In consequence of the familiar High German consonant shift, the voiceless stops /p t k/ became the affricates /pf ts kx/, simplifying later to the geminate fricatives /ff ss (‘ƷƷ’) xx/ in certain environments. It has long been assumed that the affricates developed only from aspirated allophones of /p t k/, thus accounting for the retention of plain stops in /s/-clusters and a few other positions, but it is not obvious why particularly aspiration, ensuing from a laryngeal gesture of spread glottis, should have resulted in the oral property of affrication. Neither is it clear how etymologically simplex segments, upon deaffrication in certain environments, might have resulted in geminates without further stipulation. Proceeding from essentially traditional assumptions, and at the same time addressing important questions about Germanic phonetics raised by Vennemann (1984), the present paper attributes the triggering of the affrication event to an early factoring out, or segmentalization, of the feature for aspiration, i.e., pre-OHG [phthkh] → [ph th kh]. Explanations are then proposed for the development of affricates out of these now disegmental sequences via place assimilation from the stops, and of the affricates into geminate fricatives (postvocalically and in some postconsonantal environments) via assimilatory weakening.
An analysis of dialect words from throughout the Rhineland presented here supports the view that the OHG shift began after short vowels and spread to consonants after long vowels only secondarily. Furthermore, pre-OHG *-p, *-t, *-k shifted less consistently after long vowels in Rhenish Frankish varieties than they did in other dialects of Old High German. To explain this difference we posit (following Schmidt, Die sprachhistorische Genese der mittelfränkischen Tonakzente: 201–233, 2002 and Schmidt/Künzel, Das Rätsel löst sich: 135–163, 2006) that tone accents in the pre-OHG Rhenish Frankish varieties were originally derivative of the intrinsic (phonetic) variation in length found among long vowels. Intrinsically longer [–high] long vowels had a long, falling tone accent that emphasized their length, and that delayed or blocked the shift of postvocalic *p, *t, *k (> f/ff, s/ss, x/xx) in that environment.
During the Northwest Germanic period, *ɣaβiɣs ‘rich’ (Go. gabigs / gabeigs ‘rich’ < giban ‘to give’) and related forms (Go. gabigjan ‘to make rich’, gabignan ‘to be rich’) were reanalyzed as consisting of the prefix *ɣa- + root. This reanalysis was triggered by the prevailing Germanic stress pattern (indicated where necessary by a raised tick '), since *ɣaβiɣs was stressed on the first syllable of the root (thus *'ɣaβiɣs). while nominal and adjectival compounds that consisted of *ɣa- + root ('ga-qumps ‘assembly’, 'ga-fulgins ‘hidden’, 'ga-hails ‘hale’) were stressed on the prefix. Thus, an extrapolated root form *ɣiγ- > *biγ- was created that then existed parallel to *γaβiγs in Northwest Germanic. The newly created form *biγs survived and developed into ME big(ge) ‘strong, sturdy’ (> Eng. big), while OE gifig, ON g˛fugr ‘noble’, and related forms in Old High German and Gothic are reflexes of *ɣaβiɣs.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.