LECTURE 2. Linguistic Features of Germanic Languages.

Plan:

1. Phonetics.

a) word stress;

b) vowels;

c) consonants.

2. Grammar.

a) substantives;

b) adjectives;

c) verbs.

All the Germanic languages of the past and present have common linguistic features, some of which are shared by other Germanic groups in the IE family, others are specially Germanic. The Germanic group acquired the specific distinctive features after the separation of the ancient Germanic tribes from other IE tribes and prior to the future expansion and disintegration. These Proto-Germanic features inherited by the descendant languages represent the common features of the Germanic group. Other common features developed later, in the course of individual histories of separate Germanic languages.

 

Phonetics.

 

Word stress. It is known that in ancient IE, prior to the separation of Germanic, there existed 2 ways of word accentuation: musical pitch and force stress. The position of the stress was free and movable, it could fall on any syllable of the word irrespective of whether it was a root-morpheme, an affix or an ending and could be shifted both in form-building and word-building. Both these properties of the word accent were changed in Proto-Germanic and force stress (dynamic) became the only type of stress used in Early Proto- Germanic. Word stress was still as movable as in ancient IE but in Late Proto-Germanic its position in the word was stabilised. The stress was now fixed on the first syllable, which was usually the root of the word or the prefix; the other syllable suffixes and endings were unstressed and later they became phonemically weakened. These features of the word stress were inherited by the Germanic languages and despite later alternations are observable today.

 

Vowels. Throughout the history, vowels displayed a strong tendency to change. They underwent different kinds of alterations:

· qualitative changes affect the quality of the sound (e.g.: [o]>[a:]);

· quantitative changes make long sounds short or short ones long (e.g.: i>i:);

· dependant changes are restricted to certain positions or phonetic conditions;

· independent changes take place irrespective of phonetic conditions.

From the early date the treatment of vowels was determined by the nature of word stress. In accented syllables the oppositions between vowels were carefully maintained and new distinctive features were introduced, so that the number of stressed vowels grew. In unaccented positions the original contrasts between vowels were weakened and lost, the distinction of short and long vowels was neutralised.

Strict differentiation of long and short vowels is regarded as an important characteristic of the Germanic group. The contrast of short and long vowels is supported by different directions of their changes. While long vowels tended to become shorter and to diphthongise, short vowels often changed into more open. These changes can be seen in the earliest vowel changes:

a) IE short [o] changed in Germanic into the more open vowel [a]: (e.g.: Noctem (IE) - narhts (Goth.), Nacht (Ger.);

b) the merging of long vowels proceeded in the opposite direction: IE long [a:] was narrowed to [o:] (e.g.: Mater (IE) – modor (OE)). As the result there was neither short [o] nor long [a:] in Germanic languages. Later on these sounds appeared from different sources.

c) a quality of a stressed sound is in some cases dependent on a following sound. The earliest manifestation of this principle is known as fracture (breaking) and concerns 2 pairs of vowels “e-i”, “u-o”. IE “e” in the root syllable finds its counterpart in Germanic “i”, if it is followed by “i” or “j” or by the nasal [n] (Umlaut) (e.g.: Ventus (L.) – winds (Goth.), wind (OE); Medius (L.) – midde (OE)).

d) in IE the sound [u] became Germanic [u] when followed by “u” or nasal consonant, it finds its counterpart in Germanic [o] (e.g.: Sunus (Lith.) –sunu (OE): Hurnan (Celt.) – horn (OE);

e) a special kind of vowel gradation (Ablaut) exists in all IE languages. Its origin has been a matter of discussion for about a century. 3 variants of root distinguished by gradation are due to the condition of stress. There are two types of Ablaut: quantitative (is the alteration of different vowels mainly [e]>[a], [e]>[o])and qualitative (means the change in length of qualitatively one and the same vowel: normal, lengthened, reduced). The main type of gradation in IE languages is represented by alternation “e-o-zero (absence of a vowel)”. Full stress brings the highest degree (“o”), weakened stress - the medium degree (“e”) and the unstressed position – zero (e.g.: cтол- стелю- стлать).

 

Short vowels.

IE Germanic

e e (i)

o a

a a

Long vowels.

ē ē

ō ō

ā ō

After the changes, in Late Proto-Germanic, the vowel system contained the following sounds [i-i:], [e-e:], [a-a:], [o-o:], [u-u:].

Consonants. The specific peculiarities of consonants constitute the most remarkable distinctive feature of the Germanic languages. Speaking about them we should mention the correspondence between IE and Germanic languages, which was presented as a system of interconnected facts by the German linguist Jacob Grimm in 1822. This phenomenon is called the First Consonant Shift, or Grimm’s Law. By the terms of Grimm’s Law voiceless plosives developed in Proto-Germanic into voiceless fricatives (Act 1), IE voiced plosives were shifted to voiceless plosives (Act 2) and IE voiced aspirated plosives were reflected either as voiced fricatives or as pure voiced plosives (Act 3):

 

Indo-European	Germanic
Act 1	voiceless stops [p, t, k, k^w]	voiceless fricatives [f, ρ, h, h^w]
Lat. pater Lat. trēs Gr. kardia Lat. sequor	OE fæder (father) Goth. ρreis (three) OHG. herza (heart) Goth. saihwan (see)
Act 2	voiced stops [b, d, g, g^w]	voiceless stops [p, t, k, k^w]
Rus. болото Lat. duo Gr. egon Gr. gynē	OE pōl (pool) Goth. twai (two) OIcl. ek (I) Goth. qino (queen)
Act 3	voiced aspirated stops [bh, dh, gh, gh^w]	voiced non-aspirated stops [b, d, g, w]
Snsk. bhratar Snsk. madhu Snsk. songha Snsk. gharmas	OE brōδor (brother) OE medu (mead) Oicl. syngva (sing) Goth. warm

 

However, there are some instances where Grimm’s law seems not to apply. These cases were explained by a Dutch linguist Karl Verner in the late 19^th c., and the seeming exceptions from Grimm’s law have come to be known as Verner’s Law. Verner’s Law explains the changes in the Germanic voiceless fricatives [f, r, h] resulting from the first consonant shift and the voiceless fricatives depending upon the position of the stress in the original IE word, namely:

 

Indo-European [p, t, k, s]	Germanic [b, δ/d, g, z/r]
Gr. hepta Gr. pater Gr. dekas Snsk. ayas	Goth. sibun (seven) OSc. faδir, OE fæder (father) Goth. tigus (ten) Goth. aiz (bronze)

 

According to Verner’s Law the change occurred if the consonant in question was found after an unstressed vowel.

Grammar.

Substances. In Germanic the substance had 3 grammatical categories: gender, number and case. There were 3 genders (feminine, masculine, neutral), 3 numbers (singular, plural, dual), 4-5 cases (nom., gen., dat., acc., instrumental and vocative). Substances changed according to cases depending upon the stem-building suffixes. There existed 4 principal types of stems: vocalic stems a-, o-, i-, u-stems (declension of such substances was strong), n-stems (weak declension), stems in other consonants (s, r- stems), root-stems. Vowel stems of strong declension can be traced only in Gothic and runic inscriptions of the 3-4^th century in dative plural, in other cases they are blurred by flexions or by Ablaut in the suffix or ending.

-a: wulf/a/m

-i: qēn/ī/m

-ō: gib/ō/m

-u: sun/u/m

A-stems was the most widely spread declension of masculine and neutral substances, in neutral gender nom. and acc. always coincided, gen. had the IE endings –es/-os, -s, -is. The stem-building suffix –a is clearly seen in dative and accusative plural.

 

nom. stains stainōs

gen. stainis stainā

dat. staina stainam

acc. stain stainans

This declension has some variants with additional semi-vowels –wa and –ja.

I-stems included masculine and feminine substantives. Vowel gradation [i-a-ǿ] could be often found in the endings.

nom. qēns qēneis

gen. qēnais qenē

dat. qēnai qēnim

acc. qēn qēnins

Ō-stems contained only feminine substantives. Here the stem was clearly noticeable.

nom. giba gibōs

gen. gibos gibō

dat. gibai gibōm

acc. giba gibōs

The ō-stem had two phonetic variants: wō/jō

U-stems had remains of vowel gradation according to Ablaut in Gothic. This type was very stable in IE and Germanic languages.

nom. sunus sunjus

gen. sunaus suniwe

dat. sunau sunum

acc. sunu sununs

N-stems represented weak declension and was attracted to the end of the word. This athematic declension is widely spread and is found in Modern German.

nom. guma gumans tuggō [ŋ] tuggōns

gen. gumimns gumanē tuggōns tuggōnō

dat. gumin gumam tuggōn tuggōm

acc. guman gumans tuggōn tuggōns

Adjectives. Germanic adjectives had their own peculiarity, which was expressed on the stage of early development of the Germanic languages in two types of declensions: weak and strong. Every adjective was declined both according to the strong declension (with the vocalic stems) and according to the weak declension (with n-stems). The specificity of these types of declension was the following: the adjective declined according to the strong declension had in a number of cases analogical endings of substantive strong a- or ō- declension, in other cases it had flexions of demonstrative pronouns, i.e. strong adjectival declension had a mixed substantive pronounal flexion. The weak declension was characterized by endings coinciding with n-stem, i.e. it was a substantive declension by its character.

Most adjectives could be declined according to both strong and weak declension. Differentiation depended on syntactic conditions of usage. The weak declension was used in direct address or when the adjective was preceded by the demonstrative pronoun or the definite article. In all other cases when the adjective was in predicative or attributive functions without any determiners (the demonstrative pronoun in the function of the article) the strong declension was used.

raihts=right

strong declension (masc. and fem.) weak declension

nom. raihts raihta raihta raihtō

gen. raihtis raihtaizōs raihtins raihtōns

dat. raihtamma raihtai raihtin raihtōn

acc. raihtana raihta raihtan raihtōn

nom. raihtai raihtōs raihtans raihtōns

gen. raihtaizē raihtaizō raihtanō raihtōnō

dat. raihtaim r aihtaim raimtam raihtōm

acc. raihtans raihtōs raihtans raihtōns

Verbs. The bulk of the verbs in the Germanic languages fell into 2 large groups: strong (7 classes) and weak (3 classes). The verb had the category of person, number, mood and tense, but there existed no future forms. The main difference between strong and weak forms lies in the means of building the principal forms. Strong verbs built their forms with the help of root vowel interchanges + certain grammatical endings, they made use of ablaut with certain modifications due to phonetic changes to form the infinitive, the past singular, the past plural, participle II. The first 5 classes had the main type of gradation “i-a-zero”, the 6^th – the gradation “a-o-zero”, the 7^th had the reduplication of the stem in the past forms.

1 reisen “rise “ rais risum risans (i+i, a+i, ø+i, ø+i)

2 kiusan “choose” kaus kusum kusans (i+u, a+u, ø+u, ø+u)

3 bindan “bind” band bundum bundans (i+n, a+n, u+n, u+n)

4 stilan “steal” stal stelum stulans (i, a, ē, u)

5 giban “give” gab gebum gibans (i, a, ē, u)

6 faran “go” fōr fōrum farans (a, ō, ō, a)

7 haitan “call” haihait haihaitum haitans

The weak verbs were characterised by building their principal forms (the past tense and participle II) by the dental suffix -d/-t.

I domjan “deem” domida domiδs

II kalla “call” kallaδa kallaδr

III macian “make” macode macod

The system of tenses was characterised by the presence of present and past forms. But at first there existed aspects, not tenses, which characterised the duration of the action. There were actions: continuous, momentary and resultative: the tenses of Germanic strong verbs developed from them. The forms of the past tense developed from the continuous aspect, the present – from the momentary aspect, the perfect forms – from the resultative aspect.