The article tries to show that certain changes from Balto-Slavic to Common Slavic which are traditionally subsumed under the so-called ‘Law of Open Syllables’ and the ‘Tendency to increasing sonority’ are really just a tendency to simplify certain linguistic structures (consonant clusters, syllable and word structures). Additionally, the changes are shown as being an example of a synergetic process, i.e. a process of self-organization of language structures.