Consonants

1.4.1.1. The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)

One of the most distinctive features marking off the Germanic languages from all the other Indo-European languages is the so-called First Consonant Shift. It is called the first to distinguish it from the second consonant shift, which occurred in High German (i.e. Southern German) dialects in the V –VII centuries. It was first formulated by the Danish scholar R.Ch. Rask and explained by the German linguist J.L.Grimm in 1822 in his work German Grammar (Deutsche Grammatik) and therefore called Grimm`s Law. As proved by J. Grimm all the IE plosives seem to have gradually changed in Old Germanic. Regular correspondences of Germanic and those of other IE languages were grouped under three categories called by him Acts.

I. ACT The IE voiceless plosives p, t, k changed in Gc. to corresponding voiceless fricatives f, θ, h,e.g.

p > f R п олный, L p lēnus, Gt f ulls

t > θ;R т ри, L t rēs, E th ree

k > h L c anis, Gk k unos, E h ound

 

II. ACT The IE voiced plosives b, d, g became in Gc voiceless p, t, k,e.g.

b > p R б олото, E p ool, R. сла б, E slee p

d > t R д ва, E. t wo, R в ода, E wa t er

g > k R иго, E yoke, Gk agros, E acre

 

ІІІ. ACT The IE aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.g.

bh > b Skt bh rātar, E b rother

dh > d Skt vi dh avā, E wi d ow

gh > g Sktvāhanam < *va gh anam, E wa g on

 

1.4.1.2. Verner`s Law

Further investigations of the Gc consonantal system showed that in some cases it is voiced plosives, rather than voiceless fricatives that correspond in Gc to IE voiceless plosives. Instead of the expected f, θ, h we find v, d, g. Cf

t – d Gk. pa t er, O.E. fæ d er

k – g Gk.de k as, Gt. ti g us

According to Grimm’s Law the sound t should have corresponded to the sound θ;,e.g.

t > θ;R бра т, E bro th er;

The sound k should have corresponded to the sound h,e.g.

k > h L. c anis, E. h ound

In 1877 the Danish scholar Karl Verner explained these inconsistencies in Grimm’s Law. The explanation given by Karl Verner is that the sound quality depended on the position of the accent in the IE word: after an unstressed vowel the voiceless fricatives f, θ, h < p, t, k were voiced and later on changed to b, d, g,e.g.Skt pi ΄t ar, OE fæ d er.

The connection between the Gc sounds and the position of the IE accent, discovered by Karl Verner, is usually called Verner`s Law. It was of great importance for the study of the Gc languages as it explained many seeming irregularities in their grammatical forms and drew attention of linguists to word stress.

Besides the voiceless fricative consonants resulting from the consonant shift, one more voiceless fricative consonant is affected by Verner`s Law, viz, the consonant s. If the preceding vowel is unstressed, s in Gc languages becomes voiced, i. e. s changes into z. Eventually this z becomes r in West Germanic and North Germanic languages (but not in Gothic). This latter change of z > r istermed rhotacism (from the name of the Greek letter ρ [rho]).

Gt hau s jan, OE hīe r an, G hö r en, E wa s – we r e

 

1.4.2. Word – Stress

 

Another important phonetic feature of the Gc languages is the position and the character of the word-accent. In all IE languages the accent was free or moving, that is, in different words different syllables could be stressed as in Modern Russian: сл΄ово – слов΄а. In all the Gc languages the accent was very early fixed on the first (root) syllable of a word, except verbs like the modern be΄lieve, for΄get, where the initial syllable was a prefix. Besides, the IE accent is supposed to have been musical, i.e. the difference between an accented and unaccented syllable was rather that of pitch than of stress. The Germanic accent became entirely a matter of stress, and of heavy stress too.

We do not know exactly in what century the accent shifted to the first syllable, but, as Karl Verner has shown, it must have taken place later than the change of p, t, k > f, θ, h, since these sounds were voiced after unstressed syllables in such words as fæ d er, mō d or, etc.

The fixation of the stress on the first syllable had far-reaching consequences for the further development of the Gc languages. The absence of stress always tends to obscure vowel sounds, and as the word endings were always unstressed after the shifting of the accent, it could not but result in the slurring and gradual loss of inflections.

 

Vowels

 

The Gc languages are also marked by some peculiarities in the development of vowels as compared with other IE languages.