Germanic spirant law
Encyclopedia
In linguistics
, the Germanic spirant law or Primärberührung is a specific historical instance of dissimilation
that occurred as part of an exception of Grimm's law
in the ancestor of the Germanic languages
.
. If these were immediately followed by a t, they changed to a voiceless fricative (spirant):
/ /pt/ > /ɸt/ / /tt/ > /ts(t)/ > /ss/ / /kt/ > /xt/
The specifically Germanic part of the change, in which the first plosive became a fricative but not the /t/ following it, was just an exception to Grimm's law. Under the normal operation of the law, voiceless plosives become fricatives in Germanic. However, if two obstruents stand next to each other, the first became a fricative by Grimm's law (if it wasn't already) but the second remained a plosive. This exception applied not only to series of two plosives but also to series of /s/ and a plosive, in which case the plosive was preserved. A curious example of this is shown in the Germanic word for "bull", which has two forms. One has an s before the t while the other does not: English steer, Old Norse stjórr, Dutch stier (from *steuraz ← PIE *steuros with preserved /t/) vs. dialectal Dutch deur, duur, Old Norse þjórr (from *þeuraz ← PIE *tauros with regularly shifted /t/).
Unlike Grimm's law in general, however, the Germanic spirant law continued to operate for some time, acting as a surface filter
that eliminated any sequences of a stop followed by t as they arose either through borrowing or native word formation. A notable example is the partial loanword *skriftiz (cf. Dutch schrift) borrowed from Latin scriptum "script".
In some instances, /ss/ was partially restored to /st/ by analogy with other words, particularly in verbs. For example, the second person singular past form of *sitjanan "to sit" would have become *sód-ta → *sótsta → *sass (compare the related Old English word sess "seat") in first instance. However, it was restored to *sast based on parallel forms in other verbs such as *stalt (from *stelanan "to steal") and *halft (from *helpanan "to help").
> (by the spirant law) /nxt/ > /~ːxt/
This nasalisation was preserved into the separate history of Old English, since it affected the outcome of Anglo-Frisian brightening which was conditioned by nasality.
. As the weak past participle was formed with the Proto-Indo-European suffix *-tos, the assimilation could have occurred in all verbs with stems ending with a stop. For most weak verbs this was not an issue, because they had stems that were formed with various vowel suffixes. One such suffix was *-(e)ye-, which formed denominatives and causatives. Its form in the past participle retained this suffix as an intervening vowel, and therefore did not cause any special changes to the consonants: PIE *-(e)y-tos > PG *-idaz.
However, some of the class 1 weak verbs had been inherited as j-presents, and had this suffix only in the present tense forms, but not in the past tense. Some archaic athematic
verbs such as "will", and notably the preterite-present verbs, also lacked a vowel suffix. In these verbs, therefore, the participle suffix came into direct contact with the preceding consonant, triggering the spirant law in these verbs. The form of the past participle was also extended to form the weak past tense, spreading the irregular participle form to the entire past.
The following table contains only those that have survived into the modern languages. Medieval languages had many more. (The forms in brackets have been leveled and no longer show the effect.)
Although this looks similar to Grammatischer Wechsel
, which causes a superficially similar consonant alternation in strong verbs
, it is unrelated. Note that the vowel idiosyncrasies in these verbs are mostly a result of the separate and much later development of Rückumlaut
. Only when an /n/ disappeared with compensatory lengthening
of the preceding vowel did the spirant law itself result in vowel alternation. Hence Middle High German denken (think) and decken (cover) had the preterites dāhte and dahte respectively.
Another result of the spirant law, though far less obvious, was in the second-person singular past tense form of strong verbs. This form ended with *-t, without a vowel between it and the verb stem, and this caused the final consonant of the stem to undergo the change. This irregular form is preserved only directly in Gothic, however. In Old Norse, the original consonant had been restored by analogy, and the West Germanic languages had replaced the ending altogether, substituting *-ī. But the form is preserved in the older preterite-presents, even in the older West Germanic languages. Compare Gothic magan, Old English magan, Old Norse mega ("may", infinitive) and þu maht, þū meaht, þú mátt ("thou mayest", second-person singular, where -aht- regularly becomes -átt- in Old Norse).
Since the ending was *-ta in late Proto-Indo-European, the suffix should have undergone Grimm's law and become *-þ in Germanic whenever the verb stem did not end in an obstruent, but remained as *-t when the stem ended in an obstruent, because of the spirant law. However, there are no traces at all of an ending *-þ in the Germanic languages (except for the rare and isolated Old English form arþ), and *-t is found universally. It is therefore believed that since verbs ending in obstruents were so common in Germanic, the form with *-t may have been more common than *-þ. This caused the latter to eventually be regularised out of the system altogether, leaving only the former as the sole ending for that form.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
, the Germanic spirant law or Primärberührung is a specific historical instance of dissimilation
Dissimilation
In phonology, particularly within historical linguistics, dissimilation is a phenomenon whereby similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word become less similar...
that occurred as part of an exception of Grimm's law
Grimm's law
Grimm's law , named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC...
in the ancestor of the Germanic languages
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
.
General description
The law affects the new voiced and voiceless stops b, d, g, and p, t, k that Grimm's and Verner's law produced from different series of consonants in Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-Indo-European language
The Proto-Indo-European language is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans...
. If these were immediately followed by a t, they changed to a voiceless fricative (spirant):
/ /pt/ > /ɸt/ / /tt/ > /ts(t)/ > /ss/ / /kt/ > /xt/
Effect on labials and velars
Under normal conditions, any voiced stop would likely have been devoiced before /t/ in Indo-European times. This means that all three Indo-European series of stop consonants (aspirated, voiced and voiceless) had already merged before /t/, so that the sequences /bt/ and /ɡt/ had already become /pt/ and /kt/ by late Proto-Indo-European. Compare for example Latin scribere "to write" and legere "to gather, read" with their past participles scriptus and lectus.The specifically Germanic part of the change, in which the first plosive became a fricative but not the /t/ following it, was just an exception to Grimm's law. Under the normal operation of the law, voiceless plosives become fricatives in Germanic. However, if two obstruents stand next to each other, the first became a fricative by Grimm's law (if it wasn't already) but the second remained a plosive. This exception applied not only to series of two plosives but also to series of /s/ and a plosive, in which case the plosive was preserved. A curious example of this is shown in the Germanic word for "bull", which has two forms. One has an s before the t while the other does not: English steer, Old Norse stjórr, Dutch stier (from *steuraz ← PIE *steuros with preserved /t/) vs. dialectal Dutch deur, duur, Old Norse þjórr (from *þeuraz ← PIE *tauros with regularly shifted /t/).
Unlike Grimm's law in general, however, the Germanic spirant law continued to operate for some time, acting as a surface filter
Surface filter
In linguistics, a surface filter is type of sound change that does not operate on a single set of sounds at a particular point in time, but continues to operate over a longer period. Surface filters normally affect any phonetic combination that is not permitted according to the language's phonetic...
that eliminated any sequences of a stop followed by t as they arose either through borrowing or native word formation. A notable example is the partial loanword *skriftiz (cf. Dutch schrift) borrowed from Latin scriptum "script".
Effect on dentals
The change affecting dental consonants is generally assumed to have been a separate phenomenon, and was already a part of Proto-Indo-European phonetics, since other Indo-European languages show similar results. It seems to have only occurred in cases where a dental plosive was followed by a suffix beginning with /t/; geminated /tt/ that occurred within a single morpheme remained. Evidence from Germanic as well as other Indo-European languages such as Latin confirms this. For example, Latin edere "to eat" shows the past participle esus "eaten" from earlier *ed-tus. But a geminate /tt/ is preserved in both Gothic and Latin atta "father".In some instances, /ss/ was partially restored to /st/ by analogy with other words, particularly in verbs. For example, the second person singular past form of *sitjanan "to sit" would have become *sód-ta → *sótsta → *sass (compare the related Old English word sess "seat") in first instance. However, it was restored to *sast based on parallel forms in other verbs such as *stalt (from *stelanan "to steal") and *halft (from *helpanan "to help").
Loss of /n/ before /x/
In a later but unrelated change, /n/ disappeared when followed by /x/. The preceding vowel received compensatory lengthening and was nasalised:> (by the spirant law) /nxt/ > /~ːxt/
This nasalisation was preserved into the separate history of Old English, since it affected the outcome of Anglo-Frisian brightening which was conditioned by nasality.
Reflex in verb paradigms
The effect has an important consequence for some of the oldest weak verbsGermanic weak verb
In Germanic languages, including English, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group.-General description:...
. As the weak past participle was formed with the Proto-Indo-European suffix *-tos, the assimilation could have occurred in all verbs with stems ending with a stop. For most weak verbs this was not an issue, because they had stems that were formed with various vowel suffixes. One such suffix was *-(e)ye-, which formed denominatives and causatives. Its form in the past participle retained this suffix as an intervening vowel, and therefore did not cause any special changes to the consonants: PIE *-(e)y-tos > PG *-idaz.
However, some of the class 1 weak verbs had been inherited as j-presents, and had this suffix only in the present tense forms, but not in the past tense. Some archaic athematic
Athematic
In the Indo-European languages, thematic stems are stems ending in a theme vowel, a vowel sound that is always present between the stem of the word and the attached ending...
verbs such as "will", and notably the preterite-present verbs, also lacked a vowel suffix. In these verbs, therefore, the participle suffix came into direct contact with the preceding consonant, triggering the spirant law in these verbs. The form of the past participle was also extended to form the weak past tense, spreading the irregular participle form to the entire past.
The following table contains only those that have survived into the modern languages. Medieval languages had many more. (The forms in brackets have been leveled and no longer show the effect.)
| Germanic | English | German | Dutch | Icelandic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| *bringanan – *branhtē | bring – brought | bringen – brachte | brengen – bracht | – |
| *bugjanan – *buhtē | buy – bought | – | – | – |
| *kaupijanan – *kauftē | – | (kaufen) | kopen – kocht | (kaupa) |
| *maganan – *mahtē | may – might | mögen – mochte | mogen – mocht | mega – mátti |
| *sōkijanan – *sōhtē | seek – sought | (suchen) | zoeken – zocht | sækja – sótti |
| *taikijanan – *taihtē | teach – taught | (zeigen) | – | – |
| *þankijanan – *þanhtē | think – thought | denken – dachte | denken – dacht | þykja – þótti |
| *witanan – *wissē | – | (wissen) | weten – wist | vita – vissi |
Although this looks similar to Grammatischer Wechsel
Grammatischer Wechsel
In historical linguistics, the German term Grammatischer Wechsel refers to the effects of Verner's law when viewed synchronically within the paradigm of a Germanic verb.-Overview:...
, which causes a superficially similar consonant alternation in strong verbs
Germanic strong verb
In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung...
, it is unrelated. Note that the vowel idiosyncrasies in these verbs are mostly a result of the separate and much later development of Rückumlaut
Germanic umlaut
In linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a following vowel or semivowel. The term umlaut was originally coined and is used principally in connection with the study of the Germanic languages...
. Only when an /n/ disappeared with compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening
Compensatory lengthening in phonology and historical linguistics is the lengthening of a vowel sound that happens upon the loss of a following consonant, usually in the syllable coda...
of the preceding vowel did the spirant law itself result in vowel alternation. Hence Middle High German denken (think) and decken (cover) had the preterites dāhte and dahte respectively.
Another result of the spirant law, though far less obvious, was in the second-person singular past tense form of strong verbs. This form ended with *-t, without a vowel between it and the verb stem, and this caused the final consonant of the stem to undergo the change. This irregular form is preserved only directly in Gothic, however. In Old Norse, the original consonant had been restored by analogy, and the West Germanic languages had replaced the ending altogether, substituting *-ī. But the form is preserved in the older preterite-presents, even in the older West Germanic languages. Compare Gothic magan, Old English magan, Old Norse mega ("may", infinitive) and þu maht, þū meaht, þú mátt ("thou mayest", second-person singular, where -aht- regularly becomes -átt- in Old Norse).
Since the ending was *-ta in late Proto-Indo-European, the suffix should have undergone Grimm's law and become *-þ in Germanic whenever the verb stem did not end in an obstruent, but remained as *-t when the stem ended in an obstruent, because of the spirant law. However, there are no traces at all of an ending *-þ in the Germanic languages (except for the rare and isolated Old English form arþ), and *-t is found universally. It is therefore believed that since verbs ending in obstruents were so common in Germanic, the form with *-t may have been more common than *-þ. This caused the latter to eventually be regularised out of the system altogether, leaving only the former as the sole ending for that form.
Reflex in verb-noun alternations
The effect of the Germanic spirant law can also be very neatly observed by comparing certain verbs with related nouns. A prominent example is the Indo-European verbal noun suffix *-tis, which survived and remained productive in Germanic, but other suffixes with *-t- were also in use.| Germanic | English | German | Dutch |
|---|---|---|---|
| *gebanan – *giftiz | give – gift | geben – Gift | geven – gift |
| *pleganan – *plihtiz | play – plight | pflegen – Pflicht | plegen – plicht |
| *weganan – *gawihtiz | weigh – weight | wiegen – Gewicht | wegen – gewicht |
| *habjanan – *haftaz | (have) | haben – Haft | hebben – -haftig |
| *kleubanan – *kluftiz | cleave – cleft | klieben – Kluft | (klieven) |
| *maganan – *mahtiz | may – might | mögen – Macht | mogen – macht |