GRIMMS LAW

views updated May 21 2018

GRIMM'S LAW. The first Germanic sound shift, a statement of the relationship between certain consonants in GERMANIC LANGUAGES and their originals in Indo-European (IE), first described in 1818 by the Danish philologist Rasmus Rask (1787–1832) and set out in detail in 1822 by the German philologist Jacob Grimm (1785–1863). Greatly simplified, Grimm's Law states the regular changes in IE labials /p, b, f/, velars /k, g, h/, and dentals /t, d, ɵ/, as they developed in Germanic. Because English has words borrowed from Latin and Greek that retain the original IE sound, as well as words descended from Germanic that have the changed sound, it provides ‘before and after’ illustrations: see panel.

In general, Grimm's Law holds that unvoiced IE stops became Germanic unvoiced continuants, that voiced IE stops became Germanic unvoiced stops, and that unvoiced IE continuants became Germanic voiced stops (see panel). In the triangles, the change from IE to Germanic runs clockwise, the derivation of Germanic from IE anti-clockwise. See INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. Compare GREAT VOWEL SHIFT.

About this article

Grimms law

All Sources -
Updated Aug 24 2016 About encyclopedia.com content Print Topic