Grimm's law

E37887

Grimm's law is a fundamental linguistic principle describing the systematic consonant shifts that distinguish the Germanic languages from other Indo-European branches.

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Observed surface forms (1)

Surface form Occurrences
First Germanic Sound Shift 1

Statements (51)

Predicate Object
instanceOf historical linguistics concept
law of consonant shift
phonological rule
sound law
alsoKnownAs Grimm's law
surface form: First Germanic Sound Shift
appliesTo Proto-Germanic
Proto-Indo-European
appliesWithin intervocalic position
word-initial position
coreChangeType devoicing
fortition and lenition patterns
spirantization
stop consonant shift
describes systematic consonant shifts
distinguishes Germanic branch of Indo-European
Germanic languages
explains correspondence Latin cornu – English horn
correspondence Latin decem – English ten
correspondence Latin pater – English father
correspondence Latin tres – English three
field Germanic languages
surface form: Germanic linguistics

Indo-European linguistics
historical linguistics
hasExceptionsExplainedBy Verner's law
historicalFormulationCentury 19th century
influenced Neogrammarian hypothesis of sound laws
involves Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops
Proto-Indo-European voiced stops
Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops
isPartOf comparative method in linguistics
languageFamilyContext Indo-European language family
surface form: Indo-European languages
maps PIE *b to PGmc *p
PIE *bh to PGmc *b
PIE *d to PGmc *t
PIE *dh to PGmc *d
PIE *g to PGmc *k
PIE *gh to PGmc *g
PIE *gʷ to PGmc *kʷ
PIE *gʷh to PGmc *gʷ
PIE *k to PGmc *x
PIE *kʷ to PGmc *xʷ or *hw
PIE *p to PGmc *f
PIE *t to PGmc *θ
namedAfter Jacob Grimm
precedes Verner's law
resultIn Proto-Germanic voiced stops
Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives
Proto-Germanic voiceless stops
timeDepth Proto-Germanic period
usedFor establishing genetic relationship of Germanic to Indo-European
reconstruction of Proto-Germanic forms

Referenced by (8)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Grimm's law alsoKnownAs Grimm's law
this entity surface form: First Germanic Sound Shift
Verner's law complements Grimm's law
Proto-Germanic hasFeature Grimm's law
Verner's law refines Grimm's law
Verner's law relatedTo Grimm's law