Grimm's law
Grimm's law, also known as the First Germanic Consonant Shift or First Germanic Sound Shift, is a set of sound laws describing the Proto-Indo-European stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the first millennium BC, first discovered by Rasmus Rask but systematically put forward by Jacob Grimm. It establishes a set of regular correspondences between early Germanic stops and fricatives and stop consonants of certain other Indo-European languages.
History
With the formulation of Grimm’s Law, scholars for the first time recognized sound change as systematic rather than accidental, laying the methodological foundations of historical phonology within historical linguistics. Friedrich von Schlegel first noted the correspondence between Latin p and Germanic f in 1806. In 1818, Rasmus Rask extended the correspondences to other Indo-European languages, such as Sanskrit and Greek, and to the full range of consonants involved. In 1822, Jacob Grimm put forth the rule in his book Deutsche Grammatik and extended it to include standard German. He noticed that many words had consonants different from what his law predicted. These exceptions defied linguists for several decades, until Danish linguist Karl Verner explained them in Verner's law.Overview
Grimm's law consists of three parts, forming consecutive phases in the sense of a chain shift. The phases are usually constructed as follows:- Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops change into Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives.
- Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become Proto-Germanic voiceless stops.
- Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops become Proto-Germanic voiced stops or fricatives.
Here each sound moves one position to the right to take on its new sound value. Within Proto-Germanic, the sounds denoted by,, and were stops in some environments and fricatives in others, so bʰ → b indicates bʰ → b/β, and likewise for the others. The voiceless fricatives are customarily spelled,, and in the context of Germanic.
The exact details of the shift are unknown, and it may have progressed in a variety of ways before arriving at the final situation. The three stages listed above show the progression of a "pull chain", in which each change leaves a "gap" in the phonological system that "pulls" other phonemes into it to fill the gap. Alternatively, the shift may have occurred as a “push chain”, where the sounds changed in reverse order, with each change "pushing" the next forward to avoid merging the phonemes.
The steps could also have occurred somewhat differently. Another possible sequence of events could have been:
- Voiceless stops are allophonically aspirated under most conditions.
- Voiced stops become unaspirated voiceless stops.
- All aspirated stops become fricatives.
Additionally, aspirated stops are known to have changed to fricatives when transiting between Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Italic, so representing a plausible potential change from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.
Further changes
Once the sounds described by Grimm's law had changed, only one type of voiced consonant was left, with no distinction between voiced stops and voiced fricatives. They eventually became stops at the start of a word, as well as after a nasal consonant, but fricatives elsewhere. Whether they were plosives or fricatives at first is therefore not clear. The voiced aspirated stops may have first become voiced fricatives, before becoming stops under certain conditions. But they may also have become stops at first, then become fricatives in most positions later.Around the same time as the Grimm's law sounds shifted, another change occurred known as Verner's law. Verner's law caused the voiceless fricatives that resulted from the Grimm's law changes to become voiced under certain conditions, creating apparent exceptions to the rule. For example:
- Proto-Indo-European > Proto-Germanic
- Proto-Indo-European > Proto-Germanic
- After *n it was preserved as a labiovelar stop *gw, but later changed to a plain velar *g in West Germanic.
- Following vowels, it seems to have become *w, presumably through a fricative stage *ɣʷ.
- Word-initially, the most plausible reflex is labiovelar stop *gʷ at first, but the further development is unclear. In that position, it became either *w, *g or *b during late Proto-Germanic.
- The regular reflex next to *u would likely have been *g, due to the labial element before a labial vowel being lost in Proto-Indo-European, which continued to act as a surface filter.
Examples
Further changes following Grimm's law, as well as sound changes in other Indo-European languages, can occasionally obscure the law's effects. The most illustrative examples are used here.| Proto-Indo-European | Meaning | Non-Germanic cognates | Change | Proto-Germanic | Germanic examples |
| "foot" | Ancient Greek: πούς, ποδός, Latin: pēs, pedis, Sanskrit:, Russian: под "under", Lithuanian: pėda, Latvian: pēda, Persian: پا, Serbo-Croatian: pod and peta as in "heel" | p > f | English: foot, West Frisian: foet, German: Fuß, Gothic:, Icelandic, Faroese: fótur, Danish: fod, Norwegian, Swedish: fot | ||
| "three" | Ancient Greek: τρεῖς, Latin: trēs, Welsh: tri, Sanskrit:, Russian: три, Serbo-Croatian: три̑, Lithuanian: trỹs, Polish: trzy, Albanian: tre | t > þ | English: three, Old Frisian: thrē, Old Saxon: thrīe, Gothic:, Icelandic: þrír | ||
| "dog" | Ancient Greek: κύων, Latin: canis, Sanskrit: śván, Welsh: ci, Serbo-Croatian: kuče, Persian: سگ, Russian: собака | k > h | English: hound, Dutch: hond, German: Hund, Gothic:, Icelandic, Faroese: hundur, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: hund | ||
| "what" | Latin: quod, Irish: cad, Sanskrit: kád, Russian: что, Lithuanian: kas, Serbo-Croatian : кvo, Serbo-Croatian : кај | kʷ > hw | English: what, Gothic:, Icelandic: hvað, Faroese: hvat, Danish: hvad, Norwegian: hva | ||
| "apple" | Russian: яблоко, Lithuanian: obuolỹs, Gaulish abalom, Serbo-Croatian: ја̏бука | b > p | English: apple, West Frisian: apel, Dutch: appel, Icelandic: epli, Swedish: äpple, Crimean Gothic: apel | ||
| "ten" | Latin: decem, Greek: δέκα, Irish: deich, Sanskrit: daśan, Russian: десять, Welsh: deg, Lithuanian: dešimt, Polish: dziesięć | d > t | English: ten, Dutch: tien, Gothic:, Icelandic: tíu, Faroese: tíggju, Danish, Norwegian: ti, Swedish: tio | ||
| "cold" | Latin: gelū, Greek: γελανδρός, Lithuanian: gelmenis, gelumà | g > k | English: cold, West Frisian: kâld, Dutch: koud, German: kalt, Icelandic, Faroese: kaldur, Danish: kold, Norwegian: kald, Swedish: kall | ||
| "alive" | Lithuanian: gyvas, Russian: живой, Sanskrit:, Serbo-Croatian: жив, Polish: żywy | gʷ > kw | English: quick, West Frisian: kwik, kwyk, Dutch: kwiek, German: keck, Gothic:, Icelandic, Faroese: kvikur, Danish: kvik, Swedish: kvick, Norwegian kvikk | ||
| "brother" | Sanskrit: bhrātṛ, Ancient Greek: φρατήρ, Latin: frāter, Russian, Serbo-Croatian: брат, Lithuanian: brolis, Polish: brat, Old Church Slavonic: братръ, Old Welsh: braut, Latvian: brālis, Persian: برادر | bʰ > b | English: brother, West Frisian, Dutch: broeder, German: Bruder, Gothic:, Icelandic, Faroese: bróðir, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: broder | ||
| "honey" | Sanskrit:, Homeric Greek: μέθυ, Lithuanian: medus, Russian: мёд, Serbo-Croatian: мед, Polish: miód | dʰ > d | English: mead, East Frisian: meede, Dutch: mede, German: Met, Danish, Norwegian: mjød, Icelandic: mjöður, Swedish: mjöd | ||
| "walk, step" | Sanskrit:, Ancient Greek: στείχειν, Russian: ступать/ступить "walk/step" | gʰ > g | Old English: stīgan, Dutch: stijgen, German: steigen, Icelandic, Faroese: stíga, Danish, Norwegian: stige, Gothic | ||
| "goose" | Latin: anser < hanser, Ancient Greek: χήν, Sanskrit:, Lithuanian: žąsis, Russian: гусь, Persian: غاز, Serbo-Croatian: гуска, Polish: gęś | gʰ > g | English: goose, West Frisian: goes, guos, Dutch: gans, German: Gans, Icelandic: gæs, Faroese: gás, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: gås | ||
| "sing" | Homeric Greek: ὀμφή "voice" | gʷʰ > gw | English: sing, West Frisian: sjonge, Dutch: zingen, German: singen, Gothic:, Old Icelandic: syngva, syngja, Icelandic, Faroese: syngja, Swedish: sjunga, Danish: synge, sjunge |
This process appears strikingly regular. Each phase involves one single change which applies equally to the labials and their equivalent dentals, velars and rounded velars. The first phase left the phoneme repertoire of the language without voiceless stops, the second phase filled this gap, but created a new one, and so on until the chain had run its course.
Behaviour in consonant clusters
When two obstruents occurred in a pair, the first was changed according to Grimm's law, if possible, while the second was not. If either of the two was voiceless, the whole cluster was devoiced, and the first obstruent also lost its labialisation, if it was present.Most examples of this occurred with obstruents preceded by *s, or obstruents followed by *t or *s. The latter change was frequent in suffixes, and became a phonotactic restriction known as the Germanic spirant law. This rule remained productive throughout the Proto-Germanic period. The cluster *tt became *ss, but this was often restored analogically to *st later on.
Examples with preceding *s:
| Non-Germanic examples | Change | Germanic examples |
| Latin: spuere, Lithuanian: spjáuti | *sp | English: spew, West Frisian: spije, Dutch: spuwen, German: speien, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: spy, Icelandic: spýja, Faroese: spýggja, Gothic: speiwan |
| Latin: stāre, Irish: stad, Sanskrit: sta, Russian: стать, Lithuanian: stoti, Persian: ايستادن | *st | English: stand, Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian: standa, Gothic: standan; West Frisian: stean, Dutch: staan, German: stehen, Danish, Swedish: stå |
| Lithuanian: skurdus | *sk | English: short, Old High German: scurz, Icelandic: skorta |
| Irish: scéal | skʷ | English: scold, Icelandic: skáld, Norwegian: skald; West Frisian: skelle, Dutch: schelden, German: schelten |
- Some linguists dispute the origin of the word "scold", but Julius Pokorny, among others, proposed *skʷetlo as the assumed root.
- Several languages, including English, later have an unrelated change > .
| Non-Germanic examples | Change | Germanic examples |
| Ancient Greek: κλέπτης, Old Prussian: au-klipts "hidden" | *pt→ft | Gothic: hliftus "thief" |
| Latin: atta, Greek: ἄττα | *tt→tt | Old High German: atto, Gothic: atta "father" |
| Ancient Greek: ὀκτώ, Irish: ocht, Latin: octō | *kt→ht | English: eight, West Frisian, Dutch, German: acht, Gothic: ahtáu, Icelandic: átta |
| Irish: anocht, Latin: nox, noct-, Greek: νύξ, νυκτ-, Sanskrit: नक्तम्, Lithuanian: naktis, Hittite : nekuz | kʷt→ht | English: night, West Frisian, Dutch: nacht, German: Nacht, Gothic: nahts, Icelandic: nótt |
- Icelandic nótt comes from Old Norse nǫ́tt, nátt, from Proto-Germanic *naht-. The Germanic *ht regularly becomes Old Norse tt, and this then becomes preaspirated in Icelandic. Thus, the of the modern Icelandic form is not Germanic 's direct descendant. The same ancestry holds for Icelandic átta'''s as well.
Correspondences to PIE
The Germanic "sound laws", combined with regular changes reconstructed for other Indo-European languages, allow one to define the expected sound correspondences between different branches of the family. For example, Germanic *b- corresponds regularly to Latin *f-, Greek, Sanskrit, Slavic, Baltic or Celtic b-, etc., while Germanic *f- corresponds to Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Slavic and Baltic p- and to zero in Celtic. The former set goes back to PIE bʰ-, and the latter set to PIE p-.One of the more conspicuous present surface correspondences is the English digraph wh and the corresponding Latin and Romance digraph qu, notably found in interrogative words such as the five Ws. These both come from kʷ. The present pronunciations have further changed, like many English varieties reducing the wh-cluster, though the spellings reflect the history more; see English interrogative words: Etymology for details.