The “phonetic prehistory” of Grassmann’s law in Greek

Abstract

Abstract Grassmann’s Law (=GL) is generally regarded as a quintessential example of regular sound change, though dissimilation processes are generally said to be quite rare and sporadic. In the present paper, evidence is presented aiming to show “the phonetic prehistory” of Grassmann’s Law in Greek, namely a diachronic stage during which GL acts in all but regular fashion. In particular, especially in some dialectal areas, some forms retain the original diaspirate stem up until Classical epoque (V–IV c. BC). Moreover, the presence of an opposite process, that is the assimilation (generally regressive) between aspirated segments, is also documented. Both of these aspects seem to show a lexically constrained spread of such a change. Its relatively late regularity can be explained as a process implemented by phonological constraints, which intervene at some point in the linguistic change.