In historical linguistics, Weise's law describes the loss of palatal quality some consonants undergo in specific contexts in the Proto-Indo- European language. In short, when the consonants represented by *ḱ *ǵ *ǵʰ, called palatovelar consonants, are followed by *r, they lose their palatal quality, leading to a loss in distinction between them and the plain velar consonants *k *g *gʰ. Some exceptions exist, such as when the *r is followed by *i or when the palatal form is restored by analogy with related words. Although this sound change is most prominent in the satem languages, it is believed that the change must have occurred prior to the centum–satem division, based on an earlier sound change which affected the distribution of Proto-Indo-European *u and *r. The law is named after the German linguist Oskar Weise (epitaph pictured), who first postulated it in 1881 as the solution to reconciling cognates in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weise%27s_law

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1635:

Dutch colonial forces on Formosa launched a three-month pacification campaign against Taiwanese indigenous peoples. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_pacification_campaign_on_Formosa

1963:

John F. Kennedy was assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas; hours later, Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th president of the United States (pictured). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyndon_B._Johnson

1971:

In Britain's worst mountaineering tragedy, five teenage students and one of their leaders were found dead from exposure on the Cairngorm Plateau in the Scottish Highlands. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairngorm_Plateau_disaster

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

deontology: 1. Synonym of ethics (“the study of principles relating to right and wrong conduct”) 2. (specifically) The normative ethical theory that the morality of an action should be based on whether the action follows certain obligations or rules, rather than on either its inherent goodness or its consequences. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/deontology

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

The finest virtues can become deformed with age. The precise mind becomes finicky; the thrifty man, miserly; the cautious man, timorous; the man of imagination, fanciful. Even perseverance ends up in a sort of stupidity. Just as, on the other hand, being too willing to understand too many opinions, too diverse ways of seeing, constancy is lost and the mind goes astray in a restless fickleness.   --André Gide https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_Gide