schwebeablaut

• Schwebeablaut

Borrowed from German Schwebeablaut (“floating ablaut”), from schweben (“float, hover”).

schwebeablaut (uncountable)

1. (Indo-European studies) The phenomenon or process of metathesis in a Proto-Indo-European root between the vowel and a neighbouring sonorant, which led to both possible full grades existing, e.g. *grebʰ- and *gerbʰ-.

schwebeablaut (third-person singular simple present schwebeablauts, present participle schwebeablauting, simple past and past participle schwebeablauted)

1. (Indo-European studies) To undergo the above process.
   • 1969, University of California Publications in Linguistics:

     The number given with the root tells the number of subgroups where it schwebeablauts, and the number after the subgroup name indicates the amount of roots/words that schwebeablaut in some other subgroup as well […]

   • 2013, Sievers' Law and the History of Semivowel Syllabicity, →ISBN, page 287:

     But, in any event, Beekes' reconstruction seems less than ideal, given that it effectively relies on a schwebeablauting root[.]