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

Icelandic: hvað

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

IE b, d, g, gw

• Rus. слаб(ый)
• Rus. бол(ото)
• Latin: decem
• Sanskrit: daśan
• Russian: десять
• Lat. 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

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

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

Mnemonic Rule

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

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.

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 ].

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.

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.

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.:

• 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

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