The Proto-Indo-European Resonants in Germanic

Bibliographic Data

ID2851084
AuthorsW P Lehmann (corresponding author)
Year1955
Volume31
Issue3
Pages355
Publication date1955-07-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLanguage (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0097-8507 • E-ISSN: 1535-0665
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/410803
OpenAlexW2331569471
LanguageEN
Citations received3

In grammars of Germanic the reflexes of the PIE resonants, /y w r l m n/, are presented either inadequately or unsystematically. Prokosch devotes but a few pages to them, in contrast with his thirty-odd pages on the reflexes of the obstruents. Streitberg deals with them somewhat more fully, at various places in his treatment of Germanic phonology, but his chief interest is in the assimilatory and dissimilatory changes in which they are involved. The relative neglect of the resonants is understandable, for until Edgerton described in detail the allophonic distribution of the PIE resonants, it seemed completely adequate to cite an example or two of the correspondences between PIE [y w r 1 m n] and PGmc. [y w r 1 m n], or PIE [i u] and PGmc. [i u], and then to state with examples that a [u] developed in the neighborhood of PIE syllabic . If however we accept Sievers' law in Edgerton's formulation, we cannot pass over the Gmc. developments of the PIE resonants so lightly. Since we now expect grammars to present full and systematic statements of the general lines of development of a language, future treatments of PGmc. will have to describe in some detail the developments of the resonants into Germanic. In this paper the general outlines will be sketched, especially those environments which have been inadequately treated in the past

German · Germanic languages · Linguistics · Lexicography and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Philosophy

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