User:Teb728/Temp2

Pre-Proto-Germanic period
The time frame is from the 4th millennium B.C. or earlier to 500 B.C. or later. This includes changes from Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic.


 * Laryngeals.
 * Cowgill's law: immediately after a sonorant and before *w became ; hence PIE  > PG  “alive”.
 * At the beginning of a word a laryngeal followed immediately by a consonant was lost; PIE > PG  “tooth”.
 * A laryngeal before a vowel was lost, with and  coloring *e to *a; PIE  > PG  “eat”; PIE  “in front of” >  “and”; PIE  > PG *felu “much”.
 * A laryngeal after a vowel was lost, lengthening it and and  coloring *e to *ō; PIE  > PG  “root”; PIE  >  “become”.
 * Occasionally after *i or *u a laryngeal was lost without lengthening the vowel; PIE “young” > PG  “man”.
 * When a laryngeal was lost between two non-high vowels, the vowels contracted to an “extra-long” vowel.
 * A laryngeal between two obstruents seems to have been replaced by *ə. When this *ə was in the first syllable of a word, it later became *a; otherwise it was eventually lost; PIE > PG  “father”.
 * Sonorants
 * Syllabic nasals and liquids developed into *u followed by the corresponding non-syllabic sonorant; i.e., *m̥ > *um, *n̥ > *un, *l̥ > *ul, *r̥ > *ur; PIE “inside” > PG  “under; among”; PIE  >  “horn”.
 * In most cased word-final*-m was lost with nasalization of the preceding vowel;PIE > PG  “yoke”.
 * In other cased (particularly in monosyllables) word-final *-m became *-n; PIE > PG  “him”.
 * Obstruents
 * A consonant cluster of a dental stop followed by *st became *ss; PIE “seated” > PG.

*s				*h₁, *h₂, *h₃ *r, *l *y		*w éáíúóēāōīūþə a̢áo̥o̿
 * m	*n
 * p	*t	*ḱ	*k	*kʷ
 * b	*d	*ǵ	*g	*gʷ
 * bʰ	*dʰ	*ǵʰ	*gʰ	*gʷʰ

Late Proto-Germanic period
This period is estimated to be c. AD 0–200. This includes changes in late Proto-Germanic, up to the appearance of Proto-West-Germanic c. AD 200:


 * Early i-mutation: is raised to  when an  or  follows in the next syllable.
 * This occurs before deletion of any unstressed vowels; hence PIE > PG  >  > Goth   "(he) carries".
 * The produced by this change can itself trigger later i-mutation.  Hence WG  >  > OE  "(he) bears".
 * a-mutation: is lowered to  when a non-high vowel follows in the next syllable.
 * This is blocked when followed by a nasal followed by a consonant, or by a cluster with in it.  Hence PG  > OE/NE gold, but PG  > OE gyldan > NE gild.
 * This produces a new phoneme, due to inconsistent application and later loss of unstressed and.
 * Loss of before, with nasalization and compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel.
 * The nasalization was eventually lost, but remained through the Ingvaeonic period.
 * Hence PrePG > PG  > OE þencan > NE think, but PrePG  > PG  >  > OE  > NE thought.
 * Loss of final, with nasalization (eventually lost) of the preceding vowel. Hence PrePG  > PG  > PN  > WG  "day (acc. sg.)".
 * Pre-nasal raising: >  before nasal + consonant.  PrePG  > PG  >  > OE bindan > NE bind (Latin ).
 * This post-dated lost of before.
 * This was later extended in PreOE times to vowels before all nasals; hence OE niman "take" but OHG neman.
 * > (c. AD 100).  The Elder Futhark of the Proto-Norse language still contain different symbols for the two sounds.
 * Vowels in unstressed syllables were reduced or eliminated. The specifics are quite complex and occurred as a result of many successive changes, with successive stages often happening hundreds of years after the previous stage.  Some specifics of the initial stage:
 * Final-syllable short vowels inherited from Proto-Germanic were generally deleted. Hence Goth   "(he) carries" < PG  (see above).
 * This operated universally only in words of three syllables or more. In words of two syllables, final-syllable  and  were deleted, but  and  were unaffected following a short syllable (i.e. one with a short vowel followed by a single consonant.)  Hence PG  > Goth dags "day (nom. sing.)" (OE dæg), PIE  > PG  > Goth wáit "(I) know" (OE ), PIE  > PG  > Goth "wáit" "(he) knows" (OE ); but PIE  > PG  > Goth sunus "son (nom. sing.)" (OE sunu), PIE  > PG  > Goth faíhu  "cattle (nom. sing.)" (OE feohu), PIE  >  PG  >  > OHG wini "friend (nom. sing.)" (OE wine), PIE  > PG  > PreOE  > OE  "foot (dat. sing.)".
 * Final-syllable and  were protected in words of two syllables by following  and .  Hence PG  > NE father; PG  > Goth stáinans "stone (acc. pl.)".
 * Final-syllable and  in two-syllable words were still present in Proto-Norse.  PN, Goth dags "day (nom. sg.)".  PN , Goth dag "day (acc. sg.)".
 * Final-syllable long vowels were shortened.
 * But final-syllable becomes  in NWG,  in Gothic.  Hence PG  > early OE beru "(I) carry", but Goth baíra; PG  > OE giefu "gift (nom. sg.)", but Goth giba.
 * Middle-syllable vowels of all types were unchanged; likewise in monosyllables, since they were stressed.
 * "Extra-long"' vowels were shorted to long vowels. There is a great deal of argument about what is exactly going on here.
 * The traditional view is that a circumflex accent arose (as in Ancient Greek) when two adjacent vowels were contracted into a single long vowel in a final syllable. This circumflexed vowel then remained long when other long vowels shortened.
 * A newer view holds that "overlong" (tri-moraic) vowels arose from the contraction of two vowels, one of which was long. Furthermore, final-syllable long vowels remained long before certain final consonants ( and ).
 * The reason why such theories are necessary is that some final-syllable long vowels are shortened, while others remain. Nominative singular  shortens, for example; likewise first singular  < ; while genitive plural  <  remains long.  Both of the above theories postulate an overlong or circumflex ending  in the genitive plural arising in the vocalic (PIE  and, PG  and ) declensions, arising from contraction of the vocalic stem ending with the genitive plural ending.
 * Other examples of vowels that remain long are a-stem and ó-stem nominative plural < early PIE  and ; PrePG ablative singular,  (Gothic  "whither", undarō "under"); -stem dative singular PG  > Goth gibái "gift" (but -stem dative singular PG  > Goth staina "stone").