3. Vowels.

Germanic languages also have some peculiarities in the sphere of vowel sounds, which distinguish them from other Indo-European languages. Their main characteristic feature in this sphere is the treatment of the Indo-European short vowels

o and a, and the long vowels ō and ā. Indo-European short o and a appear as short a in Germanic languages. Thus, because of these changes, there was neither a short o, nor a long ā in Germanic languages. Later on, these sounds appeared from different sources.

IE	Germanic	IE	Germanic
Russian яблоко	German Appfel	Latin octō	Gothic ahtau
Latin noctem	Gothic nahts	Greek oktō	German acht
Rissian ночь	German Nacht	Russian восемь

Indo-European long ō and ā appear as long ō in Germanic languages.

IE	Germanic	IE	Germanic
Latin frāter	Gothic brōþar	Latin flōs ("flower")	OE blōma
Greek phrātōr	OE brōþor

3. Germanic Fracture.

The vocalic system of Germanic languages has an important characteristic feature. The quality of a stressed vowel is in some cases dependent on a following sound. The earliest manifestation of this principle has been termed fracture or breaking (German Brechung). Fracture concerns two pairs of vowels: e and I and u and o.

An IE [e] in the root syllable finds its counterpart in Germanic [i], if it is followed by i, j or the cluster "nasal + consonant". Otherwise, the Germanic languages have in the corresponding words an [e].

Latin medius "middle"	OE midde	e - i
Latin ventus "wind"	OE wind	e - i
Latin edere "eat"	OE etan	e - e
Latin ferre "carry"	OE beran	e - e

Not every phonetic phenomenon stated in this law of fracture is equally clear. It is obvious that a following i or j tends (by assimilation) to turn a preceding e into i. As to the influence of the cluster "nasal + consonant", its part remains obscure. This problem requires some further investigation.

With reference to the vowels o and u the law of fracture may be formulated as the following: an IE u finds its counterpart in Germanic u, if it is followed by u, or by cluster "nasal + consonant", otherwise the IE u finds its counterpart in Germanic o.

Sanskrit sunus "son"	OE sunu	u – u
Latin iugum "yoke"	OE eoc ( oc)	u- -o

Such is the general rule. The Gothic language has a peculiarity in this respect. In Gothic, a specific feature modifies the general law of fracture: every IE e becomes i, and only before the consonants r, h and this i changes back into e; every IE u is preserved as u, and only before the consonants r and h u changes into o. The short e is denoted by the digraph ai. The short u is denoted by the digraph au.

Latin sedere "sit"	Gothic sitan
Latin ferre "carry	Gothic bairan
Latin pecus "cattle"	Gothic faihu
Latin sequi "follow"	Gothic saiwan "see"

12. Gradation, or Ablaut.

In IE languages, there is a special kind of vowel alteration: gradation, or ablaut.

It is very clearly seen in Ancients Greek, more especially in conjugation:

leipo – I leave → the root of the verb appears in three variants, distinguished by gradation: lip – / leip - / loip. Aorist ['ei rist] – a past tense which does not imply that the action was continued or repeated – past definite ēlipon; the perfect leloipa, the present leipo.

In Ancient Greek, the aorist was a verbal aspect, which is the perfective aspect. The form of its past tense was used to denote a happening that occurred once, for example in such sentences as "Xerxes invaded Greece in 480". Hence, the common term "historic past". Alteration plays an important role in Germanic languages.

The origin of gradation has been a matter of discussion for about a century. The following theory prevails: the three variants of a root, distinguished by gradation, are due to conditions of stress. The main type of gradation in IE languages is represented by the alteration e- o - zero. These variants are due to stress conditions:

• full stress brings about the high degree, that is o;

• weakened stress brings about the medium degree, that is e;

• unstressed position brings about zero.

The system of gradation in Germanic languages is best seen in the so-called strong verbs of the Gothic language. In the Gothic Bible of the 4^th century, the system of gradation appears in a very clear shape. In the earliest documents of other Germanic languages, including English, it has undergone such changes that its original laws are hard to discover. In Gothic, we find the following system of strong verbs:

Class	Infinitive	Past Singular	Past Plural	Second Participle
I	reisan	rais	risum	risans
II	kiusan	kaus	kusum	kusans
III	bindan	band	bundun	bundans
IY	stilan	stal	stelum	stulans
Y	giban	gaf	gebum	gibans

If, in class I, we extract a short i from all four forms, we get the very germ of gradation as I – a – zero. If, in class II, we extract a short u from all four forms, we get the very germ of gradation as i – a – zero. Class III: matters are slightly more complicated: u in Past Plural and Second Participle is conditioned by the fact that the consonant following the root vowel in class III is r, l, m, or n+ consonant. In classes IY, Y the root vowel is followed by different sounds that influence and complicate the situation.