EDGERTON'S LAW

'Edgerton's Law' is a theory about Proto-Indo-European phonology, specifically the syllabification of Proto-Indo-European semivowels (''y w r l m n'') propounded in 1934 by the eminent Sanskritist Franklin Edgerton (1885-1963). In essence it is a considerable elaboration of Sievers' Law. It was immediately hailed by many in the scholarly community and enjoyed the status of orthodoxy among Indo-Europeanists for 35 or 40 years. (It should be noted that Edgerton himself never referred to his theory as "Edgerton's Law", and many scholars prefer the term "Sievers-Edgerton's Law".) For further discussion see Sievers' Law.