Lecture 3 Linguistic Features of the Germanic Languages Phonetic Features

Vowels
Vowels undergo different types of changes:

1. 
   Qualitative change – affects the quality of a sound (e.g. [o  Λ]).
   
2. 
   Quantitative change – affects the length of a sound (e.g. [i  i:]).
   
3. 
   Dependent/positional change – a change that occurs in certain position or in certain phonetic conditions (e.g. bit_ – bite [bit  bait]).
   
4. 
   Independent/spontaneous change – affects a certain sound in all positions irrespective 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  become neutralized.
   
2. 
   Long vowels  become short and more open.
   

 become diphthongized and more closed.
Proto-Germanic Vowel System:

Short Vowels	i	E	A	o	U
Long Vowels	i:	e:	a:	o:	u:

Sound Correspondence	Non-Germanic			Germanic
	Latin	Русский	English		German	Swedish
№ Consonant Correspondences Examples Old Modern IE PG Non-German (Latin) German (OE) Non-German (Italian, рус.) German (English, German) 1 [bh,dh,gh]  aspirated voiced stops [b, d, g] non-aspirated voiced stops bhrāta (Hind) Brōþor Брат brother, Bruder rudhira(Hind) Rēad - red hostis Giest Гость guest, Gast 2 [b, d, g]  voiced stops [p, t, k] voiceless stops/plosives labare Pōl Болото pool, Pfuhl decem Tīen dieci, десять ten genu Cnēo Ginocchio knee, Knie 3 [p, t, k]  voiceless stops/plosives [f, , h] voiceless fricatives pedis Fōt Piedi foot, Fuß tres Þrēo tre, три three cordis Heort Cuore heart, Herz [a:  o:]	mater	мать	mother		-	moder
[o  a]	nox	ночь	-		Nacht	natt
[e  i]	ventus	ветер	wind		Wind	vind
[u  o]	sunus	сын	son		Sohn	son

Some vowel correspondences between Germanic and on-Germanic Languages:
Consonants
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 19^th Jacob Grimm, a German scholar, discovered the existence of regular correspondence between Indo-European (IE) and German consonants and subdivided them into 3 groups:

Consonant Correspondences			Latin	OE	ModE
1. [p, t, k]  voiceless stops/plosives	[f, , h]  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] 	[z] 	[r]

Verner’s Law – Carl Verner, a Danish scholar (19^th c.), explained the consonant correspondences as a gradual historical process (a change takes place in the course of time):
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.
Verner's Law
It was noted long ago that in some words in Germanic languages we find consonants
which do not lit into Grimm's law, as formulated above. In some cases it is voiced stops,
rather than voiceless fricatives, that correspond in Germanic to IE voiceless stops.
Explanation of these apparent exceptions to Grimm's law was offered in 1877 by the
Danish scholar Karl Verner:
l.If an IE voiceless stop was preceded by an unstressed vowel, the voiceless fricative
which developed from it in accordance with Grimm's law became voiced, and later this
voiced fricative became a voiced stop.
e.g.: Lat. pater, Greek pater, Sanscr. pitar, Goth. fadar, OE fжder.
2.If the preceding vowel is unstressed, s in Germanic languages becomes voiced, i.e.
changes into z. In Western Germanic and Northern Germanic languages z becomes r. This
change is termed rhotacism.
e.g.: Goth. laisjan 'teach', OE lжran.

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

Consonant Correspondences		English	German
1. [t]  	[ts]	two	Zwei
	[s]	water	Wasser
2. [] 	[d]	three	Drei
3. [d] 	[t]	daughter	Tochter
4. [k] 	[h]	make	Machen

Substratum Theory
There are some explanations of such important events in the history of Germanic
languages as the first consonant shift and change in the stress system. One of them is the so-
called substratum theory. According to it these changes were caused by events in the social
life of tribes speaking Germanic languages. It is supposed that Germanic languages arose as
a result of part of the tribes, who spoke Indo-European languages conquering some other
tribes, who presumably spoke some non-Indo-European languages. The conquered tribes
acquired the language of the conquerors, but in doing so they introduced some of their own
pronunciation habits, characteristic of the language they had been originally speaking.
These pronunciation habits determined the characteristic phonetic features of Germanic
languages, which came into being as a result of the conquest.
West-Germanic lengthening of Consonants
In West-Germanic languages there was a peculiar phenomenon in the sphere of
consonants. Every consonant (with the single exception of r) is lengthened if it is preceded
by a short vowel and followed by the consonant j. In writing the long consonant is
represented by doubling the consonant letter.
e.g.: OE sжstian>settan 'set'
Germanic Fracture
The vocalic system of Germanic languages has an important characteristic feature. The
quality of a stressed vowel is in some cases dependent on a following sound. The earliest
manifestation of this principle has been termed fracture or breaking. It concerns two pairs of
vowels: e/i and u/o.
1. An IE e in the root syllable finds its counterpart in Germc. i, if it is followed by i, j,
or the cluster 'nasal + consonant'. Otherwise the Germanic languages have in the
corresponding words an e.
e.g.: Lat. medius 'middle' OE midde
2. An IE u finds its counterpart in Germc. u, if it is followed by u or the cluster 'nasal
+ consonant'; otherwise the IE u finds its counterpart in Germc. o.
e.g.: Sanscr. sunus 'son' OE sunu
Gradation, or Ablaut
Ablaut is the alteration of a root vowel in different terms of the same words. The
system of gradation in Germanic languages is best seen in the so-called strong verbs of the
Gothic language:
Infinitive Past Singular Past Plural Second Participle
bindan 'bind' band bundum bundans
i: a u