Germanic languages

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 /d̻/ 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

• West Germanic
  • German
    • Stages of High German:
      • Old High German
      • Middle 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 Dutch:
    • Old Dutch
    • Middle Dutch
    • Dutch
  • English
    • Stages of English:
      • Anglo-Saxon
      • Middle English
      • Modern English
        • Scots
• North Germanic
  • Old Norse
    • Old West Norse
      • Icelandic
      • Norwegian
    • Old East Norse
      • Swedish
      • Danish
• East Germanic
  • Gothic

---

This article is a stub. If you can contribute to its content, feel free to do so.