Hirt's law

Hirt's law is a Proto-Balto-Slavic accentuation rule that retracted inherited Indo-European accent to a syllable containing a laryngeal consonant.

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Proto-Balto-Slavic accent system: The reconstructed system of stress and accentual contrasts inherited by Baltic and Slavic languages. Hirt's law is one proposed change within this ancestral accent system.
Proto-Balto-Slavic: The reconstructed common ancestor of the Baltic and Slavic language branches. Hirt's law is conventionally assigned to this ancestral stage.
Holger Pedersen: A Danish linguist whose work helped establish comparative Indo-European and Balto-Slavic linguistics. Pedersen proposed the accentual retraction now associated with Hirt's law.
Saussure's law: A Lithuanian accentual law that shifts stress in particular circumstances involving acute syllables. It is a distinct Baltic stress shift, not the laryngeal-conditioned retraction of Hirt's law.
Proto-Indo-European accent: The reconstructed pattern of accent placement in Proto-Indo-European words and inflections. The law's retraction is defined by its effect on inherited Indo-European accent.
Proto-Indo-European: The reconstructed ancestor of the Indo-European language family. The accent that Hirt's law affects is inherited from this ancestor.
Hermann Hirt: A German Indo-Europeanist known for research on Indo-European phonology and accentuation. His name became attached to the formulation of the law.
Leskien's law: A sound law describing the shortening of long vowels and diphthongs in certain final syllables of Lithuanian. It concerns Lithuanian quantity rather than inherited accent retraction.
Proto-Indo-European laryngeal theory: A theory that reconstructs consonants called laryngeals in Proto-Indo-European to explain sound patterns in its descendant languages. A laryngeal in the relevant syllable is the condition for accent retraction.
Indo-European ablaut: A system of vowel alternations in Indo-European roots and affixes, often correlated with accent placement. Ablaut and accent together help reconstruct forms on which the law is tested.