The First Germanic Sound Shift Grimm’s Law. Verner’s Law

1. The First Germanic Sound Shift Grimm’s Law Verner’s Law

(1822)
(1875)

2.

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.

3.

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:

4. 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

5. 2. The IE voiced stops [b, d, g] became the voiceless [p, t, k].

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

6. 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

7. 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, gh, ghw
Germ. b, d, g, gw

8.

Mnemonic Rule

9. 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

10.

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.

11. 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, *h, *hʷ,
when immediately following an unstressed
syllable in the same word, underwent
voicing and became respectively the
fricatives *b, *d, *z, *g, *gʷ [Ђ, ð, γ ].

12. 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.

13. 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.

14.

• 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

15. 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, ModE. ear
• Gth.
maiza
>
OE. māra, ModE. more