The Neogrammarian doctrine: sound laws admit no exception
In the preface to the first volume of Morphologische Untersuchungen, Hermann Osthoff and Karl Brugmann set out the programme of the Leipzig school, whose central claim was that sound change proceeds without exception within a given dialect and period, with apparent exceptions to be explained by conditioning environments, analogy or borrowing. The doctrine followed directly from Verner's result of the previous year. It has been qualified extensively since — lexical diffusion and sociolinguistic variation both bear on it — but as a working assumption it remains what makes the comparative method a demonstration rather than an impression.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- The regularity of sound change · phenomenon · not located
- The comparative method · process · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Morphologische Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der indogermanischen Sprachen, volume 1 (preface)
Supports the attribution of the exceptionless-sound-law doctrine to the Neogrammarian programme stated in this preface. V55 verification basis: this session had no access to any source — WebFetch was egress-blocked for every host attempted and the WebSearch budget was exhausted before authoring — so the cited work was not retrieved, and no page, volume or figure quoted from it was re-checked. The doctrine is paraphrased in English; no German sentence is quoted and no translation is reproduced, because the text was not consulted.
Hirzel, Leipzig · 1878 · Partly verified
Osthoff, H. and Brugmann, K., Morphologische Untersuchungen, vol. 1, preface (Leipzig, 1878)
Recorded on The regularity of sound change
- Grimm formulates the first sound shift as a system
- The Neogrammarian doctrine: sound laws admit no exception
- Glottochronology proposes to date language splits arithmetically
- Language in the Americas, and its rejection
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.