Havlík's law

Havlík's law describes how Proto-Slavic reduced vowels, or yers, alternated between strong positions, where they developed into full vowels, and weak positions, where they disappeared.

Yer: A reduced vowel in Proto-Slavic and other Slavic languages, conventionally represented as ь or ъ. Havlík's law determines whether each yer became a full vowel or disappeared.
Proto-Slavic declension: The system of noun and adjective inflection inherited by the Slavic languages from Proto-Slavic. Yer strength in stems and endings helps explain differences among inflected forms.
Antonín Havlík: A Czech philologist whose name is attached to the rule describing the distribution of strong and weak Slavic yers. Havlík published the formulation that established the law's name.
Jerzy Kuryłowicz's law: A proposed refinement of yer distribution associated with Polish linguist Jerzy Kuryłowicz. It modifies aspects of the classical account of strong and weak yers.
Strong yer: A reduced vowel in a strong position that developed into a full vowel in the daughter languages. The law identifies which yers occupy positions that trigger vocalization.
Slavic liquid metathesis: A set of Slavic sound changes that altered vowel-and-liquid sequences in early Slavic. Yer loss affected the consonant environments in which these changes occurred.
August Leskien: A German linguist who helped establish the comparative study of Slavic languages. His work provided a major framework for reconstructing Proto-Slavic sound patterns.
Meillet's law: A Common Slavic accentual change associated with the loss of Indo-European accent from certain initial syllables. Despite the shared label, it concerns accentuation rather than yer strength.
Weak yer: A reduced vowel in a weak position that disappeared during the development of Slavic languages. The law identifies which yers occupy positions that trigger loss.
Slavic syllabic consonants: Consonants that function as syllable nuclei in Slavic languages, including some outcomes of vowel loss. When a weak yer disappeared, neighboring consonants could form syllabic nuclei.

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