A. Consonants. Proto-Germanic consonant shift

Common phonetic characteristics of the Germanic languages

Linguistic Features of Germanic Languages

All the Germanic languages of the past and present have common linguistic features; some of these features are shared by other groups in the IE family, others are specifically Germanic.

If we compare Germanic and non-Germanic consonants within the Indo-European family, it will be possible to reveal regular correspondences. For example, we regularly find [f] in Germanic where other Indo-European languages have [p]: E full, R полный, Fr plein; wherever Germanic has [p], non-Germanic languages have [b]: E pool, R болото. The consonants in Germanic look ‘shifted’ as compared with the consonants of non-Germanic languages. The alterations of consonants took place in Proto-Germanic, and the resulting sounds were inherited by the languages of the Germanic group.

The changes of consonants in Proto-Germanic were first formulated in terms of a phonetic law by Jacob Grimm in the early 19^th c. and are often called Grimm’s Law. It is also known as the First or Proto-Germanic consonant shift. Grimm’s Law had three acts:

1) The Indo-European voiceless plosives [p], [t], [k] became Germanic voiceless fricatives [f], [q], [x]

2) Indo-European voiced plosives [b], [d], [g] became Germanic voiceless plosives [p], [t], [k]

3) Proto-Indo-European aspirated plosives [bh], [dh], [gh] became PG voiced plosives [b], [d], [g] without aspiration.

Shift illustrated	Non-Germanic	Germanic
PIE	PG	Old	Modern
Act 1
p	f	L piscis R пескарь	Gt fisks OE fisc	G Fisch NE fish
t	q	L tres R три	OIcel þrir OE þreo	Sw tre NE three
k	x	L cor, cordis Fr coeur	OIcel hjarta OE heort	G Herz NE heart
Act 2
b	p	Lith balà R болото	OE pōl	NE pool
d	t	L decem Fr dix	O Icel tiu OE tien	Sw tio NE ten
g	k	L genu Fr genou	OE cnēo Gt kniu	G Knie NE knee
Act 3
bh	b	O Ind bhrāta R брат	O Icel br ó ðir OE brōþor	G Bruder NE brother
dh	d	L medius R делать	G gadeþs OE dæd dōn	NE deed, do
gh	g	L hostis R гость	O Icel gestr OE giest	G Gast NE guest

Another important series of consonant changes in PG was discovered in the late 19^th c. by a Danish scholar, Carl Verner. They are known as Verner’s Law. Verner’s Law explains some correspondences of consonants which seemed to contradict Grimm’s Law and were for a long time regarded as exceptions. According to Verner’s Law all the early Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives [f, q, x] which arose under Grimm’s Law, and also [s] inherited from PIE, became voiced between vowels if the preceding vowel was unstressed; in the absence of these conditions they remained voiceless. The voicing occurred in early PG at the time when the stress was not yet fixed on the root-morpheme.

PIE Early PG Late PG

paˈter faˈqar faˈðar ˈfaðar

Voicing of fricatives under Verner’s law
p	fv
t	q ð, d
k	x ɣ,g
s	s z

As a result of voicing by Verner’s Law there arose an interchange of consonants in the grammatical forms of the word, termed grammatical interchange. Part of the forms retained a voiceless fricative, while other forms – with a different position of stress in Early PG – acquired a voiced fricative. Both consonants could undergo later changes in the OG languages, but the original difference between them goes back to the time of movable word stress and PG voicing.

f ~ v Old High German f ~ b heffen(infinitive) huob(Past tense sg) huobun(Past tense pl) ʒe-haban(Participle II) heave(NE)

s ~ z OE s/z ~ r cēosan(infinitive) cēas(Past tense sg) curon(Past tense pl) coren(Participle II) choose(NE)

Note that some ModE words have retained traces of Verner’s Law: seethe-sodden, death-dead, raise-rear, was-were.

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