Question

Choose the option that demonstrates Grassmann's law of sound change.

• A. Voiced changes to voiceless
• B. Voiceless changes to fricative
• C. Voiceless changes to voiced
• D. Aspirated changes to unaspirated

Hint:

Grassmann's law shows how natural languages avoid repeating aspirated sounds in close succession—by deaspirating the first one.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: What is Grassmann's Law?
Grassmann's Law is a sound change observed in Indo-European languages such as Sanskrit and Ancient Greek. It involves the dissimilation of aspirated consonants.

Step 2: How does it work?
When two aspirated consonants occur in successive syllables, the first one loses its aspiration. This results in an aspirated-to-unaspirated change in the first position.

Example:
In Sanskrit, the root dʰā (to place) becomes a-da-ta (he placed), where the initial aspirated consonant dʰ loses its aspiration due to assimilation within the verb form.

Step 3: Match with option.
This behavior matches option (D): Aspirated changes to unaspirated.