Consonantal Drift
October 26, 2014 – 9:56 pm
The standard reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European stop consonant system is:
| voiceless | voiced | voiced aspirated | |
| labial | p | b | bh |
| dental | t | d | dh |
| velar, palatovelar | k, k’ | g, g’ | gh, g’h |
| labiovelar | kw | gw | gwh |
The remaining consonants are:
- fricative: s
- laryngeals: γ, x, h
and the semi-vowels
- nasals: m, n (written with a dot beneath as vowel sounds)
- liquids: l, r (written with a dot beneath as vowel sounds)
- glides: w, j
These consonantal sounds changed according to quite regular rules to create the Primitive Germanic consonantal system.
Grimm’s Law (The First Consonant Shift): PIE → PG:
| b | d | g | gw | → | p | t | k | kw |
| bh | dh | gh | gwh | ð | γ | γw | ||
| p | t | k | kw | f | θ | χ | χw | |
| ph | th | kh | kwh |
The above table describes a set of consonantal shifts occurring in the course of the first millennium BC, which marks the development of Primitive Germanic out of Proto-Indo-European.
Explanations have been proposed for the observed changes:
-
{/unvoiced stops/, /unvoiced aspirated stops/} → /spirants/
Primitive Germanic speakers-to-be had a tendency to pronounce stops with an open glottis so that with the release of the ‘stop’ the air would flow unimpeded. -
/voiced aspirated stops/ → /voiced spirants/
as for 1. -
/voiced unaspirated stops/ → /unvoiced stops/
The other stops became aspirated or spirants, so voicing became unnecessary to distinguish these stops
Examples from Latin → Old English
quod → hwaet, canis → hund, genu → cneow, gelidus → cold, pecus → feoh
Apparent irregularities in the application of the rules above were also regularities, but the relevant rules referred to the phonological environment of the consonants undergoing change.
Verner’s Law (Grammatical Change): PG → OE
| f | θ | χ | χw | s | → | b | ð | γ | γw | z |
| d | g | gw | r |
This table describes a set of further transformations of consonantal phonemes observed in the transition from PG to the historically recorded Germanic languages, such as Old English.
The explanation offered is:
/vowel/ + /unvoiced spirants/ + /vowel/ → /vowel/ + /voiced spirants/ + /vowel/
In the context of voiced vowels about a spirant, the inertia of the movement of the glottis gave voice to the spirant, except when the PIE pitch-accent had fallen on the syllable preceding the consonant, because the work needed to form a pitch accent was sufficient to also allow clear articulation of the unvoiced consonant.
Examples:
Tags:(PIE) *upéri → (PG) *ufer → (OE) ofer [pron. ‘over’]
(PIE) *patér → (PG) *faθer → (OE) faeder [with [d] < [ð]]
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