See also: Grimm

The law of Grimm (or “first consonant shift”) is a law of Phonétique history describing a series of sound changes which touched the Occlusive S of the Indo-European in Germanic commun run like in Armenian. These changes took the name of the first German linguist who correctly described them in 1822, Jacob Grimm (1785 - 1863), one of the brothers Grimm. This law was supplemented then by the Loi of Verner as well as the Second consonant shift (also discovered by Grimm). Initially, it was thought that the process described by Grimm related to only the Germanic languages; it proved that the Armenian also experienced a comparable development; for this reason one counts it with the row languages concerned. The establishment of this law was the first successful attempt at rationalization of the phenomena of phonetic evolution in Diachronie: it made it possible to pose systematic equivalences between the Phonème S of a Indo-European Langue and those of another; it is, in fact, the first linguistic law established. It however was necessary to await the law of Verner so that the systematic character of this law is established: it indeed meets a rather great number of exceptions, which - before another law comes to explain them - could discredit it.

sound shifts

The sound shifts described by this law are deep and entirely redrew the phonological system of the Occlusive S in the languages concerned:

Notes: the notation follows that of the API; the characters between brackets are those which one traditionally uses in philology for the languages concerned (Transcription of the Germanic languages and Armenian. Occlusive the *p , *t and *k supported by *s is not concerned: *sp remains. In Armenian, *p becomes then except at the beginning of word, where it can amuïr.

One notes moreover than in Germanic commun run are concerned only the modes and not the joints: a phoneme bilabial the remainder. One can summarize this change as follows:

• the occlusive deaf persons become Fricative S deaf persons: Spirantisation;
• the occlusive sound ones become occlusive deaf persons: Devoicing;
• the occlusive sound ones aspired become occlusive the sound simple ones: Déaspiration. This last modification, however, is not isolated and rare are the Indo-European languages to have preserved aspired inherited; in fact, this change alone does not constitute a characteristic of Germanic and Armenian.

These phonemes could thereafter evolve/move differently, especially if they were concerned with the Loi of Verner and/or the Second consonant shift.

Examples

• Indo-European * p h₂tér , “father”:
• Germanic commun run *p > F : Gotique F adar , Old English F æder (English father ), Old high German F ater (German Vater ), Dutch v ader , Icelandic F to aðir , Danish, Swedish F ader , etc;
• Armenian *p >: հայր ( H ayr) ( to *hat^hir with Disappearance of with intervocalic), but
• *p remains in Latin ( p ater) , Greek ( π ατήρ), Sanskrit ( p itár) , Osque p to atir , Tokharien has p ācar , B p ācer , etc;
• Indo-European * D , “ten”:
• Germanic commun  *d > T : gotic T aíhun , old English T īen (English T in ), old man high German Z ehan (of *tehan ; German zehn ), Icelandic T íu , etc;
• Armenian *d >: տասը ( T asə ; in the past tasn) , but
• *d remains in Latin D ecem , Greek δ έκα, Sanskrit D aśa , Slavic Vieux D esętǐ , Welsh D eg , etc;
• Indo-European * b^h er- , “to carry”:
• Germanic commun run *b^h > B : gotic B aíran , old English and old man high German B eran (English (to) bear ), Dutch B euren , Icelandic B will era , Norwegian B ære , Swedish B will ära , etc;
• Armenian *b^h >: բերեմ ( B erem) , but
• *b^h remains or evolves/moves differently in Latin: F ero (< *b^h ), Greek φ έρω (< *b^h ), Sanskrit bh árati , etc

Summary

• Extension of the law: Germanic commun run, Armenian;
• chronology: before the Law of Verner for the Germanic one; after the Law of reduction of velar the for the Armenian;
• effects (shortened notation):
• Germanic: P, B, B^h > F, P, B/¬sP ;
• Armenian: - palat., - palat, - palat > P^h, P, B/¬sP .

Related articles

• Law of Verner;
• Second consonant shift;
• Germanic Languages and Proto-Germanic;
• Phonetic history;
• Linguistic compared.

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