Cowgill's law (Greek)

In Ancient Greek, Cowgill's law says that a former vowel becomes between a resonant (, , , ) and a labial consonant (including labiovelars), in either order. It is named after the American Indo-Europeanist Warren Cowgill.

Examples: 'night' < PIE (cf. , Vedic < , , gen. sg. ) 'leaf' < PIE (cf. ) 'mill' < PIE (cf. ) 'nail' (stem ) < early PG < PIE (cf. < PGerm )

Note that when a labiovelar adjoins an affected by Cowgill's law, the new will cause the labiovelar to lose its labial component (as in and , where the usual Greek change > has not occurred).

Counterexamples:

'name' alongside expected Doric and Aeolic ὄνυμα.

See also Glossary of sound laws in the Indo-European languages

References