22.Ablaut&its functions.

Ablaut is an independent vowel change,which occured mostly in the root of the words and couldn’t be explained by any neighbouring sounds. The most vivid example of Ablaut is the alternating of the vowel in strong verbs. F.ex. sing(present tense)-sang(preterit)-sung(past-participle).

12.Old Germanic types of writing.Runic alphabet.

Germanic tribes used 3 alphabets in their writing. These alphabets succeeded each other. The earliest of them was Runic alphabet,then Gothic,and the last was Latin alphabet.

It was used by Germanic people from t 3^rd century AD, for carving inscriptions on stone,wood and metal.

Each letter of the Runic alph was called a “rune”. Runes weren’t only figures,letters,but also signs and symbols.Every separate rune was used by old Germanic people in 2 ways, t 1^st(which was t original way) to tell t fortune, t 2^nd to write messages. Originally a word ‘rune’ meant a ‘mystery’. That’s why for a very long time messages written with t help of runes were considered to be of magic power.

Nowadays we have t main runic alph of 24 signs. It’s divided into 2 parts-Old&Late futarks(arises from t 1^st symbols-F,U,Th,A,R,K)

24 signs form 3 groups of 8 symbols which are called atts.

The scientists put forward a few theories according to t origin of t Runic alphabet. T Runes go back to:1)Greek 2)Latin

The top of development&complete formation of RA system was in 1-2c AD. In t 6^th c 28 signs appeared. In t middle of t 7^th c t number of runes decreased to 16. In t 12^th c dots were added to 16 sign system(dotted alphabet).

Combined runes. They attract attention by their unusual form. They were used everywhere when difficult magic formulas were necessary.

№15. Grimm’s Law

Grimm’s law, also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift, was the 1st systematic sound change. It was discovered in 1822 by Jacob Grimm, the younger of the Brothers Grimm. The law expresses regular correspondences between consonants of Germanic and those of other Indo-European languages. Aspirated voiced stops bh, dh, gh changed into voiced stops b, d, g, they changed into voiceless stops p, t, k and then into voiceless fricaties f, th, h! ghordho into gard(garden), duo into twa, pater into faeder, tres into brie (three).

№16. Verner’s Law

In 1875 the Danish scholar Karl Verner explained why not all consonants undergo changes according to the Grimm’s law. Voiceless fricatives become voiced if the preceding syllable was unstressed, but otherwise remained unchanged. Pater into faeder

№18. The 2^nd & the 3^rd consonant shift

The 2nd consonant shift occurred between the 5th and 7th c. AD. little by little spreading from South to North of Germany. It was also discovered by Grimm and accounts for the consonant system of High German. According to the 2nd shift t changed into ts, p into pf, k – kh(x), b - p, d - t, g – k. F ex. English two –German zwei /ts-/,English make-German machen. /-x-/

The 3rd shift took place only in Danish, where voiceless stops became aspirated at the beginning of the word.

№23. Front mutation. Umlaut.

The process of Umlaut is a modification of a vowel which causes it to be pronounced more to the front of mouth to accommodate a vowel in the following syllable, especially when that syllable is an inflectional suffix. Umlaut is a distant, regressive and partial assimilation(the process by which 2 sounds that occur close together in speech become more alike). This process is found in many languages. Woman-women.

Front mutation or i-umlaut is the most important type of umlaut, which is caused by an i/j. I/j or i disappear or change to e: a-e, o-e, u-y. OE Anglise – MnE English.

№20. Stress in t Germanic langs

In linguistics, stress is the emphasis, which is given to some syllables, usually no more than 1 in each word. This emphasis is shown by more forceful, louder and higher-pitched voice.In many lang words have a secondary stress. Some langs have fixed stress(French-last sykkable,Finnish-the syllable before the last one). Other langs have stress placed on dif syllables in a predictable way(have a regular stress rule),such as Latin. In some langs stress is unpredictable and must be learned as well as the word itself(in English&Spanish). There are langs that don’t have a stress rule,instead possessing accentual systems based on pitch or tone. In Indo-European the stress used to be dynamic or musical as some scientists consider, and free. But in Germanic it became fixed on the root syllable and turned into the dynamic one.

№24. Velar Umlaut

Velar Umlaut is a type of assimilation, caused by back vowels u, o, a of the following syllable: i-io, e-eo, a-ea

OE hefon – heofon (heaven)