----- Original Message -----
>From: tgpedersen
<It's interesting that geminates at first were excepted from the 2nd
>(High German) sound shift
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German_consonant_shift
>see 'Phase 1'
>which is what one would expect if the Chatti etc were the ones who
>gave these words (and pronunciations) to Germanic and themselves
>became a lower social layer in the emerging Ariovistus-Germanic
>culture in Thuringia and further south in Germany.
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:DeutschesSprachgebiet962.png
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:German_dialectal_map.PNG
>Torsten
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The OHG shift is basically a kind of reinforcement.
Geminates are already strong from a phonological viewpoint.
Hierarchy : tt > t > d > s > h
They are not affected because they are already strong.
The dialectal map reminds me of the Spanish Reconquista
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ca/Spanish_reconquista.gif
This reconquista accounts for present-day dialects.
It's an West to East layered system.
Palatalization in Western URalic is a northern feature :
Finnish and Moksha are not palatal
Karelian and Erzia are palatalized.
This is coherent with these people expanding from the East.
The German dialectal map is a North/South layered system
indicating Germans came from the East.
(I suppose we are sure they couldn't come from the west side)
Arnaud
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