The Indo-European Family of Languages

1. Constant Change of the Language.

2. Dialectal Differentiation.

3. The Discovery of Sanskrit.

4. The First Consonant Shift (Grimm's Law).

5. Verner's Law.

6. Stress in Germanic Languages.

7. Substratum Theory.

8. West-Germanic Lengthening of Consonants.

9. The Second Consonant Shift.

10. Vowels.

11. Germanic Fracture.

12. Gradation or Ablaut.

13. Basic Grammatical Features of Germanic Languages.

14. Types of Substantive Stems.

15. The Adjective.

16. The Verb.

17. Germanic Alphabets.

18. Old Germanic Texts.

1. Constant Change of the Language.

There is no such thing as uniformity in language. The speech of one community differs from that of another. The speech of different individuals of a single community is marked by individual peculiarities. Even the speech of different members of the same family may be marked by individual peculiarities, aw well.

At the same time, members of a group are influenced by one another, and so there is a general similarity in the speech of a given community at any particular time. The language of any district or even country is the sum total of the individual speech habits of people living in this or that district or country. Such a language is subject to the changes occurring in the speech of its members.

The alteration is constantly going on in language. For the most part, it is gradual. Often it escapes the notice of those who speak this language, but after a period, the differences become appreciable. Alexander Pope (18^th century) writes: "Here thou, great Anna! Whom three realms obey

Dost sometimes counsel take – and sometimes Tea". Besides, he rhymes:

glass – place; lost – boast; obliged – besieged; reserve – starve;

Since Pope's time the pronunciation of at least one in each of these pairs has changed, so they are no longer considered good rhymes. If we go back to Chaucer (1343-1400), or still further, to King Alfred (871-899), we find still greater differences. King Alfred said: ban (bone); hū (how); hēāh (high). These words are scarcely recognizable to the typical English-speaking person today.

2. Dialectal Differentiation.

If any reparation of one community from another takes place and lasts for a considerable length of time, differences grow up between them. If the separation is slight, the differences may be slight, and we have merely local dialects. If the differences are so considerable that the speakers of one district cannot understand the speakers of another, we have the development of separate languages.

However, it is usually possible to recognize a number of features in the resulting languages. They indicate that at one time they were one language.

German milch swester wasser

English milk sister water

These words are obviously formed from a common form.

In the same way, we notice that father corresponds to Dutch vader

father: brother

Dutch: vader broeder

Gothic: fader

Old Norse faðir

German vater bruder

Greek patēr phrātēr

Sanskrit pitar bhrātar

Old Irish athir (with a loss of initial consonant)

Old Slavic bratū

Irish brothair Russian брат

Therefore, we are led to the hypothesis that the languages of a larger part of Europe and part of Asia were at one time identical.