Re: [tied] 1st Germanic sound shift

From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 25379
Date: 2003-08-27

27-08-03 19:22, Michael wrote:

> Why is the 1st Germanic sound shift so essential in defining Germanic
> as distinct from proto-Germanic? Couldn't it just be thought of as
> one stage in the development of Germanic rather than marking the
> distinction between the newly emerged Germanic from proto-Germanic?
> Is the consonant shift the only feature to distinguish the two?

Not Germanic from proto-Germanic, but pre-Germanic (and the whole rest
of IE) from Proto-Germanic and its descendants (including the
historically known Germanic languages). It's one of several innovations
that are the Germanic "autoapomorphies" (derived features found only in
that branch) and that _define_ Germanic within IE.

By definition, Proto-Germanic is the _most recent_ common ancestor of
all the documented Germanic languages (e.g. Wulfila's Gothic, Old Norse,
English, German, etc.). As such, it represents the stage postdating (and
reflecting) all the common Germanic innovations, e.g. the uniquely
Germanic development of syllabic liquids and nasals, Grimm's Law,
Verner's Law, the rule of initial stress and some other phonological
changes, as well as a number of grammatical and lexical innovations. On
the other hand, it predates any innovations not found in all the
Germanic languages (e.g. rhotacism, various types of umlaut, loss of
unstressed syllables).