High German consonant shift

E95783

The High German consonant shift was a major sound change in early Germanic dialects that transformed the consonant system and helped distinguish High German (and related varieties like Lombardic) from other West Germanic languages.


Statements (54)
Predicate Object
instanceOf consonant shift
historical linguistic phenomenon
phonological change
sound change
affectsLanguage Alemannic German
Bavarian
East Central German dialects
Lombardic
Middle High German
Modern Standard German
Old High German
Ripuarian
Yiddish
affectsLanguageFamily West Germanic languages
affectsPhonemeClass Proto-Germanic affricates and fricatives
Proto-Germanic voiced stops
Proto-Germanic voiceless stops
alsoKnownAs Second Germanic consonant shift
changesPhoneme Proto-Germanic *b
Proto-Germanic *d
Proto-Germanic *g
Proto-Germanic *k
Proto-Germanic *p
Proto-Germanic *t
definesSubgroup Central German
High German
Upper German
distinguishesFrom Dutch
English
Frisian
Low Franconian
Low German
geographicalArea Alpine region
Upper Rhine region
southern German-speaking area
geographicalBoundary Benrath line
Speyer line
hasNoReflexesIn Old Dutch
Old English
Old Saxon
hasPartialReflexesIn Central German dialects north of Benrath line
largelyCompleteBy 8th century
preconditionedBy position in word
stress pattern
syllable structure
relatedTo Grimm's law
Verner's law
resultsIn affricates [pf] [ts] [kx] in certain positions
fortition of voiced stops to voiceless stops
fricatives [f] [s] [x] in certain positions
startsAround late 3rd century
studiedInDiscipline Germanic philology
historical linguistics
timePeriod late 3rd century to 9th century


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