Teutonic Languages

Teutonic Languages, a main branch of the Aryan linguistic family (q.v.), in which they hold a position somewhat intermediate between the Slavo-Lettic and the Italo-Celtic groups, while presenting some special phonetic and structural features which give them an unique place in the family. In this group the organic Aryan mutes undergo two distinct series of permutations, in accordance with the so-called law of Lautverschiebung ("Sound-shifting"), discovered by Rask, developed by Grimm, and completed by Verner. The first series of shifts took place in prehistoric times, and is found already fully carried out in Gothic (q.v.), the oldest known member of the group. In this process the surds or voiceiess stops p, k, t first become everywhere the voiceless spirants f, h, th; then these spirants, when medial and in association with sonants, become themselves the sonant or voiced stops b g, d, always in weak syllables, and also in strong syllables before the accent; but when they follow the accent the second shift is arrested, and they remain voiceless spirants. The influence of the Aryan accent, first noted by Verner, is seen in such examples as Sanskrit antara, Gothic anthar, Anglo-Saxon and English other for onther, with single shift only (t to th), because the accent precedes; but Sanskrit antar, Gothic undar, Anglo-Saxon andand English under, with double shift (t thrthrough th to d), because the accent follows. The process extends in Anglo-Saxon and Norse to the organic voiceless spirant s, which similarly passes through z to r, as in Gothic dius for diuz, Norse dyr, Anglo-Saxon deor, English deer. The second series of shifts is historical, no trace of it occurring in Gothic or in any extant Teutonic forms (geographical or personal names, etc.) before the 7th century. Its later appearance is also shown by the fact that it never spread to the whole of the Teutonic domain, but is mainly confined to the South German highlands, where the process was continued sporadically to about the close of the 11th century. The south German dialects were thus constituted a distinct group under the name of Hoch-Deutsch (i.e. "High German") in contradistinction to the Platt-Deutsch ("Flat" or "Lowland German") of the northern plains, which were unaffected by the process, and which consequently remain in their phonetics truer representatives of primitive Teutonic speech. The process itself is due to a general tendency to strengthen the mutes, so that the soft sonants (b,g, d) become hard surds (p, k, t), while these become hard (voiceless) spirints (pf or f, h or ch, ts written z). Thus, the Catti of the Romans pass through such forms as Chatti, Hatti, Haxi, Hassi, to the modern Hessians; but the rotation is arrested at the hard spirants f, h, th of the prehistoric series (representing organic p, k, t), because these are incapable of further strengthening. Hence it is that the primative Teutonic f and h persist in High German (Gothic hunds, Anglo-Saxon and German hund, Enghsh hound). Surd th, however passes through sonant th (dh) to d, and later further permutations take place (such as z to ss) in the Hoch Deutsch group, which thus becomes historically differentiated into Old (7th to 11th century), Middle (12th to 15th century), and Modern High German. In general, the dental are much more fully carried out than the labial and guttural shiftings, so that the primitive surd th (as in think) passes through sonant th (as in then) to d in the Low as well as in the High German group, but not in Anglo-Saxon and English, which thus stand phonetically on the same high level as Gothic itself - that is, nearest to organic Aryan speech. Hence it is that words like three (Gothic threis, Anglo-Saxon threo), thorn (Gothic thaurnus, Anglo-Saxon thorn). etc., appear both in Low and High German with initial d. Dutch drie, doorn; German drei, dorn; all representing organic Aryan t, as in Sanskrit tri, etc. There are traces, however, of the tendency even in Gothic, surd th passing once or twice to d, just as in English murther (Anglo-Saxon morthor), Gothic maurthr) has become murder; as in some dialects de, dey, dree are heard for the, they, three. Other features distinguishing Teutonic from the sister Aryan tongues are:- (1) Umlaut, or modification of the root-vowel, a later development, being unknown in Gothic, by which the root-vowels a, o, u and certain diphthongs are modified under the influence of an original i or j, in the following syllable, to which they tend to be assimilated. The inflecting vowels themselves tend to disappear, thus giving inflecting force to the umlauted vowels, as in Anglo-Saxon fot, plural fet, from older foti, fote, fete = feet. (2) Great loss of nominal, adjectival, and especially of verbal gmmmatical forms; the seven organic cases are reduced to four (in English to two), with greatly weakened endings and consequent confusion of the original stem declensions, while of the immensely rich Aryan verb little remains except two tenses (present and past), three moods (indicative, subjunctive, infinitive), and the present and past participles. The middle and passive voices are entirely gone, those or the Norse group being later reconstructions. (3) The evolution of new and very peculiar nominal, adjectival, and verhal processes (the so-called weak as opposed to the organic strong declensions and conjugation), the origin of which is involved in much obscurity. It is noteworthy that all these grammatical peculiarities pervade the whole Teutonic domain, so that the affinities of the several branches are determined, not so much by their inflecting forms as by their phonetic systems. All Teutonic languages mnst be grouped with one or other of the two main Low and High divisions (see above), according as they are or are not affected by the later (historical) series of sound-shiftings, as in the subjoined table :-

LOW GERMAN DIVISION
Gothec - (extinct).
Norse
    W. Branch: Old Norwegian; Icelandic.
    E. Branch: Danish; Swedish, Frisic.
Niederdeutsch
    Netherlandish: Dutch; Flemish.
    Continental or Old Saxon
HIGH GERMAN DIVISION
Mittledeutsch
    Frankish (extinct).
    Thuringian: Neo-Saxon; Transylvanian.
Oberdeutsch
    Burgundian: [Swiss.]
    Alemannic: [New High German (Literary Standard).]
    Bavarian: [Tyrolese]; Austrian