neogrammarian (adj./n.)

A follower of, or characteristic of the principles of, a nineteenth-century school of thought in COMPARATIVE PHILOLOGY, initiated by the German scholars K. Brugmann (1849–1919) and S. A. Leskien (1840–1916). Their main tenet was that sound laws admitted no exceptions (the neogrammarian hypothesis). Their nickname in German Junggrammatiker (‘young grammarians’) arose from the attitude of older scholars who, while not necessarily rejecting the principle, objected to the forceful way in which it was promulgated.