Grimm s law is a study of correspondences between certain consonants in the germanic language and those found in greek, latin, and sanskrit. One of these is the question of the relative chronology of the. Amongst other things, grimms law described how the proto indoeuropean voiceless stops. Verners law definition of verners law by merriamwebster. The relative chronology of grimms law and verners law. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Grimm s law also known as the first germanic sound shift or the rask s rule, named after jacob grimm, is a set of statements describing how the sounds of consononts shifted or developed once in english and the other low german languages, and twice in german and the other high german languages, as these languaged developed from the inherited protoindoeuropean pie in the 1st. Pdf the phonological motivation for verners law and. The same sound change also affected the protogermanic verb we.
Introduction verners law vl states that protoindoeuropean voiceless stops and s following unaccented syllables correspond to protogermanic voiced fricatives. Protoindoeuropean voiceless stops became protogermanic voiceless fricatives as in greek pyr, treis, kardia compared with english fire, three, heart, protoindoeuropean voiced stops became protogermanic voiceless stops as in latin duo, genus compared with english two, kin, and protoindoeuropean voiced. Roshan and tom mcarthur summarize the rules within this law as follows. May 23, 2012 to find the result of grimms law, go one step clockwise around the triangle. Grimms law, verners law 1 grimms law the ie voiced aspirates bh, dh, gh, g wh were shifted to the corresponding voiced fricatives b d v vw in every position. Jan 20, 2020 grimm s law is a set of rules dictating how a handful of germanic letters differ from their indoeuropean cognates.
Some examples of the consonant shifts underlying grimms law. What i want most are the germanicrooted words and their nongermanic cognates that are all modern english words, which means that this list will be made up mostly of. An etymology of four english words, with reference to both. In this change examples mostly from brinton and arnovick, voiceless stops became voiceless fricatives. A formula describing the regular changes undergone by indoeuropean stop consonants represented in germanic, essentially stating that indoeuropean p, t. Until recently it was assumed that verner s law was productive after grimm s law, and this remains the standard account.
Pdf verners law, phonetic substance and form of historical. Grimms law also known as the first germanic sound shift or the rasks rule, named after jacob grimm, is a set of statements describing how the sounds of consononts shifted or developed once in english and the other low german languages, and twice in german and the other high german languages, as these languaged developed from the inherited proto. Morphological levelling is the force working against verner s law in this situation. Examples of grimms law in english john petries lifeblag. Some ne forms include broad, drink, drive, fowl, hold, meat, rain, and wife. In order for verners law to work, we have to assume that grimms law and verners law took place before the germanic accent shift, that is, before the accent became generally fixed at the beginning of the word. Verners law synonyms, verners law pronunciation, verners law translation, english dictionary definition of verners law. You can read more about that in my 2011 paper the phonetics and phonologization of verners law. Around the same time as the grimms law adjustments took place, another change occurred known as verners law.
The changes of consonant sound take place as follows. Grimm s law definition is a statement in historical linguistics. Grimms law definition of grimms law by merriamwebster. Exercises for grimms law and verners law culture and. Grimms law and verners law are possibly the two most famous sound laws in historical linguistics. A danish scholar rask discovered that these changes were regular and according to certain laws of change. Grimms law definition of grimms law by the free dictionary. Verners law, phonetic substance and form of historical phonological description. Verner s law synonyms, verner s law pronunciation, verner s law translation, english dictionary definition of verner s law. Verners law only affects the consonants at the top of the triangle. Grimms law, description of the regular correspondences in indoeuropean languages formulated by jacob grimm in his deutsche grammatik 181937. Grimms law and loanwords article pdf available in transactions of the philological society 1042. I believe ringe argues that the verners law happens after all of grimms, voyles however says that the verners happens in the middle of grimms.
Grimm s law concerns an unconditioned sound change that affects all indoeuropean stops. The law named after him clarified the deficiency that except when occurring initially or accept when immediately following a stressed syllable, the indogermanic k t p instead of becoming kh, th and ph changed reversal and became g d and b. Verners law latin gothic septem sibun seven centum hund hundred dux oe heretoga duke as noted by karl verner 1875 was the crucial factor of accent in combination with surrounding sounds. Mahle tsl 660 march 9, 2010 slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Grimms law also known as the first germanic sound shift or the rasksgrimms rule named for jacob grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited protoindoeuropean pie stops as they developed in protogermanic pgmc, the common ancestor of the germanic branch of the indoeuropean family in the 1st millennium bc. Start studying grimms law history of english i term 2. Until recently it was assumed that verners law was productive after grimms law. Grimms law holds that unvoiced ie stops became germanic unvoiced continuants, that voiced ie stops became germanic unvoiced stops, and that unvoiced ie continuants became. One of these is the question of the relative chronology of the sound changes described by these laws. Diver and others published the phonological motivation for verners law and grimms law find, read and cite all the. The handout of a presentation given at the junius symposium, held 2442015 at the university of leiden. Get an answer for describe grimm s law and verner s law and their discussions of accent and consonant shift.
Grimms law holds that unvoiced ie stops became germanic unvoiced continuants, that voiced ie stops became germanic unvoiced stops, and that unvoiced ie continuants became germanic voiced stops, mcarthur and mcarthur 2005. The grimmverner push chain and contrast preservation theory. Verners law, phonetic substance and form of historical. Here is my ongoing bid to gather all the examples of grimms law in modern english. Verner s law states that in protogermanic, unvoiced fricatives and stops became voiced reversing grimm s law in some cases when they immediately followed an unstressed syllable in the same word. Developments of other sounds in these words are not explained on this handout though most of them can be explained. Note also that many forms with the ge prefix may be created after verner s law was active. It has been estimated that germanic first became distinct from indoeuropean around bc. Verners law, linguistic explanation of the apparent exceptions to grimms law q.
Thus using the first triangle, we can see that pie bh became gmc b, pie b became gmc p, and pie p became gmc f. Verners law definition, etymology and usage, examples and. The first germanic sound shift, better known as grimms law, was first. That mnemonic diagram shows that grimms law is a chain shift in consonant sounds. Grimm s law also known as the first germanic sound shift is a set of statements first systematically put forward by jacob grimm but first remarked upon by rasmus rask describing the protoindoeuropean pie stop consonants as they developed in protogermanic the common ancestor of the germanic branch of the indoeuropean family in the 1st millennium bc.
It provided further evidence for the important claim of 19thcentury linguists that. Despite this, there are some aspects of these two laws which we know little about. Soon afterwards after the operation of verners law in certain positions initially except for v, after nasals, and in gemination they developed stop allophones b, d, g, gw. Grimms law concerns an unconditioned sound change that affects all. Protogermanic hw voiced by verners law fell together with this sound and developed.
Well, grimms law turns protoindoeuropean k into a voiceless fricative. Pdf the phonological motivation for verners law and grimms law. Protoindoeuropean voiceless stops became protogermanic voiceless fricatives as in greek pyr, treis, kardia compared with english fire, three, heart, protoindoeuropean voiced stops became protogermanic voiceless stops as in latin duo, genus compared with english two, kin, and protoindoeuropean voiced aspirated stops. Verner s law, phonetic substance and form of historical phonological description. Verners law definition of verners law by the free dictionary. Pdf an exception to verners law jenne klimp academia. An etymology of four english words, with reference to both grimms law and verners law by piper seldon. Grimm s law holds that unvoiced ie stops became germanic unvoiced continuants, that voiced ie stops became germanic unvoiced stops, and that unvoiced ie.
Aug 30, 2008 part 1 deals with the discovery of the first consonant shift, which, in effect, gave birth to the germanic languages. Grimm s law, description of the regular correspondences in indoeuropean languages formulated by jacob grimm in his deutsche grammatik 181937. Verners law caused, under certain conditions, the voicing of the voiceless fricatives that resulted from the grimms law changes, creating apparent exceptions to the rule. The following table contains reconstructed indoeuropean roots simplified on the left, and on the right the modern english spellings. Vernerscorollary formulated by karl verner, 1875 suggests that some of the shifts proposed by grimm were actually. The grimmverner push chain and contrast preservation theory 1 introduction traditional textbooks from before the 1980s treat grimms law and verners law as essentially four different historical changes i. I understand that there are different views, and that it is not easy to work out. Sep 17, 2015 grimms law and verners law are possibly the two most famous sound laws in historical linguistics.
Scholars today are inclined towards preferring the new theory postulating a sequence reverse to the. His law is based on perceiving that under certain conditions, sounds didnt stop at this second step, but went on to become voiced fricatives in w gmc, then in oe. Part 1 deals with the discovery of the first consonant shift, which, in effect, gave birth to the germanic languages. Verners law and the waswere alternation verners law describes a sound change during the protogermanic era.
Grimm couldnt come up with a rule for the exceptions, but in 1875, danish linguist karl verner found it. On the basis of evidence from pie languages such as sanskrit and greek, verner was. From now on, we will refer to act 1 of the now less complex grimms law as germanic spirantization, and to act 3 as germanic deglottalization. These are english and german words whose initial consonants illustrate grimms law, and the much later consonant shift which only german underwent. The first germanic sound shift, a statement of the relationship between certain consonants in germanic languages and their originals in indoeuropean ie, first described in 1818 by the danish philologist rasmus rask 17871832 and set out in detail in 1822 by the german philologist jacob grimm 17851863. That mnemonic diagram shows that grimm s law is a chain shift in consonant sounds. A law stating essentially that protogermanic noninitial voiceless fricatives in voiced environments became voiced when the previous syllable was.
In order for verners law to work, we have to assume that grimms law and verners law. To do so you will need to consult the american heritage dictionary, which has each words indoeuropean root, which you can open separately using this link. Verner saw that the problem was in step 2 of grimms law. Rotating one or more pages in a pdf in linux people. In all other environments, pie voiceless stops correspond to voiceless fricatives according to grimms law, and pie s remained voiceless, for example pie pdter gmc. Grimms law definition is a statement in historical linguistics. Grimms law is a set of statements first systematically put forward by jacob grimm but first. However, the plural past forms carried the stress on the second syllable, we. Grimms law synonyms, grimms law pronunciation, grimms law translation, english dictionary definition of grimms law. A formulation of the first sound shift of germanic languages made by jakob grimm in 1822. Pdf the phonological motivation for verners law and grimm.
As a convenient point to start off the investigation of verners law observe the following oe strong. Grimms law collects the basic principles of the first soundshift. Im trying to understand the relative chronology of grimms law and verners law. Gmc sound changes california state university, northridge. Verners law turns voiceless fricatives into voiced fricatives. Some cognates illustrating grimms law and the high german sound shift. Diver and others published the phonological motivation for verners law and grimms law find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate.
Verners law described a historical sound change in the protogermanic language whereby. Exercises for grimms law and verners law complete the two exercises in the attached pdf. Verners law definition is a statement in historical linguistics. The relative chronology of grimms law and verners law, part. Grimms law affected the indoeuropean stop consonants, or stops, which. It was first discovered by danish linguist karl verner in 1875.
A systematic change of the protoindoeuropean pie stop sounds in protogermanic pgmc. There is some evidence for dating grimms law changes only to the end of the first century bce. Verners law the ie voiceless stops p t k k w which by the preceding rule were shifted to the corresponding fricatives became voiced and merged with the voiced fricatives from grimms law i. Grimms law verners law occlusivization verner mentions that he cannot derive d directly form t, for this would be a sound innovation directly counter to the main direction hauptrichtung of the sound shift i. Fulk s 2018 comparative grammar of the early germanic languages, for example, finds that grimm s law should be assumed to antecede verner s law. The fact that there are many words which seem to violate grimms law, but which are explained by verners law q. What are the main differences between grimms law and. The ie voiced aspirates bh, dh, gh, gw h were shifted to the corresponding voiced fricatives. The grimmverner push chain and contrast preservation. What is the relative chronology of grimms and verners law. Having verners law act before grimms law may help explain the little evidence that there is for the earliest germanic phonology. It provided further evidence for the important claim of 19thcentury linguists that phonetic laws have no exceptions and proved to be a decisive influence in establishing the. Grimm s law synonyms, grimm s law pronunciation, grimm s law translation, english dictionary definition of grimm s law. Mar 15, 2014 the fact that there are many words which seem to violate grimm s law, but which are explained by verner s law q.