User:Teb728/Temp2

Pre-Proto-Germanic period

The time frame is from the 4th millennium B.C. or earlier to 500 B.C. or later. This includes changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.

• Laryngeals.
  • Cowgill's law: *h₃ immediately after a sonorant and before *w became *kʷ; hence PIE *gʷih₃wos > PG *kʷikʷaz “alive”.
  • At the beginning of a word a laryngeal followed immediately by a consonant was lost; PIE *h₁dónt- > PG tanþ- “tooth”.
  • A laryngeal before a vowel was lost, with *h₂ and *h₃ coloring *e to *a; PIE *h₁ed- > PG etana̢ “eat”; PIE *h₂énti “in front of” > andi “and”; PIE *pelh₁u > PG *felu “much”.
  • A laryngeal after a vowel was lost, lengthening it and *h₂ and *h₃ coloring *e to *ō; PIE wreh₂d- > PG wrōt- “root”; PIE *bʰuh₂- > būana̢ “become”.
    • Occasionally after *i or *u a laryngeal was lost without lengthening the vowel; PIE *wih₁rós “young” > PG *wiraz “man”.
  • When a laryngeal was lost between two non-high vowels, the vowels contracted to an “extra-long” vowel.
  • A laryngeal between two obstruents seems to have been replaced by *ə. When this *ə was in the first syllable of a word, it later became *a; otherwise it was eventually lost; PIE *ph₂tḗr > PG *fadēr “father”.
• Sonorants
  • Syllabic nasals and liquids developed into *u followed by the corresponding non-syllabic sonorant; i.e., *m̥ > *um, *n̥ > *un, *l̥ > *ul, *r̥ > *ur; PIE *n̥tér “inside” > PG *under “under; among”; PIE *ḱr̥n- > *hurna̢ “horn”.
  • In most cased word-final*-m was lost with nasalization of the preceding vowel;PIE *yugóm > PG *juka̢ “yoke”.
  • In other cased (particularly in monosyllables) word-final *-m became *-n; PIE *im > PG *inō̢ “him”.
• Obstruents
  • A consonant cluster of a dental stop followed by *st became *ss; PIE *sedstós “seated” > PG *sessaz.

• m *n
• p *t *ḱ *k *kʷ
• b *d *ǵ *g *gʷ
• bʰ *dʰ *ǵʰ *gʰ *gʷʰ

*s *h₁, *h₂, *h₃ *r, *l *y *w éáíúóēāōīūþə a̢áo̥o̿

Late Proto-Germanic period

This period is estimated to be c. AD 0–200. This includes changes in late Proto-Germanic, up to the appearance of Proto-West-Germanic c. AD 200:

• Early i-mutation: /e/ is raised to /i/ when an /i/ or /j/ follows in the next syllable.
  • This occurs before deletion of any unstressed vowels; hence PIE /bereti/ > PG /bereθi/ > /beriθi/ > Goth baíriθ /beriθ/ "(he) carries".
  • The /i/ produced by this change can itself trigger later i-mutation. Hence WG /beriθ/ > /biriθ/ > OE /birθ/ "(he) bears".
• a-mutation: /u/ is lowered to /o/ when a non-high vowel follows in the next syllable.
  • This is blocked when followed by a nasal followed by a consonant, or by a cluster with /j/ in it. Hence PG /ɡulda/ > OE/NE gold, but PG /ɡuldjanan/ > OE gyldan > NE gild.
  • This produces a new phoneme /o/, due to inconsistent application and later loss of unstressed /a/ and /e/.
• Loss of /n/ before /x/, with nasalization and compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.
  • The nasalization was eventually lost, but remained through the Ingvaeonic period.
  • Hence PrePG /tonɡjonom/ > PG /θankjanan/ > OE þencan > NE think, but PrePG /tonktoːm/ > PG /θanxtoːn/ > /θãːxtoːn/ > OE þóhte > NE thought.
• Loss of final /m/, with nasalization (eventually lost) of the preceding vowel. Hence PrePG /dʱoɡʱom/ > PG /daɡam/ > PN /daɡa/ > WG /daɡ/ "day (acc. sg.)".
• Pre-nasal raising: /e/ > /i/ before nasal + consonant. PrePG /bʱendʱonom/ > PG /bendanan/ > /bindanan/ > OE bindan > NE bind (Latin of-fendō).
  • This post-dated lost of /n/ before /x/.
  • This was later extended in PreOE times to vowels before all nasals; hence OE niman "take" but OHG neman.
• /ei/ > /iː/ (c. AD 100). The Elder Futhark of the Proto-Norse language still contain different symbols for the two sounds.
• Vowels in unstressed syllables were reduced or eliminated. The specifics are quite complex and occurred as a result of many successive changes, with successive stages often happening hundreds of years after the previous stage. Some specifics of the initial stage:
  • Final-syllable short vowels inherited from Proto-Germanic were generally deleted. Hence Goth baíriθ /beriθ/ "(he) carries" < PG /bereθi/ (see above).
    • This operated universally only in words of three syllables or more. In words of two syllables, final-syllable /a/ and /e/ were deleted, but /i/ and /u/ were unaffected following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant.) Hence PG /daɡaz/ > Goth dags "day (nom. sing.)" (OE dæg), PIE /woida/ > PG /waita/ > Goth wáit "(I) know" (OE wát), PIE /woide/ > PG /waite/ > Goth "wáit" "(he) knows" (OE wát); but PIE /sunus/ > PG /sunuz/ > Goth sunus "son (nom. sing.)" (OE sunu), PIE /peku/ > PG /fehu/ > Goth faíhu /fehu/ "cattle (nom. sing.)" (OE feohu), PIE /wenis/ > PG /weniz/ > /winiz/ > OHG wini "friend (nom. sing.)" (OE wine), PIE /poːdi/ > PG /foːti/ > PreOE /føːti/ > OE fét "foot (dat. sing.)".
    • Final-syllable /a/ and /e/ were protected in words of two syllables by following /r/ and /ns/. Hence PG /fader/ > NE father; PG /stainans/ > Goth stáinans "stone (acc. pl.)".
    • Final-syllable /a/ and /e/ in two-syllable words were still present in Proto-Norse. PN /daɡaz/, Goth dags "day (nom. sg.)". PN /daɡa/, Goth dag "day (acc. sg.)".
  • Final-syllable long vowels were shortened.
    • But final-syllable /oː/ becomes /u/ in NWG, /a/ in Gothic. Hence PG /beroː/ > early OE beru "(I) carry", but Goth baíra; PG /ɡeboː/ > OE giefu "gift (nom. sg.)", but Goth giba.
  • Middle-syllable vowels of all types were unchanged; likewise in monosyllables, since they were stressed.
  • "Extra-long"' vowels were shorted to long vowels. There is a great deal of argument about what is exactly going on here.
    • The traditional view is that a circumflex accent arose (as in Ancient Greek) when two adjacent vowels were contracted into a single long vowel in a final syllable. This circumflexed vowel then remained long when other long vowels shortened.
    • A newer view holds that "overlong" (tri-moraic) vowels arose from the contraction of two vowels, one of which was long. Furthermore, final-syllable long vowels remained long before certain final consonants (/z/ and /d/).
    • The reason why such theories are necessary is that some final-syllable long vowels are shortened, while others remain. Nominative singular /-oːn/ shortens, for example; likewise first singular /-oːn/ < /-oːm/; while genitive plural /-oːn/ < /-oːm/ remains long. Both of the above theories postulate an overlong or circumflex ending /-ôːn/ in the genitive plural arising in the vocalic (PIE /o/ and /aː/, PG /a/ and /oː/) declensions, arising from contraction of the vocalic stem ending with the genitive plural ending.
    • Other examples of vowels that remain long are a-stem and ó-stem nominative plural /-ôz/ < early PIE /-o-es/ and /-aː-es/; PrePG ablative singular /-ôd/, /-êd/ (Gothic ƕadrē "whither", undarō "under"); /ō/-stem dative singular PG /ɡibâi/ > Goth gibái "gift" (but /a/-stem dative singular PG /stainai/ > Goth staina "stone").