--- In cybalist@..., "Piotr Gasiorowski" <gpiotr@...> wrote:
>
> (1) GRIMM'S LAW
>
> (1a) PIE *bH, *dH, *g(^)H, *gWH > PGmc. *v, *ð, *G, *Gw (voiced
breathy stops > voiced fricatives)
>
> (1b) PIE *b, *d, *g(^), *gW > PGmc. *p, *t, *k, *kw (voiced
stops > voiceless stops)
>
> (1c) PIE *p, *t, *k(^), *kW > PGmc. *f, *þ, *x, *xw (voiceless
stops > voiceless fricatives)
>
> NOTES:
>
> (i) *v, *ð, *G were primarily frictive, but developed stop
allophones ([b, d, g]) in some positions, e.g. after nasals; many
linguists, including Yours Truly, prefer to symbolise these PGmc.
phonemes as *b, *d, *g for the sake of orthographic simplicity, which
is OK as long as you remember that they were not _always_ realised as
stops, e.g. phonemic /d/ = phonetic [ð/d]. This kind of voiced
stop/voiced fricative allophony is found in many languages, e.g.
Spanish.
>
> (ii) Dorsal *x tended to be weakened to [h] in syllable onsets,
hence the variant symbol *h for the same phoneme.
>
> (iii) Grimm's Law did not affect the second element of voiceless
obstruent clusters:
>
> PIE *sp, *st, *sk, *skW > PGmc. *sp, *st, *sk, *skw
> PIE *pt, *kt > PGmc. *ft, *xt
> (2) VERNER'S LAW
>
> A voiceless fricative (*f, *þ, *x or *s) remains voiceless if it is
initial or immediately preceded by a stressed vowel, or if it forms a
cluster with another voiceless obstruent (e.g. *xs, *fs, *ft);
otherwise it becomes voiced:
>
> *f, *þ, *x, *s > *v, *ð, *G, *z (or, as some prefer to write
them, *b, *d, *g, *z) after an unstressed syllable if they are
flanked by voiced segments or word-final.
>
> Piotr
>
Verner's law, as stated here, has a disjoint condition: "if ... or it
is initial". First, perhaps on might say that this is valid only in
English north of the South Counties, Friesian and North Germanic, in
German, Dutch and South Counties, the latter condition doesn't apply
(unless this is a later process?). Second, where valid, the "initial"
part of the condition could be replaced by:
1. To separate words Germanic has a laryngeal ("knacklaut")
2. Laryngeal unvoices following fricative.
This could explain why in ON poetry, words beginning with vowel are
considered as beginning with the same consonant. One more thing, the
timing precision of the "attack" on a note is very important in rock
music, for which this sudden release of the vocal chords is perfect
(and I have it on the authority of Philip Glass, that rock music only
works in Germanic languages).
Torsten