Definition of: Verner's Law

A law regarding certain consonant changes in Germanic languages, set forth by Karl Verner in 1876, stating that certain exceptions to Grimm's Law are due to a still wider law, namely, the position of the primary accent in the parent language. It shows that original Indo–European voiceless plosives p, t, k, which, according to Grimm's Law became in Germanic the voiceless fricatives f, th (as in thin), h, became, instead, except in specific combinations, the corresponding voiced fricatives and, ultimately, the voiced plosives, b, d, g, if the original Indo–European tonic stress was not on the immediately preceding syllable. This statement can be illustrated in English by the distinction in final consonant between death and dead. The same process operated for the Indo–European s, which became z, and finally r, as can be seen in English was and were, raise and rear.