West Germanic consonant gemination
The West Germanic consonant gemination is a sound law that affects all consonants except r . If the consonant comes after a short vowel and before a sonorant , the consonant is geminated, whereby the regularity of this sound law depends on several factors. In Germanic there are other sound laws that have encouraged the creation of geminates , such as assimilations in clusters of resonances , Kluge's law or Holtzmann's law . The dating is controversial. In any case, it preceded the Old High German sound shift and the departure of the Anglo-Saxons, so that a period between the 2nd and 5th centuries AD is under discussion.
Dialectal varieties
The West Germanic consonant gemination shows different characteristics and exceptions in the individual languages. In Old High German there are also forms in which r is geminated before j . In addition, consonants are geminated after long vowels or diphthongs in Upper German.
- ahd. part : ahd. to share , as. dēlian , ae. dǣlan , got. dáiljan , an. deila ' divide'
These exceptions and the gemination by w have led to the assumption that this phonetic law originated in the Upper German-speaking area.
Gemination before j
Most often, the gemination takes place before j , whereby r is excluded, regardless of whether it is original or a result of Rhotazism . Nevertheless, there are also cases in Old High German in which r was geminated. The j has been preserved in Old Saxon and is written as ⟨i⟩; in Old High German it disappears in the course of the 9th century. In the other West Germanic languages, e.g. B. in Old English, j persists only after a slight syllable , consequently only after r , which was not geminated. Examples of the gemination before j are:
- ahd. scepfen , as. skeppian , ae. scieppan : got. skapjan , an. skepja ‹create›
- ahd. sezzen , as. settian , ae. settan : got. satjan , an. set yes ‹set›
The gemination is omitted for r :
- ahd. vacation , as./ae. ferian , got. farjan , an. ferja ‹driving, transporting by ship› (although ferren was also common in the ahd )
Especially in Alemannic, but also in Franconian, r is geminated. This is more due to an analogical innovation and less to the fact that the gemination has been eliminated in the other West Germanic languages.
In Old Norse, gemination is possible under similar circumstances, but this only applies to g and k . This sound change, however, took place at a later date, probably in the 7th or 8th century. Analogical compensatory phenomena, however, have often eliminated geminates.
- ahd. leggen , as. leggian , ae. lecgan , on. leggja : got. lagjan ' lay'
- ahd. bah , as. beki , ae. bec : on. bekkr ‹Bach›
Gemination before l, r, w, m
The gemination before l and r is not very common and is limited to the voiceless plosives in West Germanic.
- ahd. snottar , ae. snot (t) or : got. snutrs , an. snotr ' clever'
- ahd. ackar , as. akkar , afr. ekker (but ae. æcer ): got. akrs , an. akr ‹field›
- ahd. apful , as. appul , ae. æppel : krimgot. apel , at. epli ‹apple›
In later Old English, r also triggered geminates in other obstruents.
- ae. (Northumbrian) æhher (but ws. ēar , ahd. ehir , as. ahar ): got. ahs , an. ax ‹ear of corn›
- ae. (Northumbrian) tæher (= tæhher , but ws. tēar , ahd.tahar ): got. tagr , an. tár ‹tear›
- ae. bet (t) re : ahd. beʒʒiro , as. betara , got. batiza , an. to be better
- ae. blæd (d) r : ahd.blāt (a) ra , as. blādara , an. blaðra ‹bubble›
Geminations caused by w or m are extremely rare and do not occur in all West Germanic languages, so that it remains questionable to what extent they belong to the West Germanic consonant gemination at all. Evidence for w comes exclusively from Old High German and relates to the clusters kw and hw , which go back to Indo-European Labiovelaren.
- . ahd nackot : mnd. naket , ae. nacod , got. naqaþs ‹ nackt ›
- ahd. acchus , as. accus : ahd. achus , as. acus , got. aqizi ‹ax›
It is unclear whether m (or n ) also causes gemination. The document layer is too thin for this. Late growing. māþþm next to māþm ' treasure' seems to be one of the few indications of this.
Effects
Most of the geminates of the West Germanic consonant gemination go back to j , which is often represented in nominal and verbal paradigms. The weak verbs of class I with a short stem vowel show in most present and imperative forms as well as in the infinitive geminates. The same goes for the j -presentations of the strong verbs. In addition, the - ja - and - jō - stems of nouns are affected.
| Weak Verba I. | ||
|---|---|---|
| Present indicative | Present subjunctive | |
| Sg. 1. | cellu | cell |
| 2. | zelis | zellēs (t) |
| 3. | zelit | cell |
| Pl. 1. | cell mēs | zellēm |
| 2. | cell | cellular |
| 3. | cell | cells |
| imperative | infinitive | |
| Sg. 2. | zeli | cells |
| Pl. 1. | cell mēs | Present participle |
| 2. | cell | zellenti |
| j gifts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Present indicative | Present subjunctive | |
| Sg. 1. | bittu | Sorry |
| 2. | bitis | bittēs (t) |
| 3. | bitit | Sorry |
| Pl. 1. | please | please m |
| 2. | asks | please |
| 3. | please | ask |
| imperative | infinitive | |
| Sg. 2. | biti | ask |
| Pl. 1. | please | Present participle |
| 2. | asks | please |
literature
- Fulk, Robert (2018). A comparative grammar of the early Germanic languages. Amsterdam (Studies in Germanic Linguistics 3).
- Harbert, Wayne (2007). The Germanic Languages. Cambridge (Cambridge Languages Surveys).
- Heidermanns, Frank (2018 16 ). Old High German Grammar I. Berlin.
- Murray, Robert (1986): Urgermanic syllable structure and the West Germanic consonant gemination. In: Contributions to the history of the German language and literature 108, 333–356.
- Nielsen, Hans Frede (1985 2 ). Old English and the continental Germanic languages. A Survey of Morphological and Phonological Interrelations. Innsbruck (Innsbruck Contributions to Linguistics 33).
- Simmler, Franz (1974). The West Germanic consonant gemination in German with special consideration of Old High German. Munich (Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften 19).
- Wagner, Norbert (1989). The tribal name of the Salians and the 'West Germanic' consonant gemination. In: Journal for German Antiquity and German Literature 118, 34–42.