VERNER'S LAW, in philology, a law of sound so named from the discoverer, Karl Adolf Verner (q.v.) who formulated it in 1875. It embodies an explanation of certain apparent exceptions to the laws for the first shifting of consonants, affecting the representation in Teutonic of the Indo-European voiceless ex plosives k, t, p and the voiceless sibilant s. According to Grimm's Law p of the mater language always equaled English f; t=th; k = English h; b = English p; d English t; g English c(k); bh b ; dh d; gh g.
Verner pointed out that these laws or rules did not apply to all instances: he saw that e th at the begining of a word and under certain conditions (cp. the father), but exarOv and centum, from -t6m, gave not hunth(red) but hundred. So he said that, at the begin ing of a word, or when the Mater-Language showed an Accent following the t, then t"= d, not th: cp. Beth and deed. Greek shows this Early Accent very clearly. In order to remem ber Grimm's Law and Verner's Law, it is best to start with instances, •which can be collected in a Hexameter: under each word write the Greek word, then the Mater-Language con sonants, then the English word with the con sonant- in capitals or thick type. The Laws
can easily be gathered from the instances, and can then be applied to other instances. Latin: turba pedes in agris centum fert facta et in hortis. Greek: r4017 radar (tr) itypois (1)Kar6v (I) *Pe (*) ()era irs(iv) virus. English: THorp FeeT (in) aCres HunD(red) BeareTH DeeD GarTH (0.E).
To sum up Grimm's Law and Verner's Law for English: • 1. The Hard Consonants or (Tenues) of the Mater-Language=Aspirates, etc., in Eng lish— q and k (Guttural) h (Dental) = th d) (Labial) = f 2. The Soft Consonants or (Medim) = Hard: I and g c (k)t b (rare) =p 3. The Aspirated Consonants Soft: Ih and gh= g dh d bh= b From the above it is seen that Verner's Law is a modification and extension of Grinun's Law; its essential point consisting in the recognition that the diversity NN a; connected with the original word-accent of Indo-Euro pean. Consult Brugmann, K., (Comparative Grammar of the Indo-Germanic Languages); Skeat, W W., (Principles of English Ethnology) (1887); King and Cookson, (Sounds and In flexions.)