Abstract.The rule known as ‘Holtzmann's Law’ for hiatus neutralization by means of a velar or dental consonant has been viewed by historical linguists as a link defining the group of dialects known EM North‐East Germanic. Careful investigation of the ‘Holtzmann's Law’ phenomenon with respect to the relative chronology of sound change within Norse and Gothic indicates, however, that an operation of ‘Holtzmann's Law’ common to both North and East Germanic would lead to anomalies in the phonological history of Gothic. Instead, it seems most plausible that separate rules, independently motivated, operated at different times in North and