Genetic, typological and areal methods

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 584.

Classification of Proto-Germanic Languages

Late Proto-Germanic

LateProto-Germanic is characterised by a fixed expiratory stress falling on the first (root) syllable of a word.

a) fixed dynamic stress on the initial syllable;

b) different development of unstressed vowels, so that unstressed e turned into i, diphthongs showed a tendency towards monophthongization, long vowels displayed a tendency towards shortening;

c) the systems of short and long vowels either decreased their inventory (a three-phoneme system of short vowels in Proto-Gothic) or increased it (a five-phoneme system in other dialects);

d) the rise of a new phoneme e>',

e) lie tripartite correlation of voiceless fricatives, weak voiced fricatives (weak voiced stops), voiceless stops.

There are two basic types of linguistic classification: the genealogical classification and the typological classification ( based on a comparison of the formal similarity which exist between languages). The areal classification is transitional between the genealogical and typological classifications.

For all Indo-European languages the common ancestor was Proto-Indo-European which diverged into several proto-languages, among them Proto-Iranian, Proto-Germanic, Proto-Balto-Slavic, and some others.

First Consonant Shift (II cent. BC - II cent.AD) is also called Grimm's Law or Rask's Law. It differentiated the consonant system of Proto Germanic from consonant system of other Indo-European languages.

1) Indo-European voiceless plosives [ p, t. k, kʷ] changed into Germanic voiceless fricatives [ f, þ, h, hʷ].

2) Indo-European plosives [b, d, g, gʷ] changed into Germanic voiceless plosives [p, t, k, kʷ].

3) IE aspirated voiceless plosives [bh, dh, gh, gʷh] changed into voiced plosives without aspiration [b, d, g, gʷ].

1) глухие взрывные становятся фрикативными (p, t, k, kʷ → f, þ, h, hʷ). Примеры: др.гр. pod – англ. foot, русск. пять – англ. five, фр. trois – англ. three, лат. capio – др.англ. hebban, фр. que – англ. what.

2) взрывные[b, d, g, gʷ] становятся глухими взрывными [p, t, k, kʷ]. Примеры: лат. labor – англ. sleep, фр.dix – англ.ten, лат. gelare – англ. cold, др.греч.gyne – англ.queen.

3) глухие взрывные с аспирацией [bh, dh, gh, gʷh] становятся звонкими взрывными без аспирации [ b, d, g, gʷ→w]. Примеры: фр. frere – англ. brother, др. гр. methu – англ. mead, др.гр.khen - англ.goose, др.гр. thermos – англ.warm

Exceptions:

1) IE plosives [p, t, k] after Germanic [f, t, s^x] underwent no change (all languages of the Germanic group).

2) When preceded by sound [s], the consonants [p, t, k] were not shifted so IE sound clusters [sp, st, sk] remained in Germanic languages unchanged.

3) In a cluster of two plosives the preceding consonant turns into fricative while the following one remains aplosive.

4) Verner's law. Voiceless fricatives *f, *þ, *h, *hʷ, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively the fricatives *v, * ð, *ɣ, *ɣʷ.

Глухие фрикативные согласные *f, *þ, *s, *h, *hʷ озвончаются в случае, если непосредственно предшествующий гласный не имел на себе индоевропейского главного ударения и становятся фрикативными. *v, * ð, *ɣ, *ɣʷ.