Neogrammarian

A. n. A linguist holding the view that phonetic changes operate without exception; spec. = JUNGGRAMMATIKER n.

1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 782/2 This younger school (often branded with the name of Neo-Grammarians, ‘Junggrammatiker’, by its opponents real and imaginary) is marked by certain distinct tendencies. 1933 L. BLOOMFIELD Lang. xx. 354 The neo-grammarian insists..that his hypothesis..sorts out the resemblances that are due to factors other than phonetic change. 1947 E. H. STURTEVANT Introd. Ling. Sci. vii. 70 In the 1870's a number of scholars announced..that phonetic laws have no exceptions. The earliest declaration..seems to have been made by August Leskien in 1876, but the discovery really belonged to a group, who, from that time to this, have been called the neo-grammarians (Junggrammatiker). 1965 Language 41 188 Mention of the neogrammarians..can elicit so much emotional noise that no one can hear what you are saying. 1993 Eng. Today Apr. 27/1 The answer that historical linguists have given to this question at least since the neogrammarians of the 19th century.

B. adj. Of, designating, or relating to the neogrammarian school of linguistics.

1887 Cornell Stud. Classical Philol. 2 41 The work of the neo-grammarian school stands in legitimate and regular succession to the work of Curtius, Schleicher, and their contemporaries. 1933 L. BLOOMFIELD Lang. xx. 355 The opponents of the neo-grammarian hypothesis claim that resemblances which do not fit into recognized types of phonetic correspondence may be due merely to sporadic occurrence or deviation or non-occurrence of sound-change. 1972 Language 48 437 The subsequent section illustrates..the Neogrammarian position. 1996 Lang. in Society 25 156 The challenge that creoles offer to the Neogrammarian Stammbaum model has been largely accepted by both creolists and historical linguists.

(Information extracted from the OED)