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
This shift separates High German from other Germanic languages. The 4 stages of the shift could be defined as follows:
- Non-geminated voicless stops became fricatives,
- Geminated, nasal-adjacent and liquid-adjacent voiceless stops became affricates,
- Voiced stops became voiceless stops, and finally
- All interdental fricatives (/ð/ and /θ/) became the dental stop and/or Alveolar stop /d̻/ and /d/.
The last stage was shared by Low German and Dutch.
The shift occurred in the period before Old High German existed, and in fact was the marker of Old High German.
English Great Vowel Shift
The Great Vowel Shift is where the vowels of Middle English were raised or diphthongised (for already high vowels). This is the difference between Middle English and Modern English.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Diphthong | aj | aw | |
| High | ↑ i |
↑ u | |
| Mid | ↑ e |
↑ o | |
| Low | ↑ æ |
← a |
Norwegian and Swedish Vowel chain shift
Listing of Germanic Languages
- West Germanic
- German
- Stages of High German:
- Old High German
- Middle High German
- Early New High German
- New High German or Modern (Standard) German
- Stages of Low German
- Old Saxon
- Middle Low Saxon
- Low Saxon aka Low German
- Stages of High German:
- Stages of Dutch:
- Anglo-Frisian
- Stages of Frisian:
- English
- Stages of English:
- German
- North Germanic
- East Germanic
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