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Grimm's law: Difference between revisions
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'''Grimm's law''' | '''Grimm's law''' | ||
* Jacob Grimm, of the "Brothers Grimm" | * from Jacob Grimm, of the "Brothers Grimm" | ||
* a "law" or rule for sound changes from original Proto-Indo-European language to modern descendent languages | |||
[[Category:World History]] | [[Category:World History]] | ||
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[[category:History of language]] | [[category:History of language]] | ||
[[category:History of English]] | [[category:History of English]] | ||
== Brothers Grimm == | |||
* collected and published old or traditional Germanic fairy tales and stories | |||
** a collector of traditional stories is called a "folklorist" | |||
* Wilhelm & Jacob Grimm wrote "Grimms' Fairy Tales" | |||
== Jacob Grimm == | |||
* Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785–1863) | |||
** started a comprehensive German dictionary | |||
** wrote treatise on German mythology | |||
** his observations on "sound shifts" is considered the key development into the study of linguistics | |||
=== Unification of Germany === | |||
* Grimm was concerned with development of a common German identity | |||
** so his work was purposefully aimed at creating that identity | |||
** the movement is called "German nationalism" for the creation of a German "nation" | |||
* until the late 19th century, Germany was divided into states, principalities and subordinate regions to other European powers | |||
*** much of southern Germany was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire | |||
*** and eastern Germany was either part of or owned parts of Poland and Bohemia (modern Czech and Slovakia) | |||
** in the 18th century, the northern German kingdom of Prussia was formed in 1701 | |||
** following the defeat of Napoleon, the "German Confederation" was formed (1815) | |||
*** was a loose joining of 39 independent states, with the Emperor of Austria as its president | |||
** in 1866, Prussia defeated the Austrians and created a separate North German Confederation | |||
** following the German defeat of France in 1870 ("Franco-Prussian War"), the German Empire was declared (1871) | |||
*** the King of Prussia, William I was declared Kaiser (from "Caesar") with Berlin as its capital | |||
== Grimm's law == | |||
* Jacob Grimm was not the first to notice the sound shifts in related European languages | |||
** however, he was the first to comprehensibly track them | |||
** he thus constructed a larger theory and set of rules governing those shifts | |||
* Grimm observed three "phases" of sound changes (called by linguists, a "chain shift") | |||
** the sound shifts are related to how a sound is made by breath and tongue placement | |||
=== Indo-European languages == | |||
[[File:Indo-European Language Family Branches in Eurasia.png|thumb|Indo-European Language Family Branches in Eurasia|alt=Indo-European Language Family Branches in Eurasia.png]] | |||
* the shifts that Grimm tracked are derived from a common origin language, proto-Indo-European (PIE) | |||
* the PIE people started in central Eurasia, likely just north of the Black and Caspian seas, starting approx. 3,000 BC | |||
** they were nomadic herders & raiders | |||
** having domesticated horses they were highly mobile and successful at war | |||
** PIE was probably a common language in those areas between 4500 and 2500 BC | |||
* as the original PIE speakers spread across Eurasia the languages they spoke became regionalized | |||
** i.e., as they spread apart, they started pronouncing words differently from one another | |||
* see [[Indo-European word origins]] | |||
=== Cognates === | |||
* "cognate" means "related" or "connected" | |||
* as an adjective, "cognate" indicates that a word is related to or shifted from another word | |||
** as in, "The English word, 'Father, is cognate with the Latin word, 'Pater'" | |||
=== "P" to "F" sound === | |||
* "pater" (Latin) to "father" (English) | |||
* "ped" (Greek) or "pous" (Greek) to "foot" (English) | |||
* "pisces" (Latin") to "fish" (English) | |||
* "pyre" (Latin) to "fire" (English) | |||
=== "P" to "F" sound === | |||