Grimm's law

Grimm's law

• from Jacob Grimm, of the "Brothers Grimm"
• a "law" or rule for sound changes from original Proto-Indo-European language to modern descendent languages

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
• Grimm's law concerns "mechanics" of speech
  • i.e., the way the sound is formed
  • for example,
    • "P" is spoken by closing the lips and breathing out
    • "F" is spoken by closing the top front teeth upon the bottom lip (while not closing the top lip)

Indo-European Language Family Branches in Eurasia

Indo-European languages

• the shifts that Grimm tracked are derived from a common origin language, proto-Indo-European (PIE)
  • "proto" means original or precursor (came before) as in a "prototype"
• 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
• note: English is a Germanic language
  • Old English was entirely Germanic
  • Middle and Modern English are from the combination of Old English with French, Latin & Greek
• 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'"
• as a noun cognate means something related, and in linguistics, a word that is related to another word
  • as in, "The English word 'Father is a cognate to the Latin word 'Pater'"
• the below examples show:
  • a modern English word
  • it's origin in PIE (the proto-Indo-European language)
  • the Latin cognate from the PIE original
  • the German cognate, from which English was derived

"P" to "F" sound

• father
  • PIE: phter
  • Latin: pater
  • proto-Germanic: fader

Click EXPAND for more "P" to "F" sound shifts

• foot
  • PIE: pods
  • Greek: pous
  • Latin: ped
  • proto Germanic: fot (pronounced "fott")
• fish
  • PIE: pisk
  • Latin: pisces
  • proto-Germanic: fiskaz
• fire
  • PIE: paewr
  • Latin: pyre
  • proto-Germanic: fur

"D" to "T" sound

• ten
  • PIE: dekmt
  • Latin: decim (in Latin the "C" is pronounced like a hard "K", so "decim" is pronounced "dekim"
  • prot-Germanic: tehun

"K" to "Hw" sound

• who
  • PIE: kwo
  • Latin: quid
  • proto-Germanic: hwas
• what
  • PIE: *kʷód or kwo
  • Latin: quod
  • proto-Germanic: hwat

"T" to "Th" sound

• three (soft "Th")
• PIE: tryes (hard "T")
• Latin: tres
• proto-Germanic: thrijiz

"B" to "P" sound

• apple
  • PIE: h₂ébōl or ab(e)l (w/ "B" sound)
  • Latin: n/a (pommum)
  • proto-Germanic: ap(a)laz

"Bh" to "B" sound

• = aspirated "Bh" or soft "beh" to hard "B"
• brother
  • PIE: bʰréh₂tēr (likely pronounced "Bhe-re-ter")
  • Latin: frater ("Br" to "Fr" shift)
  • proto-Germanic: brothar

"Dh" to "D" sound

• aspirated "Dh" or soft "deh" to hard "D"
  • mead (a drink made of honey)
    • PIE: médʰu (likely pronounced "mehd-hoo")
    • Latin: mel
    • proto-Germanic: meduz

"Gh" to "G" sound

• goose
• aspirated "Gh" or soft-"geh" to hard "G"
  • PIE: ǵʰans-
  • Latin: anser or hanser
  • prot-Germanic: gans (with hard "G" sound)

"Gw" to "Kw" sound

• quick
  • PIE: gʷih₃wós (or "alive")
  • Latin: vita
  • proto-German: kwi(k)waz