Lecture 1 First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)

IE G

Aspirated Voiced

voiced stops stops

bh > b (Sanskr. bhrāta – Goth. brōþar)

dh > d (OInd. madhyas – Goth. midjis, E middle)

gh > g (*IE ghostis – Goth. gasts)

IE G

Vioced Voiceless

stops stops

b > p (Ukr. болото – E pool)

d > t (Lat. duo, Ukr. два - Goth. twai, E two)

g > k (Lat. iugum, Rus. иго – E joke)

IE G

Voiceless Voiceless

stops fricatives

p > f (Sanskr. pitár – Goth. fadar)

t > þ (OInd. trayas, Ukr. три – Goth. þreis, E three)

k > h (Lat. octo – Goth. ahtau, E eight)

Second Consonant Shift (Old High German Consonant Shift)

As a result of the First Consonant Shift the system of consonants of Common Germanic appeared, different from that of Common IE. The next stage of its development was the Second Consonant Shift which occurred only in Southern dialects of German, that is why it has another name Old High German Consonant Shift. Two groups of consonants participated: voiced stops “b, d, g”, and voiceless stops “p, t, k”.

G OHG G OHG

b > p p > ph > pf > ff, f (E sleep – G schlafen)

d > t t > th > tz > zz, z (E water – G Wasser)

g > k k > kh > kh > hh, h (E make – G machen)

Germanic lengthening of Consonants

Germanic consonants (except “r”) are lengthened if they are followed by “j, w, r, l, m, n”, and are preceded by a short vowel. This process is also called “doubling” or “gemination”. After a long vowel the lengthening didn’t occur. E.g. Goth. bidjan (просити) – OE biddan.

Germanic Vowel Shift

In Proto-Germanic there was a strict opposition between short and long vowels. The Germanic Vowel Shift goes as the following:

IE short vowels G short vowels IE long vowels G long vowels

a (Lat. ager поле) > a (Goth. akrs) i (Lat. svīnus) > i (OE svīn)

o (Lat. hostis гість) > a (Goth. gasts) ū (Lat. m ūs) > ū (OE m ūs)

i (Lat. piscis риба) > i (OE fisc) ō (Lat. p ōs) > ō (OE f ōt)

(Lat. vir чоловік) > e (OIcl verr) ā (Lat. m āter) > ō (OE m ōdor)

e (Lat. edere їсти) > e (OE etan) Goth. ē (became front)

(Lat. medius середній) > i (OE midd) ē (complex > æ

u (OInd upa на) > u (OE uppe) development) West G., North.G ā (became back)

( Lat. iugum ярмо) > o (OE eok)

West G. æ/ ē (became front)

Thus, we have the opposition of “short – long” vowels in PG completed.

Ablaut

In the domain of vowels the most important property of the Germanic languages is Ablaut or Gradation. This is a spontaneous vowel variation mostly inside a root which is common to all Indo-European languages. Germanic Ablaut goes back to some regular changes inherent in IE parent language. This vowel variation became a very important grammatical means especially in the verb system where it is employed for making past verb-forms:

Goth.: reisan-rais-risum-risans

OE: rīson-rās-rison-risen

ModE: rise-rose-risen