Vowels
Vowels undergo(подверглись) different types of changes:
1. Qualitative change – affects the quality of a sound (e.g. [o à Λ]).
2. Quantitative change – affects the length of a sound (e.g. [i à i:]).
3. Dependent/positional change – a change that occurs in certain position or in certain phonetic conditions (e.g. bit_ – bit e [b i t à b ai t]).
4. Independent/spontaneous change – affects a certain sound in all positions irrespective (независимо) 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 à become neutralized.
2. Long vowels à become short and more open.
à become diphthongized and more closed.
Proto-Germanic Vowel System:
Short Vowels | i | e | a | o | u |
Long Vowels | i: | e: | a: | o: | u: |
Some vowel correspondences between Germanic and non-Germanic Languages:
Sound Correspondence | Non-Germanic | Germanic | |||
Latin | Русский | English | German | Swedish | |
[a: à o:] | m a ter | м а ть | m o ther | - | m o der |
[o à a] | n o x | н о чь | - | N a cht | n a tt |
[e à i] | v e ntus | в е тер | w i nd | W i nd | v i nd |
[u à o] | s u nus | с ы н | s o n | S o hn | s o n |
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 19th Jacob Grimm, a German scholar, discovered the existence of regular correspondence between Indo-European (IE) and German consonants and subdivided them into 3 groups:
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[A24] № | Consonant Correspondences | Examples | ||||
Old | Modern | |||||
IE | PG | Non-German (Latin) | German (OE) | Non-German (Italian, рус.) | German (English, German) | |
[bh,dh,gh] à aspirated voiced plosives | [b, d, g] non-aspirated voiced plosives | bh rāta (Hind) | b rōþor | б рат | b rother, B ruder | |
ru dh ira (Hind) | rēa d | - | re d | |||
h ostis | g iest | г ость | g uest, G ast | |||
[b, d, g] à voiced plosives | [p, t, k] voiceless plosives | la b are | p ōl | б олото | p ool, P fuhl | |
d ecem | t īen | d ieci, д есять | t en | |||
g enu | c nēo | g inocchio | k nee, K nie | |||
[p, t, k] à voiceless plosives | [f, q, h] voiceless fricatives | p edis | f ōt | p iedi | f oot, F uß | |
t res | þ rēo | t re, т ри | th ree | |||
c ordis | h eort | c uore | h eart, H erz |
Verner’s Law – Carl Verner, a Danish scholar (19th c.), explained the consonant correspondences as a gradual historical process (a change takes place in the course of time):
Consonant Correspondences | Latin | OE | ModE | ||
1. [p, t, k] à voiceless stops/plosives | [f, q, h] à voiceless fricatives | [v, ð/d, g] voiced fricatives | se p tem | seo f en | se v en |
pa t er | f æ đ er | fa th er | |||
so c rus | swai h o (Gothic) | Schwa g er (Germ) | |||
2. Rhotacism | au s is (Lithuanian) | Au s o (Gothic) | ea r, Oh r (Germ) | ||
[s] à | [z] à | [r] |
P.S.: these processes usually happened on condition that the consonants were situated between vowels and if preceded by an unstressed vowel.
Modern Examples: see th e – so dd en, dea th – dea d, wa s – we r e.
Second Consonant Shift – happened in the 9th c. in Old High German [A25] and today we can observe it comparing English and German:
Consonant Correspondences | English | German | |
1. [t] à à | [ts] | T wo | z wei |
[s] | Wa t er | Wa ss er | |
2. [q] à | [d] | Th ree | d rei |
3. [d] à | [t] | D aughter | T ochter |
4. [k] à | [h] | Ma k e | ma ch en |
H/w:
1. Ex. 3-5, p. 48-49 in “История английского языка” by Т.А. Расторгуева (copies).