Germanic alphabets
Germanic tribes used three different Alphabets: Runic, Greek and Latin. The earliest of these was the Runic alphabet presumably derived either from the Latin or some other Italic alphabet close to the Latin. The runes (rune originally meant whisper, mystery) were mostly used for carving or scratching inscriptions (evidently thought to have magic power) on wood, stone or metal and consisted of vertical and diagonal strokes. The alphabet is also known as the futhark, from its first six runes.
Just when and where the Runic alphabet was created is unknown. According to some scientists, it originated approximately at some time in the 2nd and 3d centuries A.D., somewhere on the Rhine or the Danube where Gothic tribes came into touch with Roman culture. The Runic alphabet was used by different Germanic tribes: Goths, Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians.
Next comes Ulfila`s Gothic alphabet (4 c.) based on the Greek alphabet with some admixture of Latin and Runic letters.
The latest alphabet used by Germanic tribes is the Latin alphabet. As it was inadequate to represent all sounds of Germanic languages, it was adapted to the peculiar needs of separate languages.
Some phonetic peculiarities of germanic languages
Consonants
The First Consonant Shift (Grimm’s Law)
One of the most distinctive features marking off the Germanic languages from all the other Indo-European languages is the so-called First Consonant Shift. It is called the first to distinguish it from the second consonant shift, which occurred in High German (i.e. Southern German) dialects in the V –VII centuries. It was first formulated by the Danish scholar R.Ch. Rask and explained by the German linguist J.L.Grimm in 1822 in his work German Grammar (Deutsche Grammatik) and therefore called Grimm`s Law. As proved by J. Grimm all the IE plosives seem to have gradually changed in Old Germanic. Regular correspondences of Germanic and those of other IE languages were grouped under three categories called by him Acts.
I. ACT The IE voiceless plosives p, t, k changed in Gc. to corresponding voiceless fricatives f, θ, h, e.g.
p > f R полный, L plēnus, Gt fulls
t > θ R три, L trēs, E three
k > h L canis, Gk kunos, E hound
II. ACT The IE voiced plosives b, d, g became in Gc voiceless p, t, k, e.g.
b > p R болото, E pool, R. слаб, E sleep
d > t R два, E. two, R вода, E water
g > k R иго, E yoke, Gk agros, E acre
Ііі. Act The ie aspirated voiced plosives bh, dh, gh changed in Gc to corresponding unaspirated plosives b, d, g, e.G.
bh > b Skt bhrātar, E brother
dh > d Skt vidhavā, E widow
gh > g Skt vāhanam < *vaghanam, E wagon
Verner`s Law
Further investigations of the Gc consonantal system showed that in some cases it is voiced plosives, rather than voiceless fricatives that correspond in Gc to IE voiceless plosives. Instead of the expected f, θ, h we find v, d, g. Cf
t – d Gk. pater, O.E. fæder
k – g Gk.dekas, Gt. tigus
According to Grimm’s Law the sound t should have corresponded to the sound θ, e.g.
t > θ R брат, E brother;
The sound k should have corresponded to the sound h, e.g.
k > h L. canis, E. hound
In 1877 the Danish scholar Karl Verner explained these inconsistencies in Grimm’s Law. The explanation given by Karl Verner is that the sound quality depended on the position of the accent in the IE word: after an unstressed vowel the voiceless fricatives f, θ, h < p, t, k were voiced and later on changed to b, d, g, e.g. Skt pi΄tar, OE fæder.
The connection between the Gc sounds and the position of the IE accent, discovered by Karl Verner, is usually called Verner`s Law. It was of great importance for the study of the Gc languages as it explained many seeming irregularities in their grammatical forms and drew attention of linguists to word stress.
Besides the voiceless fricative consonants resulting from the consonant shift, one more voiceless fricative consonant is affected by Verner`s Law, viz, the consonant s. If the preceding vowel is unstressed, s in Gc languages becomes voiced, i. e. s changes into z. Eventually this z becomes r in West Germanic and North Germanic languages (but not in Gothic). This latter change of z > r is termed rhotacism (from the name of the Greek letter ρ [rho]).
Gt hausjan, OE hīeran, G hören, E was – were