Grimm’s law examples
One of the most important principles of linguistics, Grimm’s law is an attempt to explain why certain words sound the way they do. The law has many applications, and it is widely used to explain how a word sounds. It is not a perfect rule, however, as some exceptions to its generalization can occur. For example, the Latin word oculus, which is translated as “eye”, should have become an h sound.
Among its many application examples, Grimm’s law is concerned with the relationship between /f/ and ‘p’ as cognates. A hypothetical reconstruction is given below, showing the stem only and the declension attached. This would have been the case in normal language. It is also applicable to /k/ and ‘h’ as cognates. This rule has several other applications, as can be seen by looking at the first two sentences.
A further example of Grimm’s law is the development of the sounds in Germanic languages. For instance, English’s ‘father’ is pronounced ‘p’, whereas the German word for ‘father’ is pronounced ‘f’. In Norwegian, ‘far’ is pronounced ‘f’, and so does the German word for “vater”. In the first row of the PIE plosive diagram, the first-row sounds become new sounds, and the second row becomes new ones.
Grimm’s Law was invented in 1822 by a German philologist, Jacob Grimm. It was invented for the correspondences between certain consonants in the Germanic language. The Sanskrit, Greek and Latin languages are found in the Germanic language. Grimm’s Law differs between the Germanic and Indo-European languages. According to Grimm’s law, a Pin Indo European was changed to an f in the Germanic language but this ‘p’ didn’t change in Greek and Latin language. Then we can see the English and Latin language. If the truth of P is true also of T and K. Then the original voiceless stops (P,t,k) were changed to fricatives (f, P, h). So, in Latin tres turned into English three, Latin century turned into a hundred in English. Also for the Grimm’s Low Sanskrit bharami (Geek turned into bear and DHA became DO in English. In high German, some of those consonants changed and they are known as the second or high German Sound-shift. We can see in English open and German often, English eat and German Essen. These common dances are known as Grimm’s law. But we don’t know the cause of the change. However, there have some reasons for this law. The Finnish borrowed some words from the Germanic language but they didn’t show the change. That’s why Grimm’s law is necessary to figure out the difference between languages.