Grimm's law


Grimm's law is a set of statements first systematically put forward by Jacob Grimm but first remarked upon by Rasmus Rask describing the Proto-Indo-European stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC. It establishes a set of regular correspondences between early Germanic stops, fricatives and the stop consonants of certain other centum Indo-European languages.

History

Grimm's law was the first discovery of a systematic sound change, and it led to the creation of historical phonology as a separate discipline of historical linguistics. The correspondence between Latin p and Germanic f was first noted by Friedrich von Schlegel 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 there were many words which had different consonants from what his law predicted, and these exceptions defied linguists for a few decades, but they eventually received explanation from Danish linguist Karl Verner in the form of Verner's law.

Overview

Grimm's law consists of three parts which form consecutive phases in the sense of a chain shift. The phases are usually constructed as follows:
  1. Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops change into voiceless fricatives.
  2. Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become voiceless stops.
  3. Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops become voiced stops or fricatives.
This chain shift can be abstractly represented as:
Here each sound moves one position to the right to take on its new sound value. Note that within Proto-Germanic, the sounds denoted by,, and were stops in some environments and fricatives in others, so > should be understood here as >, 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. But it is also conceivable that the shift happened as a push chain, where the changes happened 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:
  1. Voiceless stops are allophonically aspirated under most conditions.
  2. Voiced stops become unaspirated voiceless stops.
  3. All aspirated stops become fricatives.
This sequence would lead to the same end result. This variety of Grimm's law is often suggested in the context of the glottalic theory of Proto-Indo-European, which is followed by a minority of linguists. This theoretical framework assumes that "voiced stops" in PIE were actually voiceless to begin with, so that the second phase did not actually exist as such, or was not actually devoicing but a loss of some other articulatory feature such as glottalization or ejectiveness. This alternative sequence also accounts for the phonetics of Verner's law, which are easier to explain within the glottalic theory framework when Grimm's law is formulated in this manner. Additionally, a change from aspirated stops to fricatives is known to have happened in the transition between Proto-Indo-European and Proto-Italic, so represents a plausible potential change from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.

Further changes

Once the changes described by Grimm's law had taken place, there was only one type of voiced consonant, with no distinction between voiced stops and voiced fricatives. They eventually became stops at the beginning 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 hardening to stops under certain conditions. But they may also have become stops at first, softening to fricatives in most positions later.
Around the same time as the Grimm's law adjustments took place, another change occurred known as Verner's law. Verner's law caused, under certain conditions, the voicing of the voiceless fricatives that resulted from the Grimm's law changes, creating apparent exceptions to the rule. For example:
Here, the same sound *t appears as *þ in one word, but as *d in another. See the Verner's law article for a more detailed explanation of this discrepancy.
The early Germanic *gw that had arisen from Proto-Indo-European underwent further changes of various sorts:
Perhaps the usual reflex was *b, but *w appears in certain cases, such as in warm and wife. Proto-Germanic *hw voiced by Verner's law fell together with this sound and developed identically, compare the words for 'she-wolf': from Middle High German wülbe and Old Norse ylgr, one can reconstruct Proto-Germanic nominative singular *wulbī, genitive singular *wulgijōz, from earlier *wulgwī, *wulgwijōz.

Examples

Further changes following Grimm's law, as well as sound changes in other Indo-European languages, can occasionally obscure its own effects. The most illustrative examples are used here.
Proto-Indo-EuropeanMeaningNon-Germanic cognatesChangeProto-GermanicGermanic examples
"foot"Ancient Greek: πούς, ποδός, Latin: pēs, pedis, Sanskrit: pāda, Russian: под "under; floor", Lithuanian: pėda, Latvian: pēda, Persian: پا *p > f English: foot, West Frisian: foet, German: Fuß, Gothic: fōtus, Icelandic, Faroese: fótur, Danish: fod, Norwegian, Swedish: fot
"three"Ancient Greek: τρεῖς, Latin: trēs, Welsh: tri, Sanskrit: tri, Russian: три, Serbo-Croatian: три̑, Lithuanian: trỹs, Polish: trzy, Albanian: tre*t > þ English: three, Old Frisian: thrē, Old Saxon: thrīe, Gothic: þreis, Icelandic: þrír
"dog"Ancient Greek: κύων, Latin: canis, Welsh: ci, Persian: سگ *k > h English: hound, Dutch: hond, German: Hund, Gothic: hunds, Icelandic, Faroese: hundur, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: hund
"what"Latin: quod, Irish: cad, Sanskrit: kád, Russian: ко-, Lithuanian: kas, Serbo-Croatian : кај * > hw English: what, Gothic: ƕa, Icelandic: hvað, Faroese: hvat, Danish: hvad, Norwegian: hva
"apple"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, Lithuanian: dešimt, Polish: dziesięć*d > t English: ten, Dutch: tien, Gothic: taíhun, 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: jīvá-, Serbo-Croatian: жив, Polish: żywy* > kw English: quick, West Frisian: kwik, kwyk, Dutch: kwiek, German: keck, Gothic: qius, 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, Latvian: brālis, Persian: برادر * > b English: brother, West Frisian, Dutch: broeder, German: Bruder, Gothic: broþar, Icelandic, Faroese: bróðir, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: broder
"honey"Sanskrit: mádhu, Homeric Greek: μέθυ, Lithuanian: medus, Russian: мёд, Serbo-Croatian: мед, Polish: miód* > d English: mead, East Frisian: meede, Dutch: mede, German: Met, Danish, Norwegian: mjød, Icelandic: mjöður, Swedish: mjöd
"walk, step"Sanskrit: stighnoti, Ancient Greek: στείχειν * > g Old English: stīgan, Dutch: stijgen, German: steigen, Icelandic, Faroese: stíga, Danish, Norwegian: stige, Gothic steigan
"goose"Latin: anser < *hanser, Ancient Greek: χήν, Sanskrit: hamsa, Lithuanian: žąsis, Russian: гусь, Persian: غاز, Serbo-Croatian: гуска, Polish: gęś* > g English: goose, West Frisian: goes, guos, Dutch: gans, German: Gans, Icelandic: gæs, Faroese: gás, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: gås
"sing"Homeric Greek: ὀμφή "voice"* > gw
English: sing, West Frisian: sjonge, Dutch: zingen, German: singen, Gothic: siggwan, 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 examplesChangeGermanic examples
Latin: spuere, Lithuanian: spjáuti*spEnglish: 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 *stEnglish: stand, Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian: standa, Gothic: standan; West Frisian: stean, Dutch: staan, German: stehen, Danish, Swedish: stå
Lithuanian: skurdus*skEnglish: short, Old High German: scurz, Icelandic: skorta
Irish: scéal*English: scold, Icelandic: skáld, Norwegian: skald; West Frisian: skelle, Dutch: schelden, German: schelten

Examples with following *t:
Non-Germanic examplesChangeGermanic examples
Ancient Greek: κλέπτης, Old Prussian: au-klipts "hidden"*pt→ftGothic: hliftus "thief"
Latin: atta, Greek: ἄττα *tt→ttOld High German: atto, Gothic: atta "father"
Ancient Greek: οκτώ, Irish: ocht, Latin: octō*kt→htEnglish: eight, West Frisian, Dutch, German: acht, Gothic: ahtáu, Icelandic: átta
Irish: anocht, Latin: nox, noct-, Greek: νύξ, νυκτ-, Sanskrit: नक्तम्, Lithuanian: naktis, Hittite : nekuz *→htEnglish: night, West Frisian, Dutch, German: nacht, Gothic: nahts, Icelandic: nótt

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 *, 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. The present pronunciations have undergone further sound changes, such as wh-cluster reductions in many varieties of English, though the spellings reflect the history more; see Interrogative word: Etymology for details.