Holtzmann's law

Holtzmann's law is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838.

The law affects the doubling, or gemination, of PIE * -i̯- and * -u̯- to Proto-Germanic * -jj- and * -ww-, which further "hardened" to -ggj-/-ggv- in Northern and to -ddj-/-ggw- in Eastern dialects, while in West Germanic the group results in a diphthong.

The conditions of the sound change were long debated, since there is a seemingly random distribution of affected and unaffected words. At first, dependence on word accent was assumed, parallel to Verner's Law. One currently accepted solution, first proposed by Smith (1941), postulates dependency on the presence of a PIE laryngeal.

According to Lehmann (2007), the lengthening occurs as in the contexts of PIE * -Vu̯H-, * -ii̯H-, * -ai̯H-, * -aHi̯- (where V is any short vowel, and H is any laryngeal).

An example is Old Norse tryggr "trustworthy, faithful", Gothic triggws vs. Old English trēowe, Old High German gitriuwi, all from Proto-Germanic *treww(j)az, from PIE *dreu̯h₂-(i̯)o.

The word egg is problematic: Crimean Gothic ada (*addjis), Old Norse egg, German Ei, Old English ǣġ may be from Proto-Germanic *ājjam, from PIE *h₂ōu̯i̯óm. The plurals Old High German eigir, Old English ǣgru exhibit an s-stem, Proto-Germanic *ajjaz.[1]

Alternative views

Some linguists (e.g. Joseph Voyles) hold that Holtzmann's Law represents two separate and independent sound changes, one applying to Gothic and another to Old Norse, rather than being a common innovation. This is supported by James Marchand's observation that a Runic inscription (niuwila on the Naesbjaerg bracteat of the 5th century) and an early loan into Finnic (*kuva "picture", cf. Gothic skuggwa) do not exhibit this change. If true, this would prevent Holtzmann's law being used as an example of early Gotho-Nordic unity, in which context it is often cited. Voyles's explanations of the changes do not involve laryngeal theory.

References

• William M. Austin, Germanic Reflexes of Indo-European -Hy- and -Hw-, Language (1958), 203-211.
• Winfred P. Lehmann, Proto-Indo-European Phonology (1955), chapter 4: 'Lengthened /w/ and /y/ in the Gmc. Dialects'[2]
• James Marchand, The sounds and phonemes of Wulfila's Gothic, The Hague: Mouton (1973)
• Henry Lee Smith, Jr., The Verschärfung in Germanic, Language 17 (1941), 93-9
• L. C. Smith, What's all the fuss about 16 words? A new approach to Holtzmann's law Göttinger Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft 1.
• L. C. Smith, Holtzmann's law: getting to the hart of the Germanic verscharfung, University of Calgary thesis, ISBN 0-612-24623-X (1997).
• Joseph B. Voyles, Early Germanic Grammar", San Diego: Harcourt Brace, ISBN 0-12-728270-X (1992).

See also

• Proto-Germanic
• Northwest Germanic
• Grimm's law
• Verner's law