Edgerton’s Law: The Phantom Evidence

In presenting the theory of Indo-European syllabification known as Edgerton’s Law, Franklin Edgerton cited many passages from the Rigveda which he claimed were evidence for his theory. These claims have never been systematically examined. This monograph reports the results of such an examination: the facts are shown to be nearly always different from Edgerton’s account of them, in many cases significantly so. In fact, Rigvedic scansion actually provides no evidence supporting Edgerton’s Law, which accords well with other indications that the Law is a theory without factual foundation.