Hirt's law. In Slavic, these infinitives retained their acute accentuation, thus creating *gry̋zti next to the present *gryzèšь. Such verbs appear synchronically to be a mixture of accent paradigms a and c.