Treatment of fricatives. Hardening. Rhotacism. Voicing and Devoicing.

After the changes under Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law PG had the following two sets of fricative consonants: voiceless [f, Ө, x, s] and voiced [v, ð, γ, z]. In WG and in Early OE the difference between two groups was supported by new features. PG voiced fricatives tended to be hardened to corresponding plosives while voiceless fricatives, being contrasted to them primarily as fricatives to plosives, developed new voiced allophones. The PG voiced [ ð ] (due to Verner’s Law) was always hardened to [ d ] in OE and other WG languages, e.g. Icel, gōðr and OE зōd. The two other fricatives, [ v] and [ γ ] were hardened to [ b ] and [ g ] initially and after nasals, otherwise they remained fricatives. PG [ z ] underwent a phonetic modification through the stage of [з] into [r] and thus became a sonorant, which ultimately merged with the older IE [ r ]. This process is termed rhotacism. In the meantime or somewhat later the PG set of voiceless fricatives [f, Ө, x, s] and also those of the voiced fricatives which had not turned into plosives, that is, [ v ] and [ γ ], were subjected to a new process of voicing and devoicing. In Early OE they became or remained voiced intervocally and between vowels, sonorants and voiced consonants; they remained or became voiceless in other environments, namely, initially, finally and next to other voiceless consonants. In all WG languages, at an early stage of their independent history, most consonants were lengthened after a short vowel before [l]. This process is known as “ gemination” or “ doubling ” of consonants, e.g. fuljan > fyllan (NE fill). The change did not affect the sonorant [r], e.g OE werian (NE wear); nor did it operate if the consonant was preceded by a long vowel, e.g. OE dēman, mētan (NE deem, meet).

 

Table 3. Examples illustrating Verner’s Law

Indo –European	changes	Examples
Verner’s Law	Grimm’s Law	Proto-IndoEuropean	Sanskrit	Old Greek	Latin	Proto-Germanic	Gothic	Old English	English
p	b f	septṃ́	saptán	ἑπτά	septem	sefún> sebun	sibun	seofon	seven
t	ð þ	phitḗr	pitā́	πᾰτήρ	pater	faþḗr > faðēr	fadar	fæder	father
k	g h	hjuhnk̂ós	yuvaśáḥ		iuvencus	junxós > junɣaz	juggs	geong	young
s	z s (later) z r	snusós	snușā́	νυός	nurus	snuzō		snoru

 

Verner’s Law is often called “grammatical alternation”. The accent in Proto-Indo-European fell on different syllables in certain grammatically related forms. As a result, Germanic languages have different allomorphs in grammatical paradigms which depend upon whether or not Verner’s Law applied. After some time the stress in the Germanic languages has been shifted ​​on the first syllable of the root, and thus the condition under which the law of Verner acted disappeared. As a result, each pair of allophones gave two separate phonemes (f / v → f, v, etc.). As a result voice became a phonological feature. Historical process by which a phonetic difference becomes a difference between phonemes is called phonologization. The significance of Verner’s Law was in the following:

· Verner proved that the First Consonant Shift was a systematic process.

· It played an important role in the further etymological studies.

· Verner’s Law was of great importance for the reconstruction of Proto-Indo-European stress.