Indo-European Germanic

1 Act voiceless stops p t k voiceless fricatives f þ h

Lat. pater O.E. fæder (father)

Lat. tres Goth. þreis (three)

Greek kardia OHG herza (heart)

2 Act voiced stops b d g voiceless stops p t k

Rus. болото O.E. pōl (pool)

Lat. duo Goth. twai (two)

Greek. egon O.Icl. ek (I)

3 Act voiced aspirated stops voiced non-aspirated stops

bh dh gh b d g

Snsk. bhratar O.E. brōþor (brother)

Lat. frater

Snsk. madhu O.E. medu (mead)

Snsk. songha O.Icl. syngva (sing)

Verner’s law explains the changes in the Germanic voiceless fricatives f þ h resulting from the first consonant shift and the voiceless fricatives depending upon the position of the stress in the original Indo-European word, namely:

Indo-European Germanic

p t k s b ð/d g z/r

Gk. hepta Goth. sibun (seven)

Gk. pater OSc. Faðir O.E. fæder

Gk. dekas Goth. Tigus (ten, a dozen)

Snsk. ayas Goth. aiz, OHG ēr (bronze)

According to Verner’s Law, the above change occurred if the consonant in question was found after an unstressed vowel. It is especially evident in the forms of Germanic strong verbs, except the Gothic ones, which allows concluding that at some time the stress in the first two verbal stems fell on the root, and in the last two – on the suffix:

O.E. tēon tēah tuзon toзen (to tug)

OSx. tiohan tōh tugun gitogan

Goth. tiuhan tauh tauhum tauhans

O.E. cēosan cēas curon coren (to choose)

OIcl. kiósa kaus kørom kørenn

Coth. kiusan kaus kusum kusan

3.2. Grammar

One of the main processes in the development of the Germanic morphological system was the change in the word structure. The common Indo-European notional word consisted of the three elements: the root, expressing the lexical meaning, the inflexion or ending, showing the grammatical form, and the so-called stem-forming suffix, a formal indicator of the stem type. However, in the Germanic languages the stem-forming suffix fuses with the ending and is often no longer visible, thus making the word structure a two-element one. Nevertheless, it should be taken into account when explaining the differences in the categorical forms of words originally having different stem-forming suffixes.

It should also be mentioned that Germanic languages belonged to the synthetic type of form-building, which means that they expressed the grammatical meanings by changing the forms of the word itself, not resorting to any auxiliary words.

The Germanic nouns had a well-developed case system with four cases (nominative, genitive, dative and accusative); some languages had elements of the instrumental and vocative cases and two number forms (singular and plural). They also had the category of gender (feminine, masculine and neuter) the means of form-building were the endings added to the root/stem of the noun.

The Germanic adjectives had two types of declension, conventionally called strong and weak. Most adjectives could be declined both in accordance with the strong and weak type. Agreeing with the noun in gender, case and noun, the adjective by its type of declension expressed the idea of definiteness (weak declension) or indefiniteness (strong declension), the meaning which was later to become expressed by a grammatical class of words unknown in the Common Germanic – the article.

The adjective also had degrees of comparison, the forms of which were in most instances formed with the help of suffixes –iz/ōz and –ist/-ōst, but there were also instances of suppletivism, i.e. use of different roots for different forms – a means common for many Indo-European languages:

Goth leitils – minniza – minnists (little – less – least)

Rus. Хороший – лучше – лучший

The Germanic verbs are divided into two principal groups: strong and weak verbs, depending on the way they formed their past tense forms.

The past tense (or preterit) of strong verbs was formed with the help of Ablaut, quantitative and qualitative. Depending upon the phonetic root structure, the exact manifestation of Ablaut could be somewhat different, and accordingly strong verbs were further subdivided into classes.

Weak verbs expressed pretirite with the help of the dental suffix –d/t. they also had stem-forming suffixes, depending on which they fell into separate classes.

There were also a small group of highly frequent suppletive verbs forming their forms from different roots, the same as in other Indo-European languages:

Goth am (I/am) Rus. есть

was (I / was) был

The Germanic verb had a well-developed system of categories, including the category of person (first, second, third), number (singular and plural), tense (past, present, the latter also used for expressing future actions). Mood (indicative, imperative and optative) and voice (only in gothic – active and mediopassive). The categorical forms employed synthetic means of form-building.