PIE CHANGES

THE INDO-EUROPEAN LANGUAGE FAMILY

the unattested and & partly reconstructed language A set of common features shared by most or all of its

dialects/subdivisions considered to have vanished around 2000 BC = no

written records. Details: especially the sound pattern =remain the

subject of debate, New theories of time and place of the original Indo-

Europeans = still proposed. the era of PIE - 3000 BC to until shortly after 2000 BC

(archeological and linguistic evidence). the break-up of the community of original speakers of

PIE can be dated from the earliest records in Indo-European languages.

IE LANGUAGES

The IE languages

the language family/ family of families, of which English is a member + other European languages, such as French, German, Russian, Spanish, etc.

Asian languages: Bengali, Hindi, and Persian Classical languages – e.g., Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit the most extensively spoken group of languages worldwide Similarities among certain languages of Europe Asia

resulted from a common origin had attracted scholars for several centuries

the British scholar Sir William Jones (1786) = Sanskrit, Latin, and Greek share features derived from

‘some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists’. Germanic languages also have the same source.

THE PROTO-GERMANIC

 an unrecorded PIE offshoot (aka Primitive Germanic)up to the early Christian era = probably 1 language

(only minor dialectal differences)groups migrate into various parts of Europe,

dialectal differences develop rapidlyPGMC branches off around 100 BC. PGMC - no records before its subdivision into

eastern, western, and northern groups

the earliest records: runic inscriptions = (3c/4c) = Scandinavian written texts = Gothic (4-5c).

THE GERMANIC FAMILY

THE GERMANIC FAMILY

English, Dutch, Frisian, German, the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Faeroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish)

+ a number of derived languages (Yiddish << German, Afrikaans << Dutch)

+ the extinct Burgundian, Gothic, Norn, and Vandalic.

BRANCHES OF GERMANIC: (1) East Germanic: extinct Gothic (till 16c) (2) North Germanic: the modern & ancient Scandinavian languages (3) West Germanic: English, German, Dutch, Flemish,

Frisian (+ the languages from which they have developed)

METHODS OF HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS

the PHILOLOGICAL METHOD: compares the same text written in

different periods of language historythe INTERNAL RECONSTRUCTION

METHOD: looks at synchronic variation as a remnant

of some older regular formthe COMPARATIVE METHOD: groups words with related form and

meaning to reconstruct their proto-forms 

PIE TO OE – STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

Proto-Indo-European, c. 3000-2000 BCProto-Germanic = Primitive Germanic up to 100

BC (up to 500 BC it was phonetically uniform)(North-)West Germanic, c. 100 BC up to c. 300 ADAnglo-Frisian, the period of Anglo-Frisian linguistic

unity, c. 300-450Primitive Old English = Pre-Old English/

Prehistoric Old English, c. 450-700Early Old English, c. 700-900Late Old English, c. 900-1100

THE PIE SOUND SYSTEM

 CONSONANTS:

voiceless plosives /p t k kw*/ short vowels /i e o u a/

voiced unaspirated plosives /b d ɡ ɡw*/ long vowels /iː eː oː uː aː/

voiced aspirated plosives /bh dh ɡh ɡwh*/ diphthongs /ei eu oi ou ai au/

fricatives /s/ resonants nasals /m n/ (could function

either as consonants or as vowels) liquids /r l/ semivowels /w j/ (* labio-velar stops)  

PIE >> PGMC – CONSONANTAL CHANGES

CENTUM & SATEM LANGUAGES

several families (related by common descendant from one / other early offshoot)

- classified as SATEM and CENTUM languages - = the development of the IE word for ‘hundred’ with /k/ as in Latin centum or /s/

as in Sanskrit satem.

CENTUM: SATEM:

Latin centum Sanskrit šatá Gothi hund Polish sto Irish cēt Lithuanian šimtas

the SATEM language families: Indo-Iranian, Thraco-Phrygian, Illyrian, Balto-Slavonic

the CENTUM language families: Celtic, Germanic, Hellenic, Italic 

GRIMM’S LAW – 1ST GERMANIC SHIFT

THE FIRST GERMANIC CONSONANT SHIFT – a statement of a relationship between certain consonants in Germanic languages and their originals in PIE (1818 - the Danish philologist RASMUS RASK )

Set out in detail in 1822 by the German philologist JACOB GRIMM.

PIE voiceless plosives >> Germanic voiceless fricatives: PIE /p t k kw/ > /ɸ θ x xw/ > PGmc /f þ x xw/, e.g. Lat. pedis Eng. foot Lat. tres Eng. three Lat. canis Eng. Hound

PGmc /þ/ > OE /θ/ PGmc /x/ > OE /h/ [h, x] PGmc /xw/ > EOE /hw/, /h/

PIE voiced unaspirated plosives >> Germanic voiceless plosives:

PIE /b d ɡ ɡw/ > PGmc /p t k kw/, e.g.

Lat. turba OE þorp Lat. dentis Eng. tooth Lat. granum Eng. Corn

PGmc /kw/ > EOE /kw/, /k/

PIE voiced aspirated plosives became Germanic voiced unaspirated plosives:

PIE /bh dh ɡh ɡwh/ > /β ð ɣ ɣw/ > PGmc /b d ɡ ɡw/, e.g. Lat. hostis* Eng. guest *IE voiced aspirates changed to fricatives in Latin

PGmc /ɡ/ > OE /ɡ/ [ɡ, ɣ] PGmc /ɡw/ > EOE /ɡ/, /w/

GRIMM’S LAW - EXCEPTIONS

G’sL do not operate when the plosive is preceded by another voiceless stop / /s/, e.g.:

PIE */kapt-/ > OE hæft ‘captive’ Lat. captusPIE */nokt-/ > OE neaht ‘night’ Lat. noxPIE */ɡhostis/ > OE giest ‘guest’ Lat. hostisPIE */medhu/ > OE meodu ‘mead’ Pol. miód

Skt. mádhuPIE */tr-n-/ > OE þorn ‘thorn’ Pol. cierń Skt. tŕna-PIE */bhraːtor/ > OE brōþor ‘brother’ Pol. brat

Skt. bhrātr

VERNER’S LAW = GRAMMATICAL SOUND CHANGE

The evolution of certain consonants in Germanic languages already affected by Grimm’s Law 1875 - the Danish philologist KARL VERNER It explains a set of apparent exceptions to Grimm’s Law PGmc voiceless fricatives are voiced when the immediately preceding vowel does not carry the

main word stress and had no adjacent voiceless consonants VERNER’S LAW holds that PIE voiceless fricatives >> Germanic voiced fricatives: /ɸ θ s x xw/ > /β ð z ɣ ɣw/, e.g. PIE */pətér/ > PGmc */fəθér/ > PGmc */fəðer/ > OE fæder > PDE father

consonants that change in accordance with VERNER’S LAW undergo further changes: original /s/ >> /z/ >> /r/ = RHOTACISM FIRST CONSONANT SHIFT = GRIMM’S LAW + VERNER’S LAW, E.G. voiced aspirated plosives became voiced fricatives: /bh dh ɡh ɡwh/ > /β ð ɣ ɣw/ voiceless plosives became voiceless fricatives: /p t k kw/ > /ɸ θ x xw/ /f þ x xw/

SECOND CONSONANT SHIFT = German, e.g. Eng. penny – Ger. Pfennig Eng. copper – Ger. Kupfer Eng. dead – Ger. tot

PIE TO PGMC – VOCALIC CHANGES

the so-called ɑ ~ o mergerit reduced the number of long and short

vowels to 4 eachthe vowels /ɑ/ & /o/ have a long history of

instability in Germanic languages: ɑ ~ o merger: 2 processes in operation

working in opposite directions:/aː/ > /oː/, e.g. PIE */bhraːtor/> PGmc */broːþor/>OE brōþor /o/ > /a/, e.g. PIE */oktoːu/>PGmc */ahta/>OE eahta 

PIE >> PGMC - STRESS

PIE stress = free (free pitch)

PGMC stress = fixed on the basis of loudness

PIE >> PGMCE – CASE SYSTEM

nominative

genitive

dative  ablative  locativeaccusative instrumental vocative

PIE – GENDER

originally 2 genders:

animate:masculinefeminine

inanimate:neuter

PERSON

first (speaker)

second (addressee) third (anything else)

PIE – NUMBER & MOOD

NUMBER  singular dual  plural

MOOD  indicative subjunctive optative injunctive imperative 

PIE – VOICE/ASPECT/TENSE

VOICE

active  middle passive  ASPECT

present

TENSE

future  imperfect perfect past (= preterit) aorist pluperfect  

PIE VERBAL SYSTEM >> PGMC

PIE CLASSES OF strong verbs: - 7 classes? = number of classes uncertain PGMC VERBS:- STRONG VERBS- weak verbs = Germanic innovation 

THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANGES FROM PIE TO PGMC

Grimm’s Law & Verner’s Law

fixed word stress on the root syllable

weak verbs with past tense in [t] or [d] (dental preterite)

two-tense verbal system

strong and weak adjectival declensions