3. West-Germanic Lengthening of Consonants.

West-Germanic languages show a perculiar phenomenon in the sphere of consonants. It has been called West-Germanic lengthening of consonants. It's essence is the following: every consonant with the single exception of [r] is lengthened if it is preceded by a short vowel and followed by the consonant [j]. For example, in Old English "sætian – settean" (set). The phonetic essence of lengthening appears to be assimilation: the consonant [j] is assimilated to the preceding consonant.

stæpian > steppan ('step') tælian > tellan ('tell')

sæ ian > sec an ('say") cnusian > cnyssan ('shove')

framian > fremman ('fulfill') hleahian > hliehhan, hlyhhan ('laugh')

ræcian > reccan ('direct') swæfian > sweffan > svebban ('kill')

(a long [f] later develops into long [b]bb)

3. The Second Consonant Shift.

It occurred in High German dialects (that is, dialects of Southern Germany). The common Germanic voiced stop d corresponds to High German voiceless stop t. The common Germanic voiceless stop p corresponds to the voiceless fricative f after a vowel. The voiceless stop k corresponds to the voiceless fricative ch [x] after a vowel. The full tables of correspondences would appear to be the following:

The Second Consonant Shift (5^th – 7^th centuries AD)

Common Germanic	High German
Gothic badi ('bed') OE bedd	Bett
OE dōn ('do')	tun
OE pōl ('pool')	Pfuhl
OE hopian ('hope')	hoffen
Gothic taihun [tehun] ('ten')	zehn
Gothic itan ('eat') OE etan	essen
OE macian ('make')	machen
OE stork ('stork')	storch

Common Germanic

High German

initially and after

a consonant

High German

after a vowel

b

p

p

d

t*

t*

g

k

k

p

pf*

f*

t

z* [ts]

s*

k

kh

ch [x]

Not all these changes penetrated into the literary German language, only those indicated by asterisk [*]. All the other changes remained confined to the most Southern German dialects (in Bavaria, Austria, and Switzerland). Thus, the second consonant shift is not fully reflected in Modern literary German. The second consonant shift occurred between the fifth and the 7^th centuries A.D., gradually spreading from South to North.

A few hundred years later, between the 8^th and 12^th centuries, one more change took place. This change gave the German consonant system its present shape. The common Germanic d developed into t in High German. As a result, the German consonant system had no d-sound. Now a new d appeared, coming from the common Germanic þ.

8^th – 12^th centuries AD

Common Germanic	High German
Gothic þreis ('three') OE þrīē	drei
Gothic þū ('thou') OE þū	du
Gothic brōþar ('brother') OE brōþor	Bruder
Gothic anþar ('other') OE ōþer	ander

In this way, the gap left in the High German consonant system by the change of d into t in the second consonant shift was filled. Modern literary German again has a complete system: p / b, t /d, k / g.