ENG424: History of the English Language

Dr. Mubarak Alkhatnai

Week 4

All presentations are made based on the course main reference: Algeo (2010) unless stated otherwise.

Major changes from IE to Germanic 1. Germanic has a large number of words that have no known

cognates in other IE languages.

2. All IE distinctions of tense and aspect were lost in the verb save for the present and past. – Germanic verbal system is not as complicated as that of IE.

3. Germanic developed a preterit tense form with a dental suffix (d, t). Thus, all Germanic languages has two forms verbs: weak: regular; strong: irregular. (Grimm’s classification)

4. All older forms of Germanic had two ways of declining their adjectives: – Weak declension: with “the” – Strong declension: without “the”

• e.g. Old English pa geongan ceorlas = the young fellows geonge ceorlas = young fellows.

5. IE has a “free” accentual system. Accent shifted from one syllable to another in various forms of the word. Stress on the first syllable in Germanic. – First syllable is always stressed in Old English. – Greek had stress even on the suffix– Germanic accent is predominantly a matter of stress (loudness) rather

than pitch (tone). IE had both.

6. IE vowels underwent Germanic modification. – IE o was retained in Latin but modified to a in Germanic

• Latin: octo = Gothic ahtau = eight

– IE a became o   in Germanic • Latin: mater = Old English: modor = mother

7. IE stops bh, dh, gh, p, t, k, b, d, and g underwent modification in the First Sound Shift (Grimm’s Law).

• These sound appear in Germanic as b, d, g, f, θ, h, p, t, k.

Grimm’s Law • Jacob Grimm (Germany 1st half of 19th

century) described the First Sound Shift to state the difference between Germanic and other IE languages.

• Changes over the years and in set of shifts that completed before the next began:1- IE aspirated voiced stops became voiced fricatives

and then unaspirated voiced stops. • IE: bh, dh, gh became the Germanic sounds β ð ɤ and

later in initial position b, d, g. (they went under changes in most non-Germanic languages e.g. Latin/Greek)

IE Latin/Greek Germanic

bh f-/ɸ b

Example bhrater  frater brother

dh f-/θ d

Example dhwer foris door

gh h-/χ g

Example ghordho hortus OE geard “yard”

2. IE voiceless stops p, t, k, became respectively the voiceless fricatives f, θ, x (later h in initial position)

IE Latin/Greek Germanic

p f

Example pəter pater father

t θ

Example treyes tres three

k h

Example krn cornu horn

3. IE voiced stops b, d, g, became respectively the voiceless stops p, t, k

IE Latin/Greek Germanic

b p

Example able apple

d t

Example dwo duo two

g k

Example genu genu knee (loss of k is modern) 

Exercise 1Find the modern English words that evolved from

their origin on the left:

Peter

Pur-

treyes

tukorn-

kerd-

Exercise 2Using Grimm’s law, explain how these words

evolved from their origins: Words Their origin Explanation

break bhreg-

door dhwer-

guest ghosti-

fish pisk-

thin ten-

what kwod

eat ed-

acre agro-