27.10.2008.The First Germanic Consonant Shift

↓crucial in the name

→ phonological level of analysis

1786. was the year when first comparative studies were initiated by Sir William Jones who worked as a judge in India (Calcuta). He became interested in Sanskrit because as a lawyer and judge he wanted to familiarize with native law codes of India. Studying Sanskrit he noticed great similarities between classical Greek, classical Latin and classical Sanskrit. All three ancient languages proved to use very similar, if not even the same, some parts of vocabulary, but he also noticed some similarities in structure. This was the beginning of COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS, a new branch of studying language in very specific manner. Other people became interested in comparative linguistics, so by the end of 18 th century it was also characterized by investigations done by Ramus Rask & Jacob Grimm.The first collected a huge material, great number of words in classical Greek, classical Latin & classical Sanskrit which were same or different in one or two consonants. Being immersed in this material, he studied it, but he didn’t make much of it. Jacob Grimm (grammarian & writer) noticed that these changes of consonants always concerned the same ones (the same type).So, he noticed that ASPIRATED PLOSIVES

e.g. BHRĀTHAR, n. in Sanskrit > B↓

that is what we call an aspirated plosive which existed in classical Sanskrit; there is no aspirated plosive any longer

BHRĀTAR > OE - BRŌ OR > MnE - BROTHER↓ ↓

a rune; a symbol R became weaker; of runic script there’s no MACRON;

a change in spelling: substituated by TH

Ō → root vowel;

¯ → MACRON (diacritic that tells you that vowel is long)

→ rune is mas. noun in OERŪN, m → secret

→ they were in scripted in short angularlines by stone, then metal;in scripted in pieces of weapon to bringluck to warriors

The RUNIC SCRIPT was the first Germanic alphabet which, like other Germanic alphabets, also consisted of Roman letters.DH → another aspirated plosive

*Runes were the very 1st symbols in German languages which appeared in old German nations and they were used as magic symbols!

DHVĀR > OE – DURU > MnE – DOOR ↓aspirated plosive → became D, voiced plosive

RUDHIRA > OE – RĒAD > MnE – RED ↓last aspiration, became voiced plosive

GH → in Latin term:

HOSTIS > OE – GIEST > MnE – GUEST ↓

different spelling*GHOSTIS ↓such found in Sunskript, never found in

any manuscript, only supposed form

VOICED PLOSIVES → changed into VOICELESS PLOSIVESB, D, G → P, T, K

* they lost their explosion, because they turned into FRICATIVESP, T, K → F, θ, H

Latin word BALA > OE – PŌL > MnE – POOL

Latin word DECEM > OE – TĪĒN > MnE – TEN ↓diphthong IE (long)typical of the end of OE period

Latin word GENU > OE – CNĒŌ > MnE - KNEE(kneo)

FRICATIVES: P, T, K > F, θ, H

P > F

Latin, Greek word PATER > OE - Fæ ER > MnE – FATHER (fēθēr)voiceless θvoiced D → here because it is between vowels

Voiceless plosive P (in classical languages) is reflected as fricative F in Germanic languagesT > θ

Latin word TRES > OE - RIĒ > MnE – THREE /θrie:/ > /θri:/

K > H

Latin word CANIS > OE – HUND > MnE – HOUND

These series of changes included several changes in the process:1. THE LOSS OF ASPIRATION2. THE LOSS OF VOICE3. THE LOSS OF EXPLOSION(Consonants change altogether, become another consonant)

These changes, it was assumed by linguists, took 100 of years and they certainly didn’t happen in century or two; it may have taken one thousand of years, maybe even longer, but what we do know is that this change is considered SOUND LAW formulated by JACOB GRIMM (1833).Considered to be same for some time, but at the end of 19th century Danish linguist KARL VARNER studied different pairs of letters.Comparing them, he noticed several examples of exceptions of this law (even Grimm noticed them but he thought of them as pure). Varner noticed some kind of regularity.

for instance:

Sanskrit ANTAR→ reflected in some cases as UNDER, and in some cases as:

OE > O ER > MnE – OTHER- it became voiced again

*instead of one word, here we deal with two wordsANTAR and ANTARA

↓stress on the first syllable, fixed, strong, preserve T from getting voiced, so T > THin all German languages

These changes → VERNER’S LAW are reflected in the change of fricatives (P, T, K)

and they become slightly voiced again, and becoming V, ð, γ (ovo je prva faza promene)

The process of voicing goes on:

V, ð, γ > B, T, G (do kraja se sve ozvuči)

This process is typical of modern German (HIGH GERMAN root of languages), but also of English

That is why in Latin CAPUT turns into:Latin CAPUT > OE – HĒĀFOD > MnE HEAD

↓ /v/voiced

Part of this law conserns the consonant S which in OE becomes R and the process is called ROTHACISM

Latin AUSIS > OE – ĒĀRE > MnE – EAR ↓medial S consonant becomes R

There are two sound laws but when we use the term LAW we have to be aware that it is a different story from law in physics. We use it in order to see what happened and why we deal with certain forms.

Insular Script

→ A regular alphabet in OEOE was a language that was only SPOKEN before it had been written down. When first manuscripts appeared, a lot of people were illiterate (they didn’t use any alphabet).

INSULAR SCRIPT is considered to be the set of symbols warying in origin which were used to record invents, to write stories, for writting towards the end of the 6 th and 7th sentury, so it was after 597 A.D., after Christianity was adopted in England. First writtings were religious texts written and copied by monks in monasteries.This OE alphabet (INSULAR SCRIPT) used A, E, O, U, Y as symbols to denote VOWELS. These symbols belonged to Roman alphabet, they were part of Insular Script taken from

Roman alphabet. æ also was a symbol which was part of Roman alphabet and it also

appeared in RUNIC SCRIPT bearing runic name. æ → a symbol which was part of Roman alphabet and was called OE æsc /æ∫/ → this was the name of the rune, but the symbol itself comes from Roman alphabet.CONSONANTS were presented by symbols of Roman alphabet B, C, D, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, X → even at an early stage of OE.They were all taken from Roman alphabet and they were used as part of Insular Script, official alphabet of OE.

A part from these, several runes were also used = THORN (the name of the symbol has a meaning TRN; runic symbol as a part of Insular Script)

= WYNN (it means JOY) was replaced by W; it existed much earlier then

ð (eth) is another symbol of Insular Script and it is considered to be the voiced counterpart

of /θ/ →

In the first manuscripts they were used in all positions.

Ū 2nd person sg. (you) ↓considered to be voiceless at the beginning of the period, and in the beginning 10 th, throughout 11th

century, it became voiced.

O ER both versions are found

OðER in manuscripts ↓should be voiced

One symbol which didn’t belong originally to the Insular Script is ʒ = YOGH /jeug/

It is the most contraversial of all symbols. It is generally accepted to be of Celtic Roman origin. By the 12th century it was replaced by G. It had a quality of very diferent consonant:

OE – DæG; n.sg. > DAGAS; n.pl./dæʒ/ /daʒas/

In the middle English, [ʒ] had different quality: /s, ∫ , ʒ/

Roman symbols J, K, V, Z, Q were not found in Insular ScriptQ → was imported under the influence of French and Roman in 19th centuryJ, V, Z, Q → appeared after 12th century

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