Grimm's law

noun

a sound law relating German consonants and consonants in other Indo-European languages

• Hypernyms: ↑sound law

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\\ˈgrimz-\ noun

Usage: usually capitalized G & often capitalized L

Etymology: after Jacob Grimm died 1863 German philologist

1.

a. : a statement in historical linguistics: Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops became Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives (as in Greek pyr, treis, kardia compared with English fire, three, heart), Proto-Indo-European voiced stops became Proto-Germanic voiceless stops (as in Old Slavic jablŭko, Greek dyo, genos compared with English apple, two, kin), and Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops became Proto-Germanic voiced fricatives (as in Sanskrit nābhi, madhya “mid”, Latin helvus compared with English navel, Old Norse mithr “mid”, English yellow), and then Proto-Germanic voiceless stops became High German affricates or voiceless fricatives (as in English pound, open, ten, eat, corn, make compared with German pfund, offen, zehn, essen, Upper German kchorn, German machen) and Proto-Germanic voiced stops (coming from Proto-Germanic voiced fricatives) became High German voiceless stops (as in English rib, middle, Dutch egge “edge” compared with German rippe, mittel “means”, ecke “corner”)

b. : a statement in historical linguistics: Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops became Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives (as in Greek pyr, treis, kardia compared with English fire, three, heart), Proto-Indo-European voiced stops became Proto-Germanic voiceless stops (as in Old Slavic jablŭko, Greek dyo, genos compared with English apple, two, kin), and Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops became Proto-Germanic voiced fricatives (as in Sanskrit nābhi, madhya “mid”, Latin helvus compared with English navel, Old Norse mithr “mid”, English yellow)

2.

a. : consonant shift 3

b. : consonant shift 1

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Ling.

the statement of the regular pattern of consonant correspondences presumed to represent changes from Proto-Indo-European to Germanic, according to which voiced aspirated stops became voiced obstruents, voiced unaspirated stops became unvoiced stops, and unvoiced stops became unvoiced fricatives: first formulated in 1820-22 by Jakob Grimm, though the facts had been noted earlier by Rasmus Rask.

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Grimm's law

The law formulating certain changes undergone by Indo-European stopped consonants in Germanic, stated by Jacob Grimm (1785–1863)

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Main Entry: ↑law

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Grimm's law «grihmz»,

Linguistics. a statement of the systematic changes in certain Indo-European consonants that took place in the Germanic languages and were carried still further in High German, as seen in the correspondences between the Germanic consonants and those in the other Indo-European languages in cognate words. For example, where Latin has p, English has f: Latin pater, English father; where Latin has d, English has t and High German has ts (spelled z) initially: Latin decem, English ten, High German zehn. Most of the changes were noted by Rasmus Rask in 1818 and a full statement of them was made by Jacob Grimm in 1822.

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Linguistics the observation that certain Indo-European consonants (mainly stops) undergo regular changes in the Germanic languages that are not seen in non-Germanic languages such as Greek or Latin. Examples include p becoming f so that Latin pedem corresponds to English foot and German Fuss. The principle was set out by Jacob Grimm in his German grammar (2nd edition, 1822)

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Grimm's law

see law n.¹ 17 c (c).