Lecture indo-European Family of languages English as a Germanic Language

IE G
Aspirated Voiced
voiced stops stops
bh > b (Sanskr. bhrāta – Goth. brōþar; OInd sabha плем’я – OE sib, G Sippe, OInd bharet – E bear)
dh > d (OInd. madhyas – Goth. midjis, E middle; OInd bandhu родич – E bind)
gh > g (*IE ghostis – Goth. gasts)


IE G
Vioced Voiceless
stops stops
b > p (Ukr. болото – E pool; Lat. labi – Goth. slepan, E sleep, G. schlafen)
d > t (Lat. duo, Ukr. два - Goth. twai, E two; Lat. videre – OE witan)
g > k (Lat. iugum, Rus. иго – E yoke; Lat. gelidus – Goth. kalds, E cold; Lat. genu – Goth kniu, E knee)


IE G
Voiceless Voiceless
stops fricatives
p > f (Sanskr. pitár –Goth. fadar; Lat.pedem \Gr. poda – Goth fotus, OE fōt; Lat. piscis – OE fisc)
t > þ (OInd. trayas, Ukr. три – Goth. þreis, E three; Lat. tenius – E thin)
k > h (Lat. octo – Goth. ahtau, E.eight; Lat. decem, Welsh deg – Goth. taihun, E ten, OHG zehan)
K.Verner, a Danish linguist, in 1877 noticed and analyzed the development of IE voiceless stops in the intervocal position, and in the position at the end of the word after a vowel. Old IE stress doesn’t fall on the preceding vowel. Under such conditions these sounds appeared in Germanic as voiced stops. This addition came to be called as “Verner’s Law”. (Note: if the old IE stress fell on the preceding vowel Germanic voicless stops remained voiceless).
Ex. OInd mátar, Rus. мать(тери) – OSax. modar;
Goth. maiza – OE māra
Such gradation of consonants was mostly vividly seen in the system of strong verbs. It influenced the development of verb-forms and was also called “grammatical gradation”.
Ex. OE was (sing., past) – weron (plur., past)
OE frēosan (inf.) – gefroren (Part.II).
As a result of the first consonant shift the PG consonant system was formed, different from PIE consonants.
Only one language, Old High German (especially its Southern dialects), continued the shift of consonants. It was called Oldhighgerman or Second Consonant Shift, and it ended in the 8^th century. Two groups of consonants participated: voiceless stops p, t, k, and voiced stops b, d, g.
G OHG G OHG
b > p p > ph > pf > ff, f (E sleep – G schlafen, Goth greipan – G greifen хапати)
d > t (E day – G Tag) t > th > tz > zz, z (E water – G Wasser: E eat – G essen, E white – G weiß)
g > k (E Guest – G Kast) k > kh > kh > hh, h (E make – G machen, E break – G brechen)

As a result of the Second Shift the system of German consonants became distinguished from Common Germanic, and West Germanic languages.

There existed the Third or Danish consonant shift, which led to the development of affricates from voiceless stops at the beginning of the word before stressed vowel.


6b. 2. Germanic consonants (except r) are lengthened if they are followed by j, w, r, l, m, n, and are preceded by a short vowel. This process is also called “doubling” or “gemination”. After a long vowel the lengthening didn’t occur. The most frequent cases occurred before j, less frequent before m. The lengthening of consonants was probably caused by the divion of words into syllables.
E.g. Goth. bidjan (просити) – OE biddan.
Goth baitrs – E bitter
OIcl sitja – OE sittan


6b. 3. In PG voiced variant of s [z] was seldom used, mostly before voiced consonant. As a result of the Verner’s Law its sphere widened. Later in North and West Germanic (independently) this development continued to r. This process was called rhotacism. Perhaps, phonetically this development went through some intermediate steps: s > z > ž > ř > r.
Eg. OE ceosan – curon (to choose)
OE wœs – weron
In West Germanic final r was gradually lost. Such clusters as zd, zn in West Germanic shifted into rd, rn, in North Germanic they were doubled into dd, nn.


6c. 1. In PIE the opposition between short and long vowels could be reduced or even lost, but in Proto-Germanic this opposition was very strict. The Germanic Vowel Shift reflected as the following: