West Germanic gemination

West Germanic gemination

West Germanic gemination is a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages, around 300 AD. All single consonants except IPA|/r/ were geminated (doubled) after a short vowel and before IPA|/j/; sometimes also before IPA|/w/, IPA|/r/, and IPA|/l/. A similar change occurred in the history of Old Norse, but was much more limited, applying only after IPA|/k/ and IPA|/g/. This change particularly affected the infinitives of the first conjugation of weak verbs, which ended in IPA|/jan/. By historical times (c. 800-900 AD), all of the West Germanic languages except Old Saxon had dropped the IPA|/j/. The IPA|/j/ also triggered i-Mutation, as well as palatalization in Old English and Old Frisian. Examples:


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • West Germanic languages — Infobox Language family name=West Germanic region=Originally between the Rhine, Alps, Elbe, and North Sea; today worldwide familycolor=Indo European fam1=Indo European fam2=Germanic child1=Anglo Frisian child2=Low Franconian languages child3=Low… …   Wikipedia

  • Germanic verb — The Germanic language family is one of the language groups that resulted from the breakup of Proto Indo European (PIE). It in turn divided into North, West and East Germanic groups, and ultimately produced a large group of mediaeval and modern… …   Wikipedia

  • Germanic strong verb — In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung. The term strong verb is a translation of German starkes Verb , which was coined by the linguist… …   Wikipedia

  • Germanic substrate hypothesis — The Germanic substrate hypothesis is an attempt to explain the distinctive nature of the Germanic languages within the context of the Indo European language family. It postulates that the elements of the common Germanic vocabulary and syntactical …   Wikipedia

  • Gemination — For another meaning, see Tooth gemination. Not to be confused with Germination or Geminal. In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is… …   Wikipedia

  • Proto-Germanic language — Proto Germanic Spoken in Northern Europe Extinct evolved into Proto Norse, Gothic, Frankish and Ingvaeonic by the 4th century Language family Indo European …   Wikipedia

  • North Germanic languages — North Germanic Scandinavian Geographic distribution: Northern Europe Linguistic classification: Indo European Germanic North Germanic …   Wikipedia

  • List of Germanic languages — The Germanic languages include some 58 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects that originated in Europe; this language family is a part of the Indo European language family. Each subfamily in this list contains subgroups and individual languages.… …   Wikipedia

  • Northwest Germanic — is a proposed grouping of the Germanic dialects, representing the current consensus among Germanic historical linguists. It does not challenge the late 19th century tri partite division of the Germanic dialects into North Germanic, West Germanic… …   Wikipedia

  • Old Norse — dǫnsk tunga, dansk tunga ( Danish tongue ), norrœnt mál ( Norse language ) Spoken in Nordic countries, Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales, Isle of Man, Normandy, Vinland, the Volga and places in between …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”