Begemann's Law

Begemann's Law is a sound change characteristic of the Hercynian languages, named after the fictional linguist Winfried Begemann.

Begemann's Law affected the Proto-Hesperic aspirated and voiced stops, while the neutral stops remained unchanged.

In intervocalic position and word-finally after a vowel, aspirated stops became voiceless fricatives and voiced stops became voiced fricatives. In all other positions, aspirated stops merged with the neutral stops, and voiced stops remained unchanged.

This change, especially the fact that the neutral stops remained unaffected, suggests that the Proto-Hesperic aspirated stops formed a class with the voiced stops at the exclusion of the neutral stops. There are two suggested explanations for this:

• The Proto-Hesperic voiced stops actually were breathy-voiced. Under this assumption, the change affected stpps with the feature [+breath], resulting in breath loss in some positions and spirantization in others.
• The Proto-Hesperic neutral stops were phonologically marked some way, such as being ejectives.

A similar change occurred in Viddan. The Alpianic languages, which share a number of sound changes with Hercynian, did not undergo this change.