1505: Verner's Law (g.l.6) Jan 25, 2019
According to Grimm's Law, plosive consonants, particularly as the onset of a word first first become stops, and then become fricatives, like:
b^w -> p -> f
but looking to modern Germanic languages, this is not always true. There is one major exception, wherein looking at counterparts in Latin, Greek, and or Sanskrit, the Germanic equivalent was a b, d or g, which only changes voicing but does not become a fricative as expected. Karl Verner, however, posited that this would relate to other features he outlines, including word-initial stressing. This addition was a very important one, but it relied on the assumption that any sound-law would have to be without exception, which is a matter of theory in some regards as well.
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b^w -> p -> f
but looking to modern Germanic languages, this is not always true. There is one major exception, wherein looking at counterparts in Latin, Greek, and or Sanskrit, the Germanic equivalent was a b, d or g, which only changes voicing but does not become a fricative as expected. Karl Verner, however, posited that this would relate to other features he outlines, including word-initial stressing. This addition was a very important one, but it relied on the assumption that any sound-law would have to be without exception, which is a matter of theory in some regards as well.
Follow Word Facts on Youtube and support it on Patreon and get even more:
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