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Grimm’s law defines one of the linguistic phenomena of the Germanic languages, in which certain consonants inherited from Indo-European languages underwent changes in their pronunciation. For example, some voiceless stop consonants became voiceless fricative consonants: p → f; t→th.
Grimm’s law: origin and characteristics
Grimm’s Law Background
In the 19th century, some of the basic principles related to the modification of some consonants arose, which would later be developed in Grimm’s law. This happened mainly because several scholars of the time dedicated themselves to the study of Indo-European languages beyond the branches that were usually studied in the academic field, such as Greek and Latin, extending to other languages such as German or English.
The German philologist Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829) was one of the members of the famous Jena Circle, where the German Romanticism movement arose. He was the pioneer of comparative philology, a discipline that studies and compares languages in order to reconstruct the common ancestral language between them. In his work On the Language and Wisdom of the Indians (1808) he compared Sanskrit with other languages such as Latin, Greek and Persian, and recognized the importance of Indo-European languages in the languages of Europe. In 1806, he discovered the correspondence between the Latin phoneme /p/ and the Germanic phoneme /f/.
The Danish philologist Rasmus Rask (1787-1832) was another of the pioneers in the study of the evolution of consonants. Rask studied at the University of Copenhagen and was distinguished by his ability to learn languages. In his works, his knowledge of Latin, Greek, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, English, German and Persian stands out. In his travels through India, he learned the Indo-European languages and their relationship with European characters.
The contributions of Jacob Grimm
Jacob Grimm (1785-1863), was a German linguist, considered the founder of historical or diachronic grammar, a discipline that studies the change or evolution of a language over time and its relationship with other languages. He too, along with Wilhelm Grimm, collected fairy tales and folk legends that later became known as the Brothers Grimm.
Jacob Grimm studied Law in Germany and Paris and later also worked as a librarian and teacher. Grimm devoted himself to the study of German linguistics and literature and developed the Dictionary of the German Language .
Grimm also stood out for other contributions to modern linguistics, mainly for his studies on Germanic and the evolution of its sounds. In 1822 he formulated and described the first phonetic consonantal mutation, which is now known as Grimm’s law. This included the description of the phonetic modifications that occurred in the Germanic languages from Indo-European, a language reconstructed through the study of Indo-European languages derived from it, such as Hittite, Sanskrit, and others.
What is Grimm’s law
Grimm’s Law is defined as a set of rules stating how some Germanic letters differ from their Indo-European counterparts with respect to their pronunciation.
This law explains the nature of the phonetic changes that the Germanic languages underwent sometime in the first century AD. This phenomenon occurred simultaneously and systematically over time, until voiceless Indo-European stop consonants became voiceless fricatives in Germanic ; voiced stops became voiceless; and aspirated voiced consonants became unaspirated voiced stops.
| Indo-European (IE) | lipstick | dental | velars |
| voiceless plosives | p | you | what |
| voiced plosives | b | d | g |
| aspirated sonorous | bh | dh | gh |
| Germanic | lipstick | dental | velars |
| voiceless fricatives | F | th(θ) | h |
| voiceless plosives | p | you | what |
| voiced plosives | b | d | g |
| Indo-European | Germanic |
| p | F |
| you | th(θ) |
| what | h |
| b | p |
| d | you |
| g | what |
| bh | b |
| dh | d |
| gh | g |
Voiceless stop consonants to voiceless fricatives
Taking into account the previous tables, it is possible to observe the different changes that the consonants underwent. Grimm’s Law holds that the voiceless stop consonants of Indo-European became the voiceless fricative consonants of Germanic, thus:
p → ft
→ θk
→ h
Examples:
- Sue p → swe f (to sleep)
- T rei → th reo (three)
- K uon → h und (dog)
Voiced stop consonants to voiceless stops
Grimm’s Law states that the voiced stop consonants of Indo-European become the voiceless stops of Germanic:
b → p
d → t
g → k
Examples :
- B el → p al (strong or weak)
- Pe d → fo t (foot)
- G in → c neo * (knee)
*In this case, the letter “c” corresponds to the phoneme /k/
Voiced aspirated consonants to voiced unaspirated stops
Grimm’s Law also holds that Indo-European aspirated voiced consonants become Germanic unaspirated voiced:
bh → b
dh → d
gh → g
Examples:
- Bh er → b er (to carry)
- Dh e → d on (place)
- Ve gh → ga-vi g -an* (to push)
*This example comes from Gothic, another of the Germanic languages.
Other related law
The Danish linguist Karl Verner (1846-1896) was another of the great researchers of the relationship between the Indo-European languages and Germanic. In fact, the results of his research were named in his honor as Verner’s Law, which extends the concepts of Grimm’s Law.
Interestingly, Karl Verner discovered his interest in learning several languages after reading the work of the philologist Rasmus Rask. He studied Germanic, Slavic, and Oriental languages, specializing in Gothic. Later he also focused on the study of the evolution of Germanic and the influence of the Indo-European languages on it.
Verner’s Law focuses on irregularities and exceptions that are not included in Grimm’s Law. Verner observed that some sounds changed depending on their position in the word. This caused other modifications, in addition to those indicated by Grimm.
Subsequently, he managed to explain the exceptions to Grimm’s law, validating said law and in turn giving rise to Verner’s law.
Today, Verner’s law complements Grimm’s law, and both are considered essential in the study of historical linguistics.
Phoneme changes according to Grimm and Verner’s laws
| Indo-European | Germanic (Grimm’s Law) | Germanicus (Verner’s Law) |
| p | ɸ | ɸβ _ |
| you | θ | θð _ |
| what | x | xɣ _ |
| kʷ | xʷ | xʷ ɣʷ |
| yes | sz _ |
Bibliography
- Bel Rafecas, N.; Benítez Burraco, A. Introduction to linguistics. (2016, 2nd edition). Spain. Akal Editions.
- Marcos Marín, F. Introduction to linguistics: history and models. (1990). Spain. Synthesis.
- Thesaurus. (1981, Volume XXXVI, No. 3). Bernal Leongómez, J. Formulation of phonological laws . Cervantes Virtual Center. Available at: https://cvc.cervantes.es/lengua/thesaurus/pdf/36/TH_36_003_144_0.pdf
- Álvarez, J. Indo-European linguistics course #4: Centum/satem languages, Grimm and Verner’s law, glottalic hypothesis . Available at: https://academialatin.com/curso/linguistica-indoeuropea/oclusivas-centum-satem-grimm-verner/
