Grimm's Law

 

principle of relationships in Indo-European languages, first formulated by Jakob Grimm in 1822 and a continuing subject of interest and investigation to 20th-century linguists. It shows that a process—the regular shifting of consonants in groups—took place once in the development of English and the other Low German languages and twice in German and the other High German languages. The first sound shift, affecting both English and German, was from the early phonetic positions documented in the ancient, or classical, Indo-European languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin) to those still evident in the Low German languages, including English; the second shift affected only the High German languages, e.g., standard German. Grimm's law shows that the classical voiceless stops (k,t,p) became voiceless aspirates (h,th,f) in English and mediae (h,d,f) in German, e.g., the initial sounds of Latin pater, English father, German Vater, and in the middle of Latin frater, English brother, German Bruder. It also shows that the classical unaspirated voiced stops (g,d,b) became voiceless stops (k,t,p) in English and voiceless aspirates (kh,ts,f) in German, e.g., the initial sounds of Latin decem, English ten, German zehn, and that the classical aspirated voiced stops (gh,dh,bh) became unaspirated voiced stops (g,d,b) in English and voiceless stops (k,t,p) in German, e.g., the initial sounds of Sanskrit dhar, English draw, German tragen.

Grimm's law (also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift) is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic (PGmc, the common ancestor of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family) in the 1st millennium BC. It establishes a set of regular correspondences between early Germanic stops and fricatives and the stop consonants of certain other Indo-European languages (Grimm used mostly Latin and Greek for illustration). As it is presently formulated, Grimm's Law consists of three parts, which must be thought of as three consecutive phases in the sense of a chain shift^[1]:

1. Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops change into voiceless fricatives.
2. Proto-Indo-European voiced stops become voiceless stops.
3. Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops become voiced fricatives; ultimately, in most Germanic languages these voiced fricatives become voiced stops.

The voiced aspirated stops may have first become voiced fricatives before hardening to the voiced unaspirated stops "b", "d", and "g" under certain conditions, however some linguists dispute this. See Proto-Germanic phonology.

Grimm's law was the first non-trivial systematic sound change to be discovered in linguistics; its formulation was a turning point in the development of linguistics, enabling the introduction of a rigorous methodology to historical linguistic research. The "law" was discovered by Friedrich von Schlegel in 1806 and Rasmus Christian Rask in 1818, and later elaborated (i.e. extended to include standard German) in 1822 by Jacob Grimm, the elder of the Brothers Grimm, in his book Deutsche Grammatik. Some scholars use the term Rask's-Grimm's rule.

In detail

Further changes following Grimm's Law, as well as sound changes in other Indo-European languages, can sometimes obscure its effects. The most illustrative examples are used here.

Change	Germanic (shifted) examples	Non-Germanic (unshifted) cognates
*p→f	English: foot, Dutch: voet, German: Fuß, Gothic: fōtus, Icelandic, Faroese: fótur, Danish: fod, Norwegian, Swedish: fot	Ancient Greek: πούς (pūs), Latin: pēs, pedis, Sanskrit: pāda, Russian: под (pod), Lithuanian: pėda,
*t→þ	English: third, Old High German: thritto, Gothic: þridja, Faroese: triðji, Icelandic: þriðji	Ancient Greek: τρίτος (tritos), Latin: tertius, Gaelic treas, Sanskrit: treta, Russian: третий (tretij), Lithuanian: trečias
*k→x (x later became h)	English: hound, Dutch: hond, German: Hund, Gothic: hunds, Icelandic, Faroese: hundur, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: hund	Ancient Greek: κύων (kýōn), Latin: canis, Gaelic cú'
*kʷ→hw	English: what, Dutch: wat, German: was, Gothic: ƕa ("hwa"), Danish hvad, Icelandic: hvað, Faroese hvat, Norwegian: hva	Latin: quod, Gaelic ciod, Sanskrit ka-, kiṃ, Russian: ко- (ko-), Lithuanian: ką'
*b→p	English: warp; Swedish: värpa; Dutch: werpen; Icelandic, Faroese: varpa	Latin: verber
*d→t	English: ten, Dutch: tien, Gothic: taíhun, Icelandic: tíu, Faroese: tíggju, Danish, Norwegian: ti, Swedish: tio	Latin: decem, Greek: δέκα (déka), Gaelic deich, Sanskrit: daśan, Russian: десять (des'at), Lithuanian: dešimt,
*g→k	English: cold, Dutch: koud, German: kalt, Icelandic, Faroese: kaldur, Danish: kold, Norwegian: kald, Swedish: kall,	Latin: gelū
*gʷ→kw	English: quick, Frisian: quick, queck Dutch: kwiek, German: keck, Gothic: qius, Old Norse: kvikr, Icelandic, Faroese: kvikur, Swedish: kvick, Norwegian kvikk	Lithuanian: gyvas
*bʰ→b	English: brother, Dutch: broeder, German: Bruder, Gothic: broþar, Icelandic, Faroese: bróðir, Danish, Swedish: broder, Norwegian bror	Sanskrit: (bhrātā), Russian: брат (brat), Lithuanian: brolis, Old Church Slavonic bratru
*dʰ→d	English: door, Frisian: doar, Dutch: deur, German: Tür, Gothic: daúr, Icelandic, Faroese: dyr, Danish, Norwegian: dør, Swedish: dörr	Sanskrit: dwār, Russian: дверь (dver'), Lithuanian: durys
*gʰ→g	English: goose, Frisian: goes, Dutch: gans, German: Gans, Icelandic: gæs, Faroese: gás, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: gås	Russian: гусь (gus)
*gʷʰ→gw	English: wife, Proto-Germanic: wiban (from former gwiban), Old Saxon, Old Frisian: wif, Dutch: wijf, Old High German: wib, German: Weib, Old Norse: vif, Icelandic: víf, Faroese: vív, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian: viv	Tocharian A: kip, B: kwípe (vulva)

• Note: Some linguists dispute the origin of the word "wife". The current assumed root word is Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰíbʰ-.

This is strikingly regular. Each phase involves one single change which applies equally to the labials (p, b, bʰ, f) and their equivalent dentals (t, d, dʰ, þ), velars (k, g, gʰ, h) and rounded velars (kʷ, gʷ, gʷʰ, hw). The first phase left the phoneme repertoire of the language without voiceless stops, the second phase filled this gap but created a new one, and so on until the chain had run its course.

Exceptions

The voiceless stops did not become fricatives if they were preceded by *s (itself a fricative).

Change	Germanic examples	Non-Germanic examples
*sp	English: spew, Gothic: speiwan, Dutch: spuien, German: speien, Norwegian, Swedish: spy, Icelandic: spýja, Faroese: spýggja	Latin: spuere
*st	English: stand, Dutch: staan, German: stehen, Icelandic, Faroese: standa, Norwegian, Swedish: stå	Latin: stāre, Sanskrit: sta, Russian: стать (stat), Lithuanian: stoti
*sk	English: short, Old Norse and Icelandic: skorta, Old High German: scurz	Sanskrit: krdhuh, Latin: curtus, Lithuanian: skurdus
*skʷ	English: scold, Old Norse: skäld, Icelandic: skáld, Dutch: schelden	Proto-Indo-European: *skwetlo

• Note: Some linguists dispute the origin of the word "scold" but *skwetlo is the current assumed root.

Furthermore, the voiceless stop *t also did not become a fricative if preceded by *p, *k, or *kʷ (themselves voiceless stops). The voiceless stop it was preceded by did fricativize, however. (In other words, at the time in history when voiceless stops fricativized in Proto-Germanic, that fricativization only affected leading voiceless stops when paired with the voiceless stop *t.) This is sometimes treated separately under the heading Germanic spirant law:

Change	Germanic examples	Non-Germanic examples
*pt→ft	Gothic: hliftus "thief"	Ancient Greek: κλέπτης (kleptēs)
*kt→ht	English: eight, Dutch: acht, Frisian: acht, German: acht, Gothic: ahtáu Icelandic: átta (pronounced [auhta])	Ancient Greek: οκτώ (oktō), Latin: octō
*kʷt→h(w)t	English: night, Old High German: naht, Old Frisian, Dutch, German: nacht, Gothic: nahts Icelandic: nótt (pronounced [nouht])	Greek: nuks, nukt-, Latin: nox, noct-, Sanskrit: naktam, Russian: ночь (noch), Lithuanian: naktis

The most recalcitrant set of apparent exceptions to Grimm's Law, which defied linguists for a few decades, eventually received explanation from the Danish linguist Karl Verner (see the article on Verner's law for details).

Correspondences to PIE

The Germanic "sound laws", combined with regular changes reconstructed for other Indo-European languages, allow one to define the expected sound correspondences between different branches of the family. For example, Germanic (word-initial) *b- corresponds regularly to Latin *f-, Greek pʰ-, Sanskrit bʰ-, Slavic, Baltic or Celtic b-, etc., while Germanic *f- corresponds to Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Slavic and Baltic p- and to zero (no initial consonant) in Celtic. The former set goes back to PIE *bʰ- (faithfully reflected in Sanskrit and modified in various ways elsewhere), and the latter set to PIE *p- (shifted in Germanic, lost in Celtic, but preserved in the other groups mentioned here).

See also

• Verner's law
• High German consonant shift
• Glottalic theory

References

Germanic Philology (History of the Germanic languages)
Subgroups	East Germanic languages · West Germanic languages · North Germanic languages · Northwest Germanic · Ingvaeonic · Anglic languages
Reconstructed languages	Proto-Germanic · Proto-Norse
Historical languages	Gothic · Old English · Middle English · Old Dutch · Middle Dutch · Old High German · Middle High German · Old Norse · Burgundian · Lombardic · Norn · Crimean Gothic · Old Gutnish · Vandalic · Old Frisian
Modern languages	Afrikaans · Danish · Dutch · English · Faroese · Frisian · German · Icelandic · Norwegian · Scots · Swedish · Yiddish
Diachronic features	Grimm's law · Verner's law · Holtzmann's Law · Germanic substrate hypothesis · High German consonant shift · Germanic a-mutation · Germanic umlaut · Germanic spirant law · Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law · Great vowel shift
Synchronic features	Germanic verb · Germanic strong verb · Germanic weak verb · Preterite-present verb · Grammatischer Wechsel
Language histories	History of English · Phonological history of English · History of Scots · History of German · History of Low German · History of Dutch · History of Danish · History of Icelandic · History of Swedish

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