Germanic sound shifts
Encyclopedia
Germanic sound shifts are the phonological developments (sound change
s) from the Proto-Indo-European language
(PIE) to Proto-Germanic, in Proto-Germanic itself, and in various Germanic subfamilies and languages.
Sound change
Sound change includes any processes of language change that affect pronunciation or sound system structures...
s) from the Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
(PIE) to Proto-Germanic, in Proto-Germanic itself, and in various Germanic subfamilies and languages.
PIE to Proto-Germanic
- Germanic spirant lawGermanic spirant lawIn linguistics, the Germanic spirant law or Primärberührung is a specific historical instance of dissimilation that occurred as part of an exception of Grimm's law in the ancestor of the Germanic languages.-General description:...
- Grimm's lawGrimm's lawGrimm's law , named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC...
- Holtzmann's lawHoltzmann's LawHoltzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838.The law involves the gemination, or doubling, of PIE semivowels and in strong prosodic positions into Proto-Germanic and , which had two outcomes:* hardening into occlusive onsets:** / in North Germanic;**...
- Sievers' lawSievers' lawSievers' law in Indo-European linguistics accounts for the pronunciation of a consonant cluster with a glide before a vowel as it was affected by the phonetics of the preceding syllable. Specifically it refers to the alternation between and , and possibly and , in Indo-European languages...
- Verner's lawVerner's lawVerner'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,...
Germanic subfamilies and languages
- Germanic umlautGermanic umlautIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
(all of the early languages except for Gothic) - Great Vowel ShiftGreat Vowel ShiftThe Great Vowel Shift was a major change in the pronunciation of the English language that took place in England between 1350 and 1500.The Great Vowel Shift was first studied by Otto Jespersen , a Danish linguist and Anglicist, who coined the term....
(English) - High German consonant shiftHigh German consonant shiftIn historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
- Ingvaeonic nasal spirant lawIngvaeonic nasal spirant lawIn historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law is a description of a phonological development in some dialects of West Germanic, which is attested in Old English, Old Frisian, and Old Saxon...
(attested in Old English, Old Frisian and Old Saxon) - West Germanic geminationWest Germanic GeminationWest Germanic gemination is a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages, around 300 AD. All single consonants except were geminated before . The second element of the diphthongs iu and au was still underlyingly at this time and therefore was still considered a consonant, so...