Germanic languages

Sound Changes in 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

This shift separates High German from other Germanic languages. 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 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 Back Vowel Chain Shift

The back vowel chain shift of Norwegian and Swedish has the long vowels raise, and in the case of the highest vowels, fronted towards /yː/. It would look as follows:

	Front Rd.	Central	Back
High	ʉ* ←	←	← u
Mid-High			↑ o
Mid-Low			↑ ɔ
Low		a ↗

• This symbol is used to contrast it with the Nor./Swed. /y/ sound.

All vowels are Long.

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

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