Word.ws English Dictionary

boukólos rule

boukólos rule noun: a rule of the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed language that states that a labiovelar stop (*kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ) dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop (*k, *g, *gʰ) next to the vowel *u or its corresponding glide *w.

Noun

the boukólos rule

  1. (Indo-European-studies) A rule of the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed language that states that a labiovelar stop (*kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ) dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop (*k, *g, *gʰ) next to the vowel *u or its corresponding glide *w.

Origin of boukólos rule

The rule is named after an example of such a dissimilation: the Ancient Greek βουκόλος (boukólos, “cowherd”), which is ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷow-kólos, from *gʷṓws (“cow”) + *kʷól-os (“herder”).

Questions about boukólos rule

What does boukólos rule mean?
Boukólos rule means a rule of the Proto-Indo-European reconstructed language that states that a labiovelar stop (*kʷ, *gʷ, *gʷʰ) dissimilates to an ordinary velar stop (*k, *g, *gʰ) next to the vowel *u or its corresponding glide *w.
What part of speech is boukólos rule?
Boukólos rule is a noun.

Words near boukólos rule in the dictionary

  1. boukha
  2. Boukhechba
  3. Bouknight
  4. Bouknights
  5. bouks
  6. boukólos rule
  7. boul
  8. boula
  9. boulanger
  10. boulangerie
  11. boulangeries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: boukólos rule (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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