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In linguistics, Illich-Svitych's law refers to two Proto-Slavic rules, named after Vladislav Illich-Svitych who first identified and explained them.

Neuter o-stems

Proto-Slavic neuter o-stems with fixed accent on a non-acute root (accent paradigm b) become masculine, retaining the accent paradigm. Compare:

• PIE *dʰwórom n > OCS dvorъ m
• PIE *médʰu n 'mead' > PSl. *medu m (OCS medъ)

This rule is important because it operated after the influx of Proto-Germanic/Gothic thematic neuters, which all became masculines in Proto-Slavic. Late Proto-Germanic (after the operation of Verner's law) had fixed accent on the first syllable. Compare:

• PSl. *xlaiwu m 'pigsty' (OCS xlěvъ ) < PGm. *hlaiwą n
• PSl. *xūsu/xūzu m 'house' (OCS xyzъ) < PGm. *hūsą n
• PSl. *pulku m 'folk, people' (OCS plъkъ) < PGm. *fulką n

Masculine o-stems

Proto-Slavic masculine o-stems with fixed accent on a non-acute root (accent paradigm b) become mobile-accent (accent paradigm c). This change is also termed "Holzer's metatony", after linguist Georg Holzer who described it.

Older literature suggests that this was not a Common Slavic innovation, and that there are exceptions in some Croatian Čakavian dialects of Susak and Istria, which have retained the original accentuation. This has been recently disputed.

Notes

1. Jay Jasanoff. The Prehistory of the Balto-Slavic Accent. p. 163.
2. Vermeer 2001

References

• Ranko Matasović (2008). Poredbenopovijesna gramatika hrvatskoga jezika (in Croatian). Zagreb: Matica hrvatska. ISBN 978-953-150-840-7.
• Willem Vermeer (2001). Critical observations on the modus operandi of the Moscow Accentological School, Werner Lehfeldt, Einführung in die morphologische Konzeption der slavischen Akzentologie, 2d edition, München: Sagner, pp. 131–161.

• Balto-Slavic sound laws
• Slavic phonological features