Consonants

Vowels

Vowels undergo(подверглись) different types of changes:

1. Qualitative change – affects the quality of a sound (e.g. [o à Λ]).

2. Quantitative change – affects the length of a sound (e.g. [i à i:]).

3. Dependent/positional change– a change that occurs in certain position or in certain phonetic conditions (e.g. bit_ – bite [bit à bait]).

4. Independent/spontaneous change – affects a certain sound in all positions irrespective (независимо) of phonetic conditions and serves to distinguish a grammatical phenomenon (ablaut) (more about it in Lecture 4).

Main tendencies in Vowel Changes in the Germanic Languages:

1. Short vowels à become neutralized.

2. Long vowels à become short and more open.

à become diphthongized and more closed.

Proto-Germanic Vowel System:

Short Vowels i e a o u
Long Vowels i: e: a: o: u:

Some vowel correspondences between Germanic and non-Germanic Languages:

Sound Correspondence Non-Germanic Germanic
Latin Русский English German Swedish
[a: à o:] mater мать mother - moder
[o à a] nox ночь - Nacht natt
[e à i] ventus ветер wind Wind vind
[u à o] sunus сын son Sohn son

The comparison of the Germanic and non-Germanic languages within the Indo-European family reveals regular correspondences between German and non-German consonants.

First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law) –in the 19th Jacob Grimm, a German scholar, discovered the existence of regular correspondence between Indo-European (IE) and German consonants and subdivided them into 3 groups:

 

[A24] № Consonant Correspondences Examples
Old Modern
IE PG Non-German (Latin) German (OE) Non-German (Italian, рус.) German (English, German)
[bh,dh,gh] à aspirated voiced plosives [b, d, g] non-aspirated voiced plosives bhrāta (Hind) brōþor брат brother, Bruder
rudhira(Hind) rēad - red
hostis giest гость guest, Gast
[b, d, g] à voiced plosives [p, t, k] voiceless plosives labare pōl болото pool, Pfuhl
decem tīen dieci, десять ten
genu cnēo ginocchio knee, Knie
[p, t, k] à voiceless plosives [f, q, h] voiceless fricatives pedis fōt piedi foot, Fuß
tres þrēo tre, три three
cordis heort cuore heart, Herz

 

Verner’s Law –Carl Verner, a Danish scholar (19th c.), explained the consonant correspondences as a gradual historical process (a change takes place in the course of time):

 

Consonant Correspondences Latin OE ModE
1. [p, t, k] à voiceless stops/plosives [f, q, h] à voiceless fricatives [v, ð/d, g] voiced fricatives septem seofen seven
pater fæđer father
socrus swaiho(Gothic) Schwager(Germ)
2. Rhotacism ausis (Lithuanian) Auso (Gothic) ear, Ohr (Germ)
[s] à [z] à [r]

P.S.: these processes usually happened on condition that the consonants were situated between vowels and if preceded by an unstressed vowel.

Modern Examples: seethe – sodden, death – dead, was – were.

 

Second Consonant Shift –happened in the 9th c. in Old High German [A25] and today we can observe it comparing English and German:

 

Consonant Correspondences English German
1. [t] à à [ts] Two zwei
[s] Water Wasser
2. [q] à [d] Three drei
3. [d] à [t] Daughter Tochter
4. [k] à [h] Make machen

H/w:

1. Ex. 3-5, p. 48-49 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).