Miller's law (linguistics)

Miller's law proposes that an aspirated consonant in Proto-Greek became deaspirated after a nasal consonant ending an accented vowel. It was identified by Indo-Europeanist D. Gary Miller.

Examples:

• Greek: ὄμβρος, romanized: ómbros "rain" < PIE *ń̥bʰr-os (cf. Latin: imber, Sanskrit: अभ्र, romanized: abhrá, Armenian: ամպրոպ, romanized: amprop, Tokharian B: iprer)
• Greek: τύμβος, romanized: túmbos "tomb" < PIE *túm-bʰos (cf. Middle Irish: tomm, Armenian: թումբ, romanized: tʻumb)
• Greek: θρόμβος, romanized: thrómbos "clot" < PIE *dʰrón-bʰos (cf. Icelandic: drambr, Latvian: dramblys)
• Greek: θάμβος, romanized: thámbos "amazed" < PIE *dʰḿ̥bʰ-es- (cf. English: dumb)
• Greek: κύμβη, romanized: kúmbē "cup, bowl" < PIE *kúm-bʰeh₂ (cf. Sanskrit: कुम्भ, romanized: kumbʰá)

Counterexamples where, because the accent falls on another syllable or because a laryngeal separates the aspirated consonant from the nasal, the law is not triggered:

• Greek: ὀμφαλός "navel" < PIE *h₃n̥bʰl-ós
• Greek: ὀμφή "voice" < PIE *songʷʰ-éh₂
• Greek: γόμφος "peg" < PIE *ǵónh₂-bʰos (possibly exhibiting the Saussure effect)

References

• Batisti, Roberto (July 16–18, 2022). Post-Nasal Deaspiration in Ancient Greek: Mirage or Reality?. 10th International Colloquium on Ancient Greek Linguistics. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Retrieved November 15, 2024.
• Miller, D. Gary (2014). Ancient Greek Dialects and Early Authors: Introduction to the Dialect Mixture in Homer, with Notes on Lyric and Herodotus. Boston: De Gruyter. ISBN 978-1-61451-493-0.
• Nikolaev, Alexander (2023). "New Phrygian ⟨ε⟩δικες, Greek θιγγανω (with remarks on Miller's Law and the treatment of *dʰs in PIE)". Indo-European Linguistics and Classical Philology. 27: 858–879.
• Probert, Philomen; Willi, Andreas (2012). "A rule of deaspiration in ancient Greek". Laws and Rules in Indo-European. Oxford University Press. pp. 125–133.