Early Proto-Germanic

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 598.

Two stages in the development of Proto-Germanic

Reconstruction of Proto-Germanic

Germanic proto language is supposed to have split from the Indo-European parent language between the 15* and 10 centuries BC. Germanic tribes constituted the westen branch of the Indo-European speech community.

A proto-language is reconstructed by methods of comparative reconstruction. The reconstructed system of phonemes and morphemes is based on sound correspondences between related phonemes in Germanic languages.

Reconstruction of a proto-language bases itself upon the oldest attested forms which are closer to the initial proto-language. Also, dialectal differentiation of later periods is taken into account.

W.Krause was the first to distinguish two layers in the evolution of Proto-Germanic. Krause introduced the principle of relative chronology which regulates the results of reconstruction in time.

Traditionally, Proto-Germanic refers to the kentum group of languages together with earlier groups as Greek, Italic, Illyrian, Tocharian, and Anatolian.

F.van Coetsem (1953), E.Makaev.

a) mobility of word stress;

b) similar behaviour of vowels in stressed and unstressed syllables, as well as monosyllabic and polysyllabic words;

c) realisation of IE o and a in PGmc a, and IE o:,o: inPGmc o:;

d) presence of a cluster ei and formation of clusters ul, ur, urn, un in place of IE syllabic l,r,m,n

e) three types of correlation in thesystem of plosives: weak voicedfricatives, weakvoiced stops, strong voiceless aspiratedstops.