LL-L "Etymology" 2005.08.11 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 11.AUG.2005 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: Ingmar Roerdinkholder <ingmar.roerdinkholder at WORLDONLINE.NL>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2005.08.08 (02) [D/E]

Speaking about <-ng-> and <-nd-> becoming <nj> in Flemish, Limburgian and
Eastern Low German, I noticed that my two year old son Arvid, who is just
learning to speak (Dutch), uses similar phonological developments.

E.g:

Arvid says <ötj>  [œt'] instead of D. <uit>  [œyt]
           <hösj> [hœš] instead of D. <huis> [hœys]
           <täsj> [tæš] instead of D. <Thijs>[t€js] proper name (boy)
           <mänj> [mæñ] instead of D. <mijn> [m€jn] mine, my

First I thought it had to do with dimunitive forms, like D huisje ['hœyš@]
Thijsje ['t€jš@], but that wouldn't make sense in the case of <uit> and
<mijn>, that don't take dimunitives, and if they did, it would be
<mijnTje>, that should have lead to *[mæñt'] not [mæñ] in Arvid's dialect.

And for a real dim. like D .<poesje> ['puš@], Arvid has [puj], without a
final palatal or any other consonant.

I think phonologists and dialectologists could learn a lot about language
mutation processes when they'd listen carefully to young children
acquiring their mother language!

Ingmar

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From: daniel prohaska <danielprohaska at bluewin.ch>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology"


>> From: Ben J. Bloomgren <godsquad at cox.net>
>> Subject: LL-L "Etymology" 2005.08.03 (07) [E]

>> I am not sure if this has been discussed before on this list, but what is
>> Werner's Law?
>> Ben J. Bloomgren

From: Dan Prohaska <danielprohaska at bluewin.ch>
Subject: LL-L "Etymology" [E]

Ben,
"Werner's Law" is actually "Verner's Law" after the Danish linguist who 
described the sound changes, or rather the specific rules for the seeming 
sound irregularities that occurred following the sound changes collectively 
called "Grimm's Law":

Grimm's Law describes the phonological development of the 
Proto-Indo-European series into the sounds eventually found in 
Proto-Germanic:

            PI                            PG
A:    p     t     k           =>      f     T     x
B:    b     d     g           =>      p     t     k
C:    bh    dh    gh          =>      B     D     G

A:    */p/: Lat. <pater> “father”, Goth. <fader>
      */t/: Lat. <três> “three”, OE <þrêo>, ON <þrír>
      */k/: Lat. <cord-> “heart”, OE <heorte>
      */kw/: Lat. <quod> “what”, ON <hvat>

B:    */b/: Lith. <dubùs> “deep”, Goth. <diups>, OE <dêop>
      */d/: Lat. <edô> “I eat”, OE <etan>
      */g/: Lat. <ego> “I”, OE <ic>, ON <ek>
      */gw/: Gr. baínô “I come” (> gwem-), OHG <queman>

C:    */bh/: Skr. <bhrâtar-> “brother”, OE <brôþor>
      */dh/: Gr. <thugátêr-> “daughter”, OE <dohtor>
      */gh/: Skr. <hamsa> (<= */ghans-/) “goose”, OHG <gans>, OE <gôs>
      */gwh/: Gr. omphê (> songwha), ON <syngva>

Proto-Indo-European accent was free. In the transition to Germanic the 
accent was shifted to the initial syllable. It isn’t know exactly when the 
accent shift took place, but we know that it happened after the effects of 
Grimms Law.

How the older stress pattern affected later outcome is best demonstrated by 
the “grammatical change” in the present, past and past participle stems of 
verbs. Take Old English <weorþan> “become”:

1st pres.sg.:     <weorþe>
1st prêt.sg.:     <wearþ>
pret.pl.:         <wurdon>
pp:               <-worden>

Since Sanskrit retained the original PIE accent the Pre-Germanic placement 
of it can be reconstructed from the Sanskrit cognate form.

The Danish linguist Verner formulated this rule and stated that words 
affected by Grimm’s Law A, were voiced if they receded the stressed vowel in 
the old accent system:

(V = stressed vowel)
(wrt- = w + syllabic r + t)

                  Pret.sg.          Pret.pl.
Pre-Gmc IE        wart-             wrt-Vn-
Grimm’s LAw       wárþ              wrþ-Vn-
r < ur            -                 wurþ-Vn-
Verner’s Law      -                 wurð-Vn-
Accent Shift      -                 wúrð-vn-
ð < d             -                 wúrd-vn-

Dan

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