Word.ws English Dictionary

Meillet's law

Meillet's law proper noun: a Common Slavic accent law, according to which Slavic words have a circumflex on the root vowel (i.e. the first syllable) if that word had a mobile accent paradigm in Proto-Slavic and Proto-Balto-Slavic, regardless of whether the root had the Balto-Slavic acute register.

Proper noun

Meillet's law

  1. A Common Slavic accent law, according to which Slavic words have a circumflex on the root vowel (i.e. the first syllable) if that word had a mobile accent paradigm in Proto-Slavic and Proto-Balto-Slavic, regardless of whether the root had the Balto-Slavic acute register.

Origin of Meillet's law

Named after the French Indo-Europeanist Antoine Meillet, who discovered it.

Questions about Meillet's law

What does Meillet's law mean?
Meillet's law means a Common Slavic accent law, according to which Slavic words have a circumflex on the root vowel (i.e. the first syllable) if that word had a mobile accent paradigm in Proto-Slavic and Proto-Balto-Slavic, regardless of whether the root had the Balto-Slavic acute register.
What part of speech is Meillet's law?
Meillet's law is a proper noun.

Words near Meillet's law in the dictionary

  1. Meilan
  2. Meilani
  3. Meillassouxian
  4. Meiller
  5. Meillet
  6. Meillet's law
  7. Meilyr
  8. meimechite
  9. meimechites
  10. Mein
  11. mein host

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Meillet's law (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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