The First Germanic Sound Shift Grimm s Law Verner s

The First Germanic Sound Shift Grimm’s Law Verner’s Law (1822) (1875)

The Danish linguist Rasmus Rask demonstrated the significance of laws of sounds as a proof of linguistic kinship. He was the first to recognize the relationship between the languages now called Germanic. But he did not see the complete regularity of the development of sounds. Jacob Grimm deepened and systemized R. Rask’s observations. The First Germanic Sound Shift is named after him and is known as Grimm’s Law. Grimm’s law concerns an unconditioned (необусловленный фонетическим окружением) sound change that affects all Indo-European stops in the Germanic languages.

Grimm's Law consists of three parts, which must be thought of as three consecutive phases in the sense of a chain shift. Comparing words of Germanic languages with the corresponding words of other IE languages (Russian, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, etc. ), linguists find correspondences between them, which may be represented by the following chart:

1. IE voiceless stops changed to corresponding voiceless spirants/ fricatives. IE p, t, k, kw Latin: pēs, pedis, Sanskrit: pāda, Russian: под (pod). Latin: tertius Latin: canis Latin: quod, Irish: cad, Sanskrit: kád Germ. f, Ѳ (þ), h, hw English: foot, German: Fuß, Gothic: fōtus. English: third, Gothic: þridja. English: hound, German: Hund English: what, Gothic: ƕa ("hwa"), Icelandic: hvað

2. The IE voiced stops [b, d, g] became the voiceless [p, t, k]. IE b, d, g, gw • • • Rus. Latin: Sanskrit: Russian: Lat. слаб(ый) бол(ото) decem daśan десять ego • Lithuanian: gyvas Germ. • • p, t, k, kw/k Mod. E. sleep Mod. E. pool English: ten Danish, Norwegian: ti Swedish: tio Gth. ik OE ic English: quick • Danish: kvi

The IE aspirated voiced stops [bh, dh, gh] became unaspirated stops [b, d, g]. IE bh, dh, gh • Sanskrit: bhrātār • Sanskrit: mádhu 'honey‘ • IE*ghwermos/ghwormos Germ. • • Ђ, ð, γ > b, d, g English: brother German: Bruder Gothic: broþar English: mead Swedish: mjöd English: warm Dutch, German: warm, Swedish: varm

Germanic Consonant Shift • IE p, t, k, kw Germ. f, Ѳ (þ), h, hw • IE b, d, g, gw Germ. p, t, k, kw/k • IE bh, dh, ghw • • Germ. b, d, g, gw

Mnemonic Rule

Exceptions to Grimm’s law: 1. The IE [p, t, k] remained unchanged after the sound [s]: • Lat. piscis Gth. Fisks 2. Only the first of a group of voiceless stops changed to a spirant: • Lat. octo Gth. ahtau • Lat. noctis Gth. nahts

Rask's and Grimm's work pointed out prominent correlations between the Germanic and other Indo-European languages of Europe and western Asia. The law was a systematic and coherent formulation, well supported by examples. It is important for historical linguistics because it clearly demonstrates the principle that sound change is a regular phenomenon and not a random process affecting only some words.

Verner's law • Verner's law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *þ, *s, *hʷ, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively the fricatives *b, *d, *z, *gʷ [Ђ, ð, γ ].

The problem • When Grimm's law was discovered, a strange irregularity was observed in its operation. • Grimm's law apparently ‘fails’, i. e. where instead of the expected voiceless spirants we get something different. We find this in simple words like OE fæder ‘father’ and mōdor ‘mother’. Judging by Lat. pater and māter, we would expect *fæþer and mōþor. • Karl Verner was the first scholar to point out the factor governing these irregularities.

The Accent Shift • Karl Verner explains that the sound quality depended upon the position of the accent in the IE word. • In Indo-European, accent was ‘free’; it could occur on any syllable of the word. • In Germanic, accent fell on the first syllable of the lexical root.

• After an unstressed vowel the voiceless spirants/ fricatives [f, θ, h] (< [p, t, k]) and [s] were voiced and became [Ђ, ð, γ ] and [z]; and, later on, [Ђ, ð, γ ] > [b, d, g], e. g. : • Rus. свекровь Germ. Schwieger • IE *pa ter > Early PG *fa ar > *fa ðar > Late PG faðar

Rhotacism • Besides the voiceless spirants [f, θ, h], the consonant [s] is effected. • After an unstressed vowel, [s] in Germanic languages becomes voiced [z]. • This [z] becomes [r] in West Germanic and North Germanic languages (but not in Gothic). This change ([z > r]) is termed ‘rhotacism’ (the Greek letter ‘rho’). • Lith. ausis, Gth. auso > OE. ēare, Mod. E. ear • Gth. maiza > OE. māra, Mod. E. more