{"id":88,"date":"2014-10-26T21:56:07","date_gmt":"2014-10-26T11:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/2014\/10\/26\/grimm\/"},"modified":"2014-11-01T13:45:22","modified_gmt":"2014-11-01T03:45:22","slug":"grimm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/2014\/10\/26\/grimm\/","title":{"rendered":"Consonantal Drift"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nThe standard reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European stop consonant system is:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
<\/td>\nvoiceless<\/td>\nvoiced<\/td>\nvoiced aspirated<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
labial<\/td>\np<\/td>\nb<\/td>\nbh<\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dental<\/td>\nt<\/td>\nd<\/td>\ndh<\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
velar, palatovelar<\/td>\nk, k’<\/td>\ng, g’<\/td>\ngh<\/sup>, g’h<\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
labiovelar<\/td>\nkw<\/td>\ngw<\/td>\ngwh<\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

The remaining consonants are:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n fricative: s\n <\/li>\n
  • \n laryngeals: γ, x, h\n <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n


    \n and the semi-vowels
    \n<\/b-quote><\/p>\n

      \n
    • \n nasals: m, n (written with a dot beneath as vowel sounds)\n <\/li>\n
    • \n liquids: l, r (written with a dot beneath as vowel sounds)\n <\/li>\n
    • \n glides: w, j\n <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      These consonantal sounds changed according to quite regular rules to create the Primitive Germanic consonantal system. <\/p>\n

      \nGrimm\u2019s Law<\/b> (The First Consonant Shift): PIE → PG:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
      b<\/td>\nd<\/td>\ng<\/td>\ngw<\/td>\n→<\/td>\np<\/td>\nt<\/td>\nk<\/td>\nkw<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      bh<\/sup><\/td>\ndh<\/sup><\/td>\ngh<\/sup><\/td>\ngwh<\/sup><\/td>\nb<\/del><\/td>\nð<\/td>\nγ<\/td>\nγw<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      p<\/td>\nt<\/td>\nk<\/td>\nkw<\/td>\nf<\/td>\nθ<\/td>\nχ<\/td>\nχw<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
      ph<\/sup><\/td>\nth<\/sup><\/td>\nkh<\/sup><\/td>\nkwh<\/sup><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

      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. <\/p>\n

      \nExplanations have been proposed for the observed changes:<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \n{\/unvoiced stops\/, \/unvoiced aspirated stops\/} → \/spirants\/
        \nPrimitive Germanic speakers-to-be had a tendency to pronounce stops with an open glottis so that with the release of the \u2018stop\u2019 the air would flow unimpeded.\n <\/li>\n
      2. \n\/voiced aspirated stops\/ → \/voiced spirants\/
        \nas for 1.\n <\/li>\n
      3. \n\/voiced unaspirated stops\/ → \/unvoiced stops\/
        \nThe other stops became aspirated or spirants, so voicing became unnecessary to distinguish these stops\n <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Examples from Latin → Old English<\/p>\n

        \nquod → hwaet, canis → hund, genu → cneow, gelidus → cold, pecus → feoh\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

        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. <\/p>\n

        \nVerner\u2019s Law<\/b> (Grammatical Change): PG → OE<\/p>\n\n\n\n
        f<\/td>\nθ<\/td>\nχ<\/td>\nχw<\/td>\ns<\/td>\n→<\/td>\nb<\/td>\nð<\/td>\nγ<\/td>\nγw<\/td>\nz<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
        b<\/del><\/td>\nd<\/td>\ng<\/td>\ngw<\/td>\nr<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

        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.<\/p>\n

        \nThe explanation offered is:<\/p>\n

        \n\/vowel\/ + \/unvoiced spirants\/ + \/vowel\/ → \/vowel\/ + \/voiced spirants\/ + \/vowel\/
        \nIn 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.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

        Examples:<\/p>\n

        \n(PIE) *up\u00e9ri → (PG) *ufer → (OE) ofer [pron. \u2018over\u2019]
        \n(PIE) *pat\u00e9r → (PG) *faθer → (OE) faeder [with [d] < [ð]]\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

        <\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history","category-language"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevewatson.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}