Characteristics

1. All the G.L. of past & present have common linguistic features, some of these features are shared by other groups in the IE family, others are specifically Germanic.

2. The Germanic group of lang. acquired their specific distinctive features after the separation of the ancient Germanic tribes from other IE tribes and prior to their expansion and disintegration that is during the period of the Proto Germanic language ( unattested). The aim is to provide the general idea of what the PGLang was like, to point out its linguistic ftatures. Theese PGfeatures, inherited by the descendant l-ges, represent the common features of the Germanic group.

3. Other common features developed later in the course of individual history of separate Germanic l-ges as a result of similar tendencies from PG causes. On the other hand many Germanic features have been disguised, transformed and even lost in later history.

Germanic languages possess several unique features, such as the following:

1. A large class of verbs that use a dental suffix(/d/ or /t/) instead ofvowel alternation(Indo-European ablaut) to indicate past tense; these are called theGermanic weak verbs; the remaining verbs with vowel ablaut are theGermanic strong verbs

2. The shifting of stressaccent onto the root of the stem and later to the first syllable of the word

3. Another characteristic of Germanic languages is the verb second or V2 word order. This feature is shared by all modern Germanic languages except modern English

4. Strict differentiation of short and long vowels

5. Tendency for assimilation and reduction

6. A great number of fricatives, small number of plosives

7. No palatal consonants at all.

1. English as a world language.

English is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era, in the fifth century AD when Germanic tribes began to move from their homes in Northern Germany and Jutland in order to settle in Britannia.

Historically, English originated from several dialects, now collectively termed Old English, which were brought to the island of Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers beginning in the 5th century. English was further influenced by the Old Norse language of Viking invaders. At the time of the Norman conquest(1066), Old English developed into Middle English. As a result of influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century, Eng. has become the lingua franca in many parts of the world. English today is probably the third largest language by number of native speakers, after Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

The countries with the highest populations of native English speakers are: United States (215 million), United Kingdom (61 million), Canada (18.2 million),Australia (15.5 million), Nigeria (4 million),Ireland (3.8 million), South Africa (3.7 million), and New Zealand (3.6 million) 2006. Eng. is the required international language of communications, science, business, aviation, entertainment, radio and diplomacy. English is the language most often studied as a foreign language in the European Union (by 89% of schoolchildren). Books, magazines, and newspapers written in English are available in many countries around the world. English is also the most commonly used language in the sciences.

p. 106-108

2. Word stress in Proto-Germanic and its morphological consequences.

• In PIE there were two ways of word accentuation:

1. musical pitch(tone)

2. force(dynamic) stress

The position of stress was free & moveable. It could fall on any syllable of a word: on a root morpheme, on an affix, or even on the ending. It could be shifted . Both these properties of stress were changed in common Germanic.

• In PG force stress( dynamic or breath) became the only type of stress used. In early PG the stress was still moveable, but in late PG the position of stress was fixed on the first syllable (either root or prefix), all the other syllables were unstressed.. The fised words stress has played an important role in phonetic and morphological development.

Consequences: the vowels of non-initial syllables became unstressed & therefore they were weakened & could be lost.(Verrners law) The 1^st syllable of a word was given a special prominence.

3. The Proto-Germanic phonology. The consonants.

Periodization

1. Early PG (15/5c. BC - 1/4c. AD)---- separation of PG from the west IE (centum branch) to its stabilization as a separate system.

Features: (it possessed a lot of linguistic features typical of PIE)

• the existence of the fixed & moveable stress types

• there didn’t exist any difference between stressed & unstressed syllables.

• The 3-morphe structure of the word

• The existence of two-tense aspect stems in the system of the verb (the Infect and Perfect stems)

2. Late PG (4/7c. – 11/16c. AD)---- from stabilization of PG to its dispersal into separate groups of Germanic dialects .

Features: (it acquired a lot of specific features of its own)

• the dynamic stress was fixed on the first root syllable

• the opposition between stressed & unstressed syllables.

• The 3-morpheme structure of the word developed into the 2 – morpheme structure

• PG tense forms developed from PIE tense-aspect stems

CONSONANTS: (p.52) ТАБЛИЦА

Common features in PG:

• a great number of fricatives, small number of plosives;

• no palatal consonants at all, as in other Centum languages.

Such a quantity of fricatives appeared in PG as a result of sound shifting described as Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law.

4. The first consonant shifting (Grimm’s Law).

Grimms Law expresses regular correspondences between IE and Germanic consonant . Rasmus Rask was the fist to open the phenomenon in 1818. and Jacob Grimm described the changes in his “Deutch Grammar” in 1822).

Essence: the type of articulation changes while the place of articulation remains unchanged. As a result there appeared more fricatives in Germanic languages than there were in IE l-ges.

The correspondences were grouped under three categories ( acts). Each of the acts coered quite a long period of time of 100 years and more.

I act	IE voiceless plosives >Germanic voiceless fricatives p > f t > Ө k > h kw > hw	L pater > E father
II act	IE voiced plosives > G. voiceless plosives b > p d > t g > k gw > kw	R болото> E pool
III act	IE voiced aspirated plosives > G. voiced plosives bh > b dh > d gh > g gwh > gw	Skr bhratar > E brother

Exceptions:

1. The shifting didn’t take place after fricatives(f, Ө,h) & s:

L stare – Gt standan

2. The second of the consonants didn’t undergo shifting:

L octo Gt ahtau 1 k > h

12 12 2 t = t