The importance of Illič-Svityč's law in today's society is undeniable. Every day, Illič-Svityč's law becomes a topic of debate and reflection in different areas, whether in politics, science, entertainment or culture. Illič-Svityč's law awakens the interest and curiosity of people, who seek to understand its impact on their lives and the world around them. In this article, we will explore the various aspects related to Illič-Svityč's law, from its origin to its evolution today. We will analyze its influence on our daily decisions, as well as on the development of society as a whole.
In linguistics, Illič-Svityč's law refers to two Proto-Slavic rules, named after Vladislav Illich-Svitych who first identified and explained them.
Proto-Slavic neuter o-stems with fixed accent on a non-acute root (accent paradigm b) become masculine, retaining the accent paradigm. Compare:
This rule is important because it operated after the influx of Proto-Germanic/Gothic thematic neuters, which all became masculines in Proto-Slavic. Late Proto-Germanic (after the operation of Verner's law) had fixed accent on the first syllable. Compare:
Proto-Slavic masculine o-stems with fixed accent on a non-acute root (accent paradigm b) become mobile-accent (accent paradigm c). This change is also termed "Holzer's metatony", after linguist Georg Holzer who described it.
Older literature suggests that this was not a Common Slavic innovation, and that there are exceptions in some Croatian Čakavian dialects of Susak and Istria, which have retained the original accentuation. This has been recently disputed.