Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law: Building the Foundation of Modern Linguistics
Transcript of Presentation:
Hello, my name is Kimberly Reach and I am studying the History of English at UMGC. This week we are discussing Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law. Both laws are important to the study of linguistics. Grimm’s Law discusses how the consonants move in Indo-European languages. Through his study and observations of non-Germanic Indo-European languages, he discovered that all Indo-European languages stem from a common Proto Indo-European language. Non-Germanic languages, such as Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, have more written records, native people studying and preserving them, and are closer to the original Proto Indo-European language. However, there were exceptions in Germanic languages that could not be classified according to Grimm’s Law. Verner’s Law explains the consonant shifts from non-Germanic to Germanic Indo-European languages that were previously unexplained exceptions to Grimm’s Law. Verner published his law under the title, “An Exception to the First Consonant Shift.” Essentially, his law explains how in Indo-European languages, consonants shift due to their stresses, if they are voiced or voiceless. Both Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law became part of the foundation to modern linguistics. Thank you for watching my video and I hope this assists in your study of the History of English.
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