Common characteristics of Germanic Languages
Abstract
on the topic “Characteristics of Germanic Languages”
Performed by:
Student of the II course
Group LE-43
Tymchenko Oleksandnr
Supervised by:
Makeieva K.S.
Contents
INTRODUCTION…….…………………………………………………….….....3
1.1 Common characteristics of Germanic Languages…..……….……………….4
1.2 First Germanic Sound Shift (Grimm’s Law)………………………...……….5
1.3 Word stress in West Germanic Languages……...…....…….……………….10
1.3.1 German……………………………………………………………….11
1.3.2 Dutch……………………………………………………….………...12
1.3.3 English……………………………………………………………......14
1.4 Germanic Umlaut. West Germanic languages……………………………...14
1.4.1 I-mutation in Old English…………………………………………….15
1.4.2 I-mutation in High German…………………………………………..17
1.4.3 I-mutation in Old Saxon……………………………………………...18
1.4.4 I-mutation in Dutch………….……………………………………….18
1.5 Germanic Umlaut. North Germanic languages………………..……………19
1.5.1 I-mutation in Old Norse……………………………………………...19
Conclusion………………………….…………………………………………….20
Bibliography……………...……….…………………………...............................21
INTRODUCTION
Germanic Languages is subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by about 470 million people in many parts of the world, but chiefly in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. All the modern Germanic languages are closely related; moreover, they become progressively closer grammatically and lexically when traced back to the earliest records. This suggests that they all derive from a still earlier common ancestor, which is traditionally referred to as Proto-Germanic and which is believed to have broken from the other Indo-European languages before 500 B.C. Although no writing in Proto-Germanic has survived, the language has been substantially reconstructed by using the oldest records that exist of the Germanic tongue. [2]
Scholars often divide the Germanic languages into three groups: West Germanic, including English, German, and Netherlandic (Dutch); North Germanic, including Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Faroese; and East Germanic, now extinct, comprising only Gothic and the languages of the Vandals, Burgundians, and a few other tribes. The division had begun by the 4th cent. A.D.
The object of investigation is Germanic languages.
The subject of investigation is research works and dictionaries of scholars as well as linguists concerning the study of Germanic Languages’ history of development and its changes.
The aims of my research work are to investigate linguistic peculiarities of Germanic languages’ common characteristics and to discuss in the abstract, which includes an outline of the history of Germanic languages and its main features
The methodsused in my work correspond to theoretical scientific research which is based on scientific sources.
Common characteristics of Germanic Languages
Strong evidence for the unity of all the modern Germanic languages can be found in the phenomenon known as the first Germanic sound shift or consonant shift (also called Grimm’s law), which set the Germanic subfamily apart from the other members of the Indo-European family. Consisting of a regular shifting of consonants in groups, the sound shift had already occurred by the time adequate records of the various Germanic languages began to be made in the 7th to 9th cent. According to Grimm’s law, certain consonant sounds found in the ancient Indo-European languages (such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit) underwent a change in the Germanic tongue. For example, the sounds p, d, t, and k in the former became f, t, th, and h respectively in the latter, as in Latin pater, English father; Latin dent, English tooth; and Latin cornu, English horn.
Before the 8th cent. a second shift of consonants took place in some of the West German dialects. For instance, under certain circumstances, d became t, and t became ss or z, as in English bread, Dutch brood, but German Brot; English foot, Dutch voet, but German Fuss; and English ten, Dutch tien, but German zehn. The dialects in which this second consonant shift took place were the High German dialects, so called because they were spoken in more mountainous areas. Standard modern German arose from these dialects. The West Germanic dialects not affected by the second shift were the Low German dialects of the lowlands, from which Dutch and English evolved.
Also peculiar to the Germanic languages is the recessive accent, whereby the stress usually falls on the first or root syllable of a word, especially a word of Germanic origin.[6] The development of a strong stress on the first syllable of the word, which triggered significant phonological reduction of all other syllables. This is responsible for the reduction of most of the basic English words into monosyllables, and the common impression of modern English and German as consonant-heavy languages. Examples are Proto-Germanic *strangiþō → strength, *aimaitjō → “ant”, *haubudan → “head”, *hauzijanan → “hear”, *harubistaz → German Herbst “autumn”, *hagatusjō → German Hexe “witch”.[3] Another distinctive characteristic shared by the Germanic languages is the umlaut, which is a type of vowel change in the root of a word. It is demonstrated in the pairs foot (singular), feet (plural) in English; fot (singular), fötter (plural) in Swedish; and Kampf (singular), Kämpfe (plural) in German.
All Germanic languages have strong and weak verbs; that is, they form the past tense and past participle either by changing the root vowel in the case of strong verbs (as in English lie, lay, lain or ring, rang, rung; German ringen, rang, gerungen) or by adding as an ending -d (or -t) or -ed in the case of weak verbs (as in English care, cared, cared or look, looked, looked; German fragen, fragte, gefragt). Also typically Germanic is the formation of the genitive singular by the addition of -s or -es. Examples are English man, man’s; Swedish hund, hunds; German Lehrer, Lehrers or Mann, Mannes. Moreover, the comparison of adjectives in the Germanic languages follows a parallel pattern, as in English: rich, richer, richest; German reich, reicher, reichst; and Swedish rik, rikare, rikast. Lastly, vocabulary furnished evidence of a common origin for the Germanic languages in that a number of the basic words in these languages are similar in form; however, while word similarity may indicate the same original source for a group of languages, it can also be a sign of borrowing. [6]
1.2 First Germanic Sound Shift (Grimm’s Law)
The First Germanic Sound Shift, better known as Grimm’s Law, was first described by Jacob Grimm in 1822. Grimm’s Law affected the Indo-European stop consonants, or stops, which could be articulated as labial, dental, or velar sounds. IE also had a few other stops, but these were not developed in Germanic. Hence the IE dialect which gave rise to Germanic had the following stop consonants:
| Labial | Dental | Velar | |
| Voiceless stops | p | t | k |
| Voiced stops | b | d | g |
| Voiced aspirate stops | bh | dh | gh |
The sounds /bh, dh, gh/ do not exist in Present-Day English. They are similar to voiced stops with an accompanying breath of air. The changes identified by Grimm are as follows: