Q: non-IE terms

[Larry Trask]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
As many of you know, I'm compiling a dictionary of historical and
comparative linguistics, which I have to submit in a couple of months.
At present, I have pretty good coverage of general terms from HL,
comparative linguistics, philology and language change.  And I also have
coverage of IE terms which is about as nearly exhaustive as I think I
can justify.
 
But I don't have terms from language families other than IE.  I've been
avoiding those, because of worries about space.  However, I've just had
a meeting with my editor, and she agrees that we should go for coverage
of these as well.  So I'm posting a request for assistance.
 
What I'm looking for is named "laws" and processes from families other
than IE -- Semitic, Bantu, Japanese, Algonquian or whatever.  That is,
I'm looking for equivalents of IE terms like `Verner's Law', `First
(Slavic) Palatalization' and `ablaut'.
 
If you can suggest any such terms, it would be very helpful if you could
provide as much as possible of the following information:
 
* the term
* its domain
* a definition
* an example or two
* a *complete* reference to the first published use of the term
 
I'm thinking of things like `Meussen's Law' in Bantu and `rendaku' in
Japanese.  All assistance will be gratefully received.  But please note
that terms must be explicitly historical in nature: non-historical terms
cannot be included.
 
Larry Trask
COGS
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QH
UK
 
larryt at cogs.susx.ac.uk