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Why did the Neogrammarians emphasize regular sound change in historical linguistics?

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Ferdinand de Saussure seated in a formal pose, wearing a dark suit with a vest and sporting a thick mustache, circa 1900. — Linguistics Much of the foundation of 20th-century sociolinguistics was created by the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913).

The Neogrammarians, a group of German scholars active in the late 19th century, emphasized the principle that sound laws have no exceptions. They argued that changes in the phonological systems of languages occur with absolute regularity, a concept that transformed historical linguistics into a more rigorous, scientific discipline.12

This hypothesis was initially controversial because many observed linguistic changes appeared to contradict established rules, such as Grimm’s law. However, the Neogrammarians maintained that these apparent irregularities were not random but were governed by further, yet-to-be-discovered laws.1

The validity of their approach was bolstered when Karl Verner successfully explained exceptions to Grimm’s law by formulating Verner’s law. By the end of the 19th century, the Neogrammarian insistence on regular sound change became the orthodox foundation for the comparative method, allowing linguists to systematically reconstruct earlier states of language families.12