Germanic languages

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Sound Changes from PIE to Common Germanic

These may not be 100% accurate.

  • ḱ, ǵ, ǵʰ → k, g, gʰ

Grimm's law

  • bʰ, dʰ, gʰ, gʷʰ → β, ð, ɣ, β/ɣ
  • b, d, g, gʷ → p, t, k, kʷ/k
  • p, t, k, kʷ → f, θ, x, xʷ

Verner's law

  • f, θ, s, x, xʷ → β, ð, z, ɣ, ɣʷ (except initially or following IE stress)

Vowel changes

  • aː → oː
  • e → i
  • eː → æː
  • ei → iː
  • eːi → eː (?)
  • oi → ai
  • oːi → oː (?)
  • aːi → oː (?)
  • eu → iu
  • ou → au

High German Consonant Shift

The 4 stages of the shift could be defined as follows:

  1. Non-geminated voicless stops became fricatives,
  2. Geminated, nasal-adjacent and liquid-adjacent voiceless stops became affricates,
  3. Voiced stops became voiceless stops, and finally
  4. All interdental fricatives (/ð/ and /θ/) became the dental stop and/or Alveolar stop // and /d/.

The last stage was shared by Low German and Dutch.

The shift occured in the period before Old High German existed, and in fact was the marker of Old High German.

Listing of Germanic Languages


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