VERNER’S LAW
SKMU UG SEM 1 UNIT 1
VERNER’S LAW
• Grimm’s Law is the identification of regular shift of stop consonant.
According to Grimm’s Law the Stop Consonants tended to change in the
following manner while developing from Indo –European to Germanic
language.
• /bh, dh, gh/ voiced stop becomes voiced stop /b, d, g/
/b , d , g/ voiced stop → voiceless stop /p , t , k /
/p , t , k / voiceless stop → voiceless fricatives /f , 0 , h /
VERNER’S LAW
• Grimm’s Law however, did not operate under certain circumstances. For
Example, in the Latin word 'Centum’ the sound /k/ changes to /h/ of
hundred which is according to Grimm’s Law but the sound /t/ that should
change into /th/ becomes /d/ instead. This kind of lack of correspondence
was a puzzlement to Scholars until Karl Verner a Danish Philologist in 1875
came out with an explanation to this. The Law formulated by him was
named after him as ‘ VERNER’S LAW ’ .
VERNER’S LAW
• According to Verner , initial consonants and those protected by the accent in
Indo – European and Early Teutonic suffered no shift in sound. But certain
medial and final voiceless consonants in early Teutonic when not protected
by the accent or by contact with other voiceless consonants they became
voiced consonants. According to him ,when the Indo – European accent
(Stress) did not fall on the Vowel immediately preceding the consonant that
is concerned, these voiceless sound became voiced stop sounds in Germanic.
Thus, the sounds/p , t , k/ changes to /v , d , g/ and /s/ change into /z/.
VERNER’S LAW
• This Explains Why ‘t’ in ‘ Centum’ did not change into ‘th’. It is because the stress
was in the last syllable. ‘t’ Changed to ‘th’ only if the stress fell on the preceding
syllable. Under this Condition ‘t’ in ‘Centum’ changed to ‘d’ in hundred.
• Examples:-
1. Indo European /p/ which becomes /f/ according to Grimm’s Law becomes /v/
according to Verner’s Law .
Upari (Sanskrit)→ U for (old English) according to Grimm’s Law → over
(according to Verner’s Law)
Septen (Latin ) → Seofan (OE) → Seven
VERNER’S LAW
2. Indo European /t/ which becomes /th/ according to Grimm’s Law becomes /d/
according to Verner’s Law .
Kratos (Greek) → hartus (OE) according to Grimm’s Law → hard
(according to Verner’s Law)
Centum (Latin) → hund (OE) → hundred
3. Indo – European / k / becomes /h/ according to Grimm’s Law. This becomes / g/
according to Verner’s Law.
draconis (Latin) → dragon
VERNER’S LAW
• Hence, This is how Verner’s Law gave an explanation to the exceptions of
Grimm’s Law. Which also showed the important role that accent played in
Linguistic Change in the Germanic Language.
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