2. Word – Stress

Another important phonetic feature of the Gc languages is the position and the character of the word-accent. In all IE languages the accent was free or moving, that is, in different words different syllables could be stressed as in Modern Russian: сл΄ово – слов΄а. In all the Gc languages the accent was very early fixed on the first (root) syllable of a word, except verbs like the modern be΄lieve, for΄get, where the initial syllable was a prefix. Besides, the IE accent is supposed to have been musical, i.e. the difference between an accented and unaccented syllable was rather that of pitch than of stress. The Germanic accent became entirely a matter of stress, and of heavy stress too.

We do not know exactly in what century the accent shifted to the first syllable, but, as Karl Verner has shown, it must have taken place later than the change of p, t, k > f, θ, h, since these sounds were voiced after unstressed syllables in such words as fæder, mōdor, etc.

The fixation of the stress on the first syllable had far-reaching consequences for the further development of the Gc languages. The absence of stress always tends to obscure vowel sounds, and as the word endings were always unstressed after the shifting of the accent, it could not but result in the slurring and gradual loss of inflections.

3. Vowels

The Gc languages are also marked by some peculiarities in the development of vowels as compared with other IE languages.

1. Stressed vowels

IE vowels underwent Germanic modifications. IE short o and a appear as short a in Gc languages:

L octō, Gt ahtau, R гость, Gt gasts

R яблоко, G Apfel

IE long ō and ā appear as long ō in Gc languages:

L flōs, Gt blōma

L māter, OE mōdor

As a result, there was neither a short o nor a long ā in Gc languages. Later on these sounds appeared from different sources, e.g. long ā developed in the Gc languages owing to the loss of nasals before h and the lengthening of the previous short a, e.g. Gt þāhta < *þanhta (E thought); before nasal consonants the Gc a was raised to the sound intermediate between a and o.

OE scribes now wrote the letter a, now the letter o in this position, e.g.

land – lond, lanʒ - lonʒ.

2. Germanic Fracture (Breaking)

In Gc languages the quality of a stressed vowel is in some cases dependent on a following sound. This phenomenon has been termed fracture or breaking (G Brechung). It concerns two pairs of vowels: the pair e and i and the pair u and o

1. An IE e in the root syllable is raised to i in Gc.

   1. before covered nasals (a nasal + a consonant) L ventus, OE wind

   2. before i or j in the following syllable L medius, OE midde

   3. in unstressed position L est, Gt ist.

Otherwise (e.g. before a, o, e in the following syllable and no covered nasal) e remains unchanged in Germanic. In Gothic every IE e becomes i and only before r and h e remains unchanged, e.g.

L sedere, Gt sitan

L ferre, Gt bairan [e]

L sequi, Gt saihan [e]

2. An IE u finds its counterpart in Gc u

(a) before covered nasals (a nasal + a consonant), e.g. L centum, OE hund; OE ʒebunden, but ʒeworden

(b) before u in the following syllable, e.g. Skt sunus, OE sunu

Otherwise (e.g. before a, o, e in the following syllable and no covered nasal) IE u has been widened to o in Germanic, e.g. L iugum, OE ʒeoc, E yoke, Celtic hurnan, OE horn.

In Gothic every IE u is preserved as u and only before r and h u changes into o.