3. Substratum Theory.

The first consonant shift and the change in the stress system pose an important question. What could be the cause of the two important events? This question remains a subject of controversy up to the present time. There are two possible ways of seeking an explanation: to look for internal factors or to try to find external influences. The second possible view, the so-called substratum theory, received wide popularity.

Substratum means "under-layer". The essence of the substratum theory is: both the first consonant shift and the change in the stress system were caused by events in the social life of tribes. Those tribes spoke Germanic languages. Germanic languages arose as a result of a part of the tribes, who spoke Indo-European languages, conquering some other tribes, who presumably spoke non- Indo-European languages. The conquered tribes acquired the language of the conquerors. Alongside, they introduced some of their own pronunciation habits, characteristic of the language they had been originally speaking.

These pronunciation habits determined the characteristic phonetic features of Germanic languages, which came into being as a result of the conquest.

As for the system of stress, it is natural to suppose that the original language of the conquered tribes had a fixed stress on the first syllable. Germanic languages adopted it.

As for the consonant system, the problem is much more difficult. An eminent adherent of the substratum theory, the French linguist Antoine Meillet (1866-1936) tried to explain this phenomenon.

He thought the main principle was the lateness of the vocal chords articulation as compared with that of the lips and the tongue.

According to this view, these two events appear as a result of the influence of a conquered "underlayer". Since no documents have been preserved, the substratum theory cannot be either confirmed or disapproved. It must be judged on its own merits. The other view is the following: as the substratum theory cannot be proved right, we ought to look for some internal causes of the phonetic developments. Many attempts cannot be described as successful, for example, the view is not convincing that the shift was due to the Germanic people's tendency to accent the root syllable (the syllable carrying the lexical meaning of the word). The Polish scholar E.Kurylowicz proposed: the theory that the oppositions p – b, t – d, k – g were originally based on the principle of "voiceless versus voiced". The phonemes b, d, g had the differential quality of voice, which the phonemes p, t, k lacked. Thus, b, d, g were the marked members of the opposition. This opposition was superseded by an opposition of weak versus strong consonants: b, d, g proved the strong ones, b, d, g proved the weak ones, that is, the unmarked ones. This, in turn, led to a further strengthening of the articulation of the strong phonemes p, t, k. As a result they became the fricative f,þ,h. This hypothesis deserves further consideration.