High German consonant shift

changes that took place in the same period.[2] For the core
group, there are three changes, which may be thought
of as three successive phases. Each phase aected three
consonants, making nine modications in total:
1. The three Germanic voiceless plosives became
fricatives in certain phonetic environments (English
ship /p/, Dutch schip [sxp], Norwegian skip [p]
map to German Schi [f]);
2. The same sounds became aricates in other positions (apple /pl/, appel [pl], eple [:ple]: Apfel
[apfl]); and
3. The three voiced plosives became voiceless (door
/dr/, deur [dr], dr [dr] : Tr [ty]).
Since phases 1 and 2 aect the same voiceless sounds,
some scholars nd it more convenient to treat them together, thus making for only a two-phase process: shifts
High German subdivides into Upper German (green) and Central
in voiceless consonants (phases 12 of the three-phase
German (blue), and is distinguished from Low German (yellow)
model) and in voiced consonants (phase 3). The twoand Dutch. The main isoglosses the Benrath and Speyer lines
for typology, but it does not
are marked in black. NB: This map shows the modern bound- phase model has advantages
[3]
reect
chronology.
aries of the languages.
Of the other changes that sometimes are bracketed within
the High German consonant shift, the most important
(sometimes thought of as the fourth phase) is:

In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a
phonological development (sound change) that took place
in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases. It probably began between the
third and fth centuries and was almost complete before
the earliest written records in High German were produced in the ninth century. The resulting language, Old
High German, can be neatly contrasted with the other
continental West Germanic languages, which for the most
part did not experience the shift, and with Old English,
which remained completely unaected.

4. // (and its allophone []) became /d/ (this

/s/ : dies [dis]). However, this also applies to
Dutch (this : dit [dt]) Norwegian, Danish, and
Swedish, but not Icelandic (this : dette [dte] /
detta [dta] , but etta [e:ta]).
This phenomenon is known as the High German consonant shift, because the core group aects the High German dialects in the mountainous south.[4] It is also known
as the second Germanic consonant shift to distinguish
it from the "(rst) Germanic consonant shift as dened
by Grimms law and its renement, Verners law.

General description

The High German consonant shift did not occur in a single movement, but rather as a series of waves over several centuries. The geographical extent of these waves
varies. They all appear in the southernmost dialects, and
spread northwards to diering degrees, giving the impression of a series of pulses of varying force emanating from what is now Austria and Switzerland. Whereas
some are found only in the southern parts of Alemannic
(which includes Swiss German) or Bavarian (which includes Austrian), most are found throughout the Upper

The High German consonant shift altered a number

of consonants in the southern German dialects and
thus also in modern Standard German, Yiddish, and
Luxembourgish and so explains why many German
words have dierent consonants from the obviously related words in English, Dutch and the Scandinavian
languages.[1] The term is sometimes used to refer to
a core group of nine individual consonant modications. Alternatively, it may encompass other phonological
1

3 CORE GROUP

German area, and some spread on into the Central German dialects. Indeed, Central German is often dened
as the area between the Appel/Apfel and the Schip/Schi
boundaries, thus between complete shift of Germanic /p/
(Upper German) and complete lack thereof (Low German). The shift // > /d/ was more successful; it spread
all the way to the North Sea and aected Dutch as well as
German. Most, but not all of these changes have become
part of modern Standard German.[5]
The High German consonant shift is a good example of
a chain shift, as was its predecessor, the rst Germanic
consonant shift. For example, phases 1 and 2 left the language without a /t/ phoneme, as this had shifted to /s/ or
Phase 3 lled this gap (/d/ > /t/), but left a new gap
/ts/.
at /d/, which phase 4 then lled (// > /d/).

single consonants. Geminate plosives in words like *appul apple or *katta cat were not aected, nor were
plosives preceded by another consonant like in *skarp
sharp or *hert heart. These remained unshifted until
the second phase.
/p/ > // (> /f/ nally)
/t/ > zz (> z nally)
/k/ > /xx/ (> /x/ nally)
/p/ presumably went through an intermediate bilabial
stage //, although no distinction between /x/ and /f/ was
made in writing. It can be assumed that the two sounds
merged early on.

The letter z stands for a voiceless fricative that is distinct

somehow from s. The exact nature of the distinction is
2 Overview table
unknown; possibly s was apical while z was laminal.
It remained distinct from /s/ throughout Old High GerThe eects of the shift are most obvious for the non- man and most of the Middle High German period, and
specialist when comparing Modern German lexemes con- was not aected by the late Old High German voicing of
taining shifted consonants with their Modern English or prevocalic /s/ to /z/.
Dutch unshifted equivalents. The following overview
This phase has been dated as early as the 4th century,
table is arranged according to the original Proto-Indothough this is highly debated. The rst certain examples
European (PIE) phonemes. Note that the pairs of words
of the shift are from the Edictus Rothari (a. 643, oldest exused to illustrate sound shifts must be cognates; they need
tant manuscript after 650), a Latin text of the Lombards.
not be semantic equivalents. German Zeit means 'time'
Lombard personal names show *b > /p/, having pert, perg,
but it is cognate with tide, and only the latter is relevant
prand for bert, berg, brand. According to most scholars,
here.
the pre-Old High German runic inscriptions of about a.
Notes:
600 show no convincing trace of the consonant shift.
1. G: Grimms law
2. V: Verners law
3. Approximate, isoglosses may vary.
4. Old High German scarph, Middle High German
scharpf.
5. Old High German ezzen, daz, z.

6. Note that in modern German z is pronounced /ts/.

7. Old English ic, I.
8. Old English fder, father"; English has shifted d >
th in a few OE words ending in a vowel + -der.

In many West Central German dialects, the words dat,

wat, et (that, what, it) did not shift to das, was, es, even
though t was shifted in other words. It is not quite clear
why these exceptions occurred.
Examples:
Old English slpan : Old High German slfan
(English sleep /slip/, Dutch slapen [slap(n)]
: German schlafen [lafn])
OE strt : OHG strzza (English street /strit/,
Dutch straat [strat] : German Strae [tas])
OE rce : OHG rhhi (English rich /rt/, Dutch
rijk [rik] : German reich [a])

3.2 Phase 2

3
3.1

Core group
Phase 1

The rst phase, which aected the whole of the High

German area, aected the voiceless plosives /p/, /t/ and
/k/ in intervocalic and word-nal position. These became
geminated (long) fricatives, except in word-nal position
where they were shortened and merged with the existing

In the second phase, which was completed by the 8th century, the same sounds became aricates in three environments: in word-initial position; when geminated; and after a liquid (/l/ or /r/) or nasal (/m/ or /n/).
/p/ > /pf/ (also written ph in OHG)
(written z or tz)
/t/ > /ts/
/k/ > /kx / (written ch in OHG).

3.3

Phase 3

Examples:
OE ppel : OHG apful, aul (English apple,
Dutch appel, Low German Appel : German
Apfel)
OE scearp : OHG scarpf, scarf (English sharp,
Dutch scherp, Low German scharp : German
scharf)
OE catt : OHG kazza (English cat, Dutch kat,
Low German Katt : German Katze)
OE tam : OHG zam (English tame, Dutch tam,
Low German tamm : German zahm)
OE liccian : OHG leckn (English lick, Dutch
likken, Low German licken, German lecken
: High Alemannic lekchen, schlecke/schlcke
/lkx, lkx/)
OE weorc : OHG werc, werah (English work,
Dutch werk, Low German Wark, German
Werk : High Alemannic Werch/Wrch)
The shift did not take place where the plosive was preceded by a fricative, i.e. in the combinations /sp, st, sk,
ft, ht/. /t/ also remained unshifted in the combination /tr/.
OE spearwa : OHG sparo (English sparrow,
Dutch spreeuw, German Sperling)
OE mst : OHG mast (English mast,
Dutch mast, Low German Mast, German
Mast(baum))
OE niht : OHG naht (English night, Dutch
nacht, Low German Nacht, German Nacht)
OE trowe : OHG (gi)triuwi (English true,
Dutch (ge)trouw, Low German tr, German treu; the cognates mean trustworthy,"faithful, not correct,"truthful.)
Following /r/ also prevented the shift of /t/ in words which
end in -ter in modern Standard German, e.g. bitter, Winter. These stems had /tr/ in OHG inected forms (bittr-,
wintr-).
For the subsequent change of /sk/ > //, written sch, see
below.

3
*werpfan, helfen 'to help' OHG helfan *helpfan. Only one standard word with /rpf/ remains: Karpfen
'carp' OHG karpfo.
occurs throughout the High
The shift of /t/ > /ts/
German area, and is reected in Modern Standard
German.
The shift of /p/ > /pf/ occurs throughout Upper German, but there is wide variation in Central German
dialects. Most West Central German dialects are unaected by the shift (cf. Luxembourgish Perd ~
Standard German Pferd). In the Rhine Franconian
dialects, the further north the dialect, the fewer environments show shifted consonants. In East Central German, the clusters -pp- and -mp- remained
untouched. The shift /p/ > /pf/ is reected in standard German, but there are many exceptions to it,
i.e. forms adopted with Central or Low German
consonantism (Krppel, Pacht, Schuppen, Tmpel
etc.). Moreover, this aricate is infrequent in wordinitial position: fewer than 40 word stems with pfare used in contemporary standard German, mostly
early borrowings from Latin. This rareness is partly
due to the fact that word-initial p- was virtually absent in Proto-Germanic. Note, however, that the
Upper German dialects have many more such words
and that they have used pf- productively, which is not
the case in standard German.
The shift of /k/ > /kx / is today geographically highly
restricted and seen only in the southernmost Upper
German dialects. In mediaeval times, it was much
more widespread (almost throughout Upper German), but was later undone from the north southward. Tyrolese, the Southern Austro-Bavarian dialect of Tyrol, is the only dialect in which the affricate /kx / has been preserved in all positions, e.g.
Cimbrian khan [kx on] 'not any' (cf. German
kein). In High Alemannic, only the geminate is preserved as an aricate, whereas in the other positions,
/kx/ has been simplied to /x/, e.g. High Alemannic chleub 'to adhere, stick' (cf. German kleben).
Initial /kx / does occur to a certain extent in modern
High Alemannic in place of any k in loanwords, e.g.
[kx arib ikx ] 'Caribbean' (?), and /kx / occurs where
'laborious work',
ge- + [x], e.g. Gchnorz [kx no()rts]
from the verb chnorze.

These aricates (especially /pf/) have simplied into

fricatives in some dialects. /pf/ was simplied to /f/ in
a number of circumstances. In Yiddish and some German dialects, this occurred in initial positions, e.g., Dutch
3.3 Phase 3
paard: German Pferd : Yiddish ferd 'horse'. In modern
standard German, the pronunciation /f/ for word-initial
The third phase, which had the most limited geographical
pf is also a very common feature of northern and central
range, saw the voiced plosives become voiceless.
German accents (i.e. in regions where /pf/ does not occur
in the native dialects; compare German phonology).
b>p
There was an even stronger tendency to simplify /pf/ after
d>t
/r/ and /l/. This simplication is also reected in modern
standard German, e.g. werfen 'to throw' OHG werfan
g>k

Of these, only the dental shift d > t universally nds its

way into standard German (though with relatively many
exceptions, partly due to Low and Central German inuence). The other two occur in standard German only
in original geminates, e.g. Rippe, Brcke vs. Dutch rib,
brug rib, bridge. For single consonants, b > p and g >
k are restricted to High Alemannic German in Switzerland, and south Bavarian dialects in Austria. This shift
probably began in the 8th or 9th century, after the rst
and second phases ceased to be productive, otherwise the
resulting voiceless plosives would have shifted further to
fricatives and aricates.

OTHER CHANGES

hinder, munder, under. (As all of these three words end

in -nter, the modern unvoiced pronunciation might be
caused by analogy with Winter, whose -t- stems from original Germanic /t/ unshifted before /r/.) In other cases,
modern -nt- is due to the later loss of a vowel (e.g. Ente
from OHG enita) or borrowing (e.g. Kante from Low
German).
It is possible that pizza is an early Italian borrowing of
OHG (Bavarian dialect) pizzo, a shifted variant of bizzo
(German Bissen, 'bite, snack').[8]

In those words in which an Indo-European voiceless plo- 4 Other changes

sive became voiced as a result of Verners law, phase three
of the High German shift returns this to its original value
Other consonant changes on the way from West Ger(*t > d > t):
manic to Old High German are included under the heading High German consonant shift by some scholars that
PIE *mehtr
see the term as a description of the whole context, but are
> early Proto-Germanic *mr (t > // by the
excluded by others who use it to describe the neatness of
rst Germanic consonant shift)
the threefold chain shift. Although it might be possible
to see // > /d/, // > // and /v/ > /b/ as a similar group
> late Proto-Germanic *mr (// > // by
[6]
of
three, both the chronology and the diering phonetic
Verners law)
conditions under which these changes occur speak against
> West-Germanic *mdar (// > d by West
such a grouping.
Germanic sound change)
> Old High German muotar (d > t by the second Germanic consonant shift)
Examples:
OE dn : OHG tuon (English do, Dutch doen,
Low German doon : German tun)
OE mdor : OHG muotar (English mother,
Dutch moeder, Low German Modder, Mudder
: German Mutter)
OE rad : OHG rt (English red, Dutch rood,
Low German root : German rot)[7]
OE biddan : OHG bitten or pitten (English bid,
Dutch bieden, Low German bidden : German
bitten, Bavarian pitten)
The combination -nd- was shifted to -nt- only in some
varieties of OHG. Written OHG normally has shifted nt- (e.g. bintan to bind), but in Middle High German
and modern standard German the unshifted pronunciation /nd/ prevails (cf. binden). (Although in OHG both
ntan and ndan to nd are encountered, these represent earlier forms *ndan and *nan, respectively;
note the corresponding alternation in Old Saxon ndan
and fan. In this case, *nan corresponds to original
Proto-Germanic *nan while *ndan is a later, specifically West Germanic, form, created by analogy with
the Verners law alternant *fund-, as in Proto-Germanic
*fundun they found, *fundanaz found.)
Noteworthy exceptions are modern hinter, munter and
unter, for which however Middle High German preferred

4.1 // > /d/ (phase 4)

What is sometimes known as the fourth phase shifted
the dental fricatives to plosives. This shift occurred late
enough that unshifted forms are to be found in the earliest Old High German texts, and thus it can be dated to the
9th or 10th century. This shift spread much further north
than the others, eventually reaching all continental West
Germanic languages (hence excluding only English). It is
therefore not uniquely High German; it is nonetheless often grouped together with the other shifts, as it did spread
from the same area. The shift took several centuries to
spread north, appearing in Dutch only during the 12th
century, and in Frisian and Low German not for another
century or two after that.
In early Old High German, as in Old Dutch and Old
Saxon, the voiceless and voiced dental fricatives [] and
[] stood in allophonic relationship (as did /f/, /v/ and /s/,
/z/), with [] in nal position and [] used initially and
medially. The sound [] then became /d/, while [] became /t/. In Old Frisian, the voiceless fricatives were only
voiced medially, and remained voiceless initially except
in some pronouns and determiners, much as in Old and
Modern English. Thus, modern Frisian varieties have /t/
word-initially in most words, and /d/ medially.
early OHG thaz > classical OHG daz (English
that, Icelandic a : Dutch dat, German das,
West Frisian dat)
early OHG thenken > classical OHG denken
(English think : Dutch denken, German

4.2

// > /b/
denken, West Frisian tinke)
early OHG thegan > classical OHG degan (English thane : Dutch degen, German Degen
warrior, West Frisian teie)
early OHG thurstag > classical OHG durstag
(English thirsty : Dutch dorstig, German
durstig, West Frisian toarstig, Swedish trstig)
early OHG bruothar/bruodhar > classical
OHG bruodar (English brother, Icelandic
brir : Dutch broeder, German Bruder, West
Frisian broer)
early OHG munth > classical OHG mund (English mouth, Old Norse mr : Dutch mond,
German Mund)
early OHG thou/thu > classical OHG d, du
(English thou, Icelandic : Low German d,
German du, West Frisian do)

In dialects aected by phase 4 but not by the dental variety of phase 3 (Central German, Low German, and
Dutch), two Germanic phonemes merged: becomes d,
but original Germanic d remains unchanged:
One consequence of this is that there is no dental variety
of grammatischer Wechsel in Middle Dutch.
A peculiar development took place in stems which had
the onsets dw- and tw- in OHG. They merged in MHG twand were later joined to the large group of stems with initial zw-. Those stems therefore appear to have undergone
the High German consonant shift several times, e.g. modern zwingen (to force) < MHG twingen < OHG dwingan
< Germanic *wengan.
In 1955, Otto Her[9] suggested that a change analogous
to the fourth phase of the High German consonant shift
may have taken place in Gothic (East Germanic) as early
as the 3rd century AD, and he hypothesised that it may
have spread from Gothic to High German as a result of
the Visigothic migrations westward (c. 375500 AD).
This has not found wide acceptance; the modern consensus is that Her misinterpreted some sound substitutions
of Romanic languages as Germanic, and that East Germanic shows no sign of the second consonant shift.

5
lenition phenomena, including shifts from plosives to
fricatives and further to approximants word-medially, so
its conceivable that these changes counteracted the earlier hardening of the dental fricatives that had reached
Danish from the south (thus initially // > /d/, followed
by lenition /d/ > //), but only after these changes had
propagated further north to the remaining Scandinavian
dialects.

4.2 // > /b/

West Germanic * (presumably pronounced []), which
was an allophone of /b/ used in medial position, shifted
to (Upper German) Old High German /b/ between two
vowels, and also after /l/. Unshifted languages retained
a fricative, which became /v/ between vowels and /f/ in
coda position.
OE lof : OHG liob, liup (obs. English lief,
Dutch lief, Low German leev : German lieb)
OE hfen : MHG habe(ne) (English haven,
Dutch haven, Low German Haven; for German
Hafen, see below)
OE half : OHG halb (English half, Dutch half,
Low German halv : German halb)
OE lifer : OHG libara, lebra (English liver,
Dutch lever, Low German Lver : German
Leber)
OE selfa : OHG selbo (English self, Dutch zelf,
Low German slve : German selbe)
OE sealf : OHG salba (English salve, Dutch
zalf, Low German Salv : German Salbe)

In strong verbs such as German heben 'heave' and geben

'give', the shift contributed to eliminating the [] forms
in German, but a full account of these verbs is complicated by the eects of grammatischer Wechsel by which
[] and [b] appear in alternation in dierent parts of the
same verb in the early forms of the languages. In the case
of weak verbs such as haben 'have' (cf. Dutch hebben)
and leben 'live' (cf. Dutch leven), the consonant dierences
have an unrelated origin, being a result of the West
Most dialects of Norwegian and Swedish show a shift
Germanic
gemination and a subsequent process of levelthat is much like the one in Frisian, with // > /d/ and
ling.
// > /t/. This shift reached Swedish only around the
16th century or so, as the Gustav Vasa Bible of 1541 This shift also is only partly completed in Central Gerstill shows the dental fricatives (spelled th). This shift man, with Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian retaining a
may be part of the same development as in the West fricative pronunciation. For example: Colognian h lv,
Germanic languages, or it may have occurred indepen- Luxembourgish hie lieft, meaning he lives.
dently. Danish geographically between West Germanic
and Swedish/Norwegian areas would have had to experienced this shift rst, before it could have spread further 4.3 // > /d/
northwards. However, Danish does not form a dialect
continuum with the West Germanic languages, and the The Proto-Germanic voiced dental fricative [], which
shift occurred only word-initially in it, while it retains // was an allophone of /d/ in certain positions, became a
medially. On the other hand, Danish exhibits widespread plosive [d] in all positions throughout the West Germanic

OTHER CHANGES

languages. Thus, it aected High German, Low German, position (original /s/ may in fact have been apical [s], as
Dutch, Frisian and Old English alike. It did not spread OHG and MHG distinguish it from the reex /t/ > /s/,
to Old Norse, which retained the original fricative. Be- spelled z or and presumed to be laminal [s]):
cause of its much wider spread, it must have occurred
very early, during Northwest Germanic times, perhaps
German Schrift, script
around the 2nd century.
German Flasche, ask
English has partially reversed this shift through the
German spinnen (/p/), spin
change /dr/ > /r/, for example in father, mother, gather
German Strae (/t/), street
and together.
German Schlaf, sleep
In phase 3 of the High German consonant shift, this /d/
German Schmied, smith
was shifted to /t/, as described above.
German Schnee, snow
German Schwan, swan

4.4

// > //

The West Germanic voiced velar fricative [] shifted to

[] in Upper German dialects of Old High German in all
positions. This change is believed to be early and complete by the 8th century at the latest. Since the existence
of a // was necessary for the south German shift // >
/k/, this must at least predate phase 3 of the core High
German consonant shift.
The same change occurred independently in AngloFrisian (c. 10th century for Old English, as suggested by
changing patterns of alliteration), except when preceding
or following a front vowel where it had earlier undergone
Anglo-Frisian palatalisation and ended up as /j/. Dutch
has retained the original //, despite the fact it is spelled
with g, rendering it indistinguishable in writing from its
counterparts in other languages.
Dutch goed /ut/ : German gut /ut/, English
good /d/
Dutch gisteren /str(n)/ : German gestern
/stn/ : English yesterday /jstrde/, West
Frisian juster /jstr/
The shift is only partly complete in Central German.
Most Central German dialects have fricative pronunciation for g between vowels (//, //, /j/, //) and in coda
position (//, //, /x/). Ripuarian has /j/ word-initially,
e.g. Colognian jood /jot/ good.
In standard German, fricative g is found in coda position in unstressed -ig (selig /zel/ blessed but feminine
selige /zel/). One will still very frequently hear fricative g in coda position in other cases as well in standard
German as pronounced by people from northern and central Germany. For example, Tag and Weg are often pronounced /tax/ and /ve/. Compare German phonology.
This pronunciation reaches as far south as Franconia, thus
into Upper German areas.

4.5

/s/ > //

Likewise /rs/ became /r/, except before /t/:

German Barsch, perch or bass
(Dutch baars)
German Kirsch, cherry (Dutch kers)
but German erste, rst; bersten,
burst
The /sk/ > // shift occurred in most West Germanic dialects but notably not in Dutch, which instead had /sk/ >
/sx/. The two other changes did not reach any further than
Limburgish and some southern dialects of Low German:
Limburgian sjpinne /pn/, sjtraot
/tt/, sjrif /f/
Dutch spinnen /spn(n)/, straat
/strat/, schrift /sxrft/ (although
note that Dutch /s/ is usually apical).

4.6 Terminal devoicing

Other changes include a general tendency towards
terminal devoicing in German and Dutch, and to a far
more limited extent in English. Thus, in German and
Dutch, /b/, /d/ and // (German), // (Dutch) at the end of
a word are pronounced identically to /p/, /t/ and /k/ (German), /x/ (Dutch). The g in German Tag [tak] (day) is
pronounced as ck in English tack, not as g in English
tag. However, this change is not High German in origin
but is generally thought to have originated in Frankish,[10]
as the earliest evidence for the change appears in Old
Dutch texts at a time when there was still no sign of devoicing at all in Old High German or Old Saxon. Terminal devoicing also occurred in the strongly Frankishinuenced Old and Middle French (and to a limited extent
in Modern French, where nal consonants have otherwise
largely been lost).

Nevertheless, the original voiced consonants are usually

High German experienced the shift /sk/ > // in all po- represented in modern German and Dutch spelling. This
sitions, and /s/ > // before another consonant in initial is because related inected forms, such as the plural Tage

7
[ta], have the voiced form, since here the plosive is
not terminal. As a result of these inected forms, native
speakers remain aware of the underlying voiced phoneme,
and spell accordingly. However, in Middle High German,
these sounds were spelled dierently: singular tac, plural
tage.

Chronology

Since, apart from > d, the High German consonant

shift took place before the beginning of writing of Old
High German in the 9th century, the dating of the various phases is an uncertain business. The estimates quoted
here are mostly taken from the dtv-Atlas zur deutschen
Sprache (p. 63). Dierent estimates appear elsewhere,
for example Waterman, who asserts that the rst three
phases occurred fairly close together and were complete
in Alemannic territory by 600, taking another two or
three centuries to spread north.

6 Geographical distribution
Roughly, the changes resulting from phase 1 aected Upper and Central German, as did the dental element of
phase 2 (t- > z-). The other elements of phase 2 and all
of phase 3 impacted only Upper German, while those
changes from phase 4 aected the entire German and
Dutch-speaking region (the West Germanic dialect continuum). The generally accepted boundary between Central and Low German, the maken-machen line, is sometimes called the Benrath line, as it passes through the
Dsseldorf suburb of Benrath, while the main boundary
between Central and Upper German, the Appel-Apfel line
can be called the Speyer line, as it passes near the town
of Speyer, some 200 kilometers further south.

However, a precise description of the geographical extent of the changes is far more complex. Not only do the
individual sound shifts within a phase vary in their distribution (phase 3, for example, partly aects the whole
of Upper German and partly only the southernmost dialects within Upper German), but there are even slight
variations from word to word in the distribution of the
same consonant shift. For example, the ik-ich line lies
further north than the maken-machen line in western Germany, coincides with it in central Germany, and lies furSometimes historical constellations help us; for example,
ther south at its eastern end, although both demonstrate
the fact that Attila is called Etzel in German proves that
the same shift /k/ > /x/.
the second phase must have been productive after the
Hunnish invasion of the 5th century. The fact that many
Latin loan-words are shifted in German (e.g., Latin strata
6.1 Rhenish fan
> German Strae), while others are not (e.g., Latin poena
> German Pein) allows us to date the sound changes beThe subdivision of West Central German into a series of
fore or after the likely period of borrowing. However the
dialects, according to the diering extent of the phase
most useful source of chronological data is German words
1 shifts, is particularly pronounced. It known as the
cited in Latin texts of the late classical and early medieval
Rhenish fan (German: Rheinischer Fcher, Dutch: Rijnperiod.
landse waaier) because on the map of dialect boundaries,
Precise dating would in any case be dicult, since each the lines form a fan shape.[13] Here, no fewer than eight
shift may have begun with one word or a group of words isoglosses run roughly West to East and partially merge
in the speech of one locality, and gradually extended by into a simpler system of boundaries in East Central Gerlexical diusion to all words with the same phonological man. The table on the right lists the isoglosses (bold) and
pattern, and then over a longer period of time spread to the main resulting dialects (italics), arranged from north
wider geographical areas.
to south.
However, relative chronology for phases 2, 3, and 4 can
easily be established by the observation that t > tz must
precede d > t, which in turn must precede > d; otherwise
words with an original could have undergone all three
shifts and ended up as tz. By contrast, as the form kepan
for give is attested in Old Bavarian, showing both // >
// > /k/ and // > /b/ > /p/, it follows that // > // and
// > /b/ must predate phase 3.
Alternative chronologies have been proposed. According to a theory by the controversial German linguist Theo
Vennemann, the consonant shift occurred much earlier
and was already completed in the early 1st century BC.[11]
On this basis, he subdivides the Germanic languages into
High Germanic and Low Germanic. Apart from Vennemann, few other linguists share this view.

7 Lombardic
Some of the consonant shifts resulting from the second and third phases appear also to be observable in
Lombardic, the early mediaeval Germanic language of
Italy, which is preserved in runic fragments of the late
6th and early 7th centuries. However, the Lombardic
records are not sucient to allow a complete taxonomy
of the language. It is therefore uncertain whether the language experienced the full shift or merely sporadic reexes, but b > p is clearly attested. This may mean that
the shift began in Italy, or that it spread southwards as well
as northwards. Ernst Schwarz and others have suggested

IRREGULARITIES IN MODERN STANDARD GERMAN

that the shift occurred in German as a result of contacts

with Lombardic. If, in fact, there is a relationship here,
the evidence of Lombardic would force us to conclude
that the third phase must have begun by the late 6th century, rather earlier than most estimates, but this would not
necessarily require that it had spread to German so early.

vidual words from all German dialects and varieties have

found their way into the standard. When a German word
contains unshifted consonants, it is usually considered to
be a loanword from either Low German or, less often,
Central German. Either the shifted form has become obsolete, as in:

If, as some scholars believe, Lombardic was an East GerHafen harbor, from Low German (15th
manic language and not part of the German language dicentury), replacing Middle High German
alect continuum, it is possible that parallel shifts took
habe(ne);
place independently in German and Lombardic. However the extant words in Lombardic show clear relations
Pacht lease, from West Central German, reto Bavarian. Therefore, Werner Betz and others prefer to
placing Middle High German pfaht;
treat Lombardic as an Old High German dialect. There
were close connections between Lombards and Proto- or the two forms are retained as doublets, as in:
Bavarians. For example, the Lombards settled in Tullner Feld (about 50 km west of Vienna) until 568, but it
Wappen coat of arms, from Low German,
is evident that not all Lombards went to Italy after that
alongside native Wae weapon";
time; the rest seem to have become part of the then newly
sich kloppen to ght, from either Low Gerformed Bavarian groups.
man or Central German, alongside native
According to Jonas of Bobbio (before 650) in Lombardy,
klopfen to knock.
when Columban came to the Alamanni at Lake Constance shortly after 600, he made cupa (barrels, EnMany unshifted words are borrowed from Low German:
glish cup, German Kufe) burst. This shows that in the
time of Columban the shift from p to f had occurred
Hafer oat (vs. Swiss, Austrian Haber); Lippe
neither in Alemannic nor in Lombardic. But the Ediclip (vs. Lefze animal lip); Pegel water
tus Rothari (643; surviving manuscript after 650) attests
level";
Pickel pimple
the forms grapworf ('throwing a corpse out of the grave',
German Wurf and Grab), marhworf ('a horse', OHG
marh, 'throws the rider o'), and many similar shifted However, the majority of unshifted words in German are
examples. So it is best to see the consonant shift as loaned from Latin, Romance, English or Slavic:
a common LombardicBavarianAlemannic shift between 620 and 640, when these tribes had plenty of conPaar pair, couple ( Medieval Latin pr),
tact.
Peitsche whip ( Old Sorbian/Czech bi ).
Other ostensible irregularities in the sound shift, which
we may notice in modern Standard German, are usually claried by checking the etymology of an individual
As an example of the eects of the shift one may com- word. Possible reasons include the following:
pare the following texts from the later Middle Ages,
Onomatopoeia (cf. German babbeln ~ English to
on the left a Middle Low German citation from the
babble, which were probably formed individually in
Sachsenspiegel (1220), which does not show the shift, and
each
language);
on the right the equivalent text from the Middle High German Deutschenspiegel (1274), which shows the shifted
Later developments after the High German sound
consonants; both are standard legal texts of the period.
shift, especially the elimination of some unstressed
vowels. For example, Dutch kerk and German
Kirche (church) seem to indicate an irregular shift
9 Irregularities in modern Stan-rk- > -rch- (compare regular German Mark, stark,
Werk). However, Kirche stems from OHG kirihha
dard German
(Greek kyrik) with a vowel after /r/ (which makes
the shift perfectly regular). Similarly, the shifted
The High German consonant shift at least as far as the
form Milch (milk) was miluh or milih in OHG, but
core group of changes is concerned is an example of an
the unshifted melken (to milk) never had a vowel
exceptionless sound change and was frequently cited as
after /l/.
such by the Neogrammarians. Modern standard German
is a compromise form between East Central German and
Certain irregular variations between voiced and unnorthern Upper German, mainly based on the former but
voiced consonants, especially [d] and [t], in Middle
High German (active several centuries after the
with the consonant pattern of the latter. However, indi-

Sample texts

9
shift). Thereby OHG dsunt became modern
tausend (thousand), as if it had been shifted twice.
Contrariwise, and more often, the shift was apparently undone in some words: PG *dunstaz > OHG
tunst > back again to modern Dunst (dust). In
this latter case, it is sometimes dicult to determine
whether re-voicing was a native Middle High German development or from Low German inuence.
(Often, both factors have collaborated to establish
the voiced variant.)

10

See also

Glottalic theory
Low Dietsch dialects
The Tuscan gorgia, a similar evolution dierentiating the Tuscan dialects from Standard Italian.

11

References

[1] See also Fausto Cercignani, The Consonants of German:

Synchrony and Diachrony, Milano, Cisalpino, 1979.
[2] Scholars who restrict the term High German Consonant Shift to the core group include Braune/Reienstein,
Chambers & Wilkie, von Kienle, Wright (1907), and
Voyles (1992). Those who include other changes as part
of the shift or who treat them as connected with it include
Penzl (1975), dtv-Atlas, Keller, Moser/Wellmann/Wolf,
and Wells.
[3] Scholars who make a two-fold analysis include Bach,
Braune/Reienstein, Eggers, Gerh.
Wol, Keller,
Moser/Wellmann/Wolf, Penzl (1971 & 1975), Russ, Sonderegger (1979), von Kienle, Voyles (1992), and Wright
(1907). Scholars who distinguish three phases include
Chambers & Wilkie, dtv-Atlas, Waterman, and Wells.
[4] See the denition of high in the Oxford English Dictionary (Concise Edition): "... situated far above ground,
sealevel, etc; upper, inland, as ... High German.
[5] Recent work suggests that future scholars may analyse
German dialects in new ways, which will have consequences also for the understanding of the shift. Schwerdt
(2000) has argued that the name 'High German consonant
shift' is misleading and perhaps even inappropriate, as it
does not adequately reect the areal discrepancies of the
individual changes undergone by the aected West Germanic dialects.
[6] Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, TF Hoad
(Ed)
[7] As a general rule, Low German, Dutch, and German have
all undergone nal-obstruent devoicing so that the modern reexes are all pronounced with nal /t/ regardless of
spelling.

[8] Manlio & Michele Cortelazzo, L'etimologico minore 2003,

p. 929f.
[9] Otto Her, Die zweite Lautverschiebung bei Ostgermanen und Westgermanen, Beitrge zur Geschichte der
deutschen Sprache und Literatur 77 (Tbingen 1955)
[10] B. Mees, The Bergakker inscription and the beginnings of
Dutch, in: Amsterdamer beitrge zur lteren Germanistik: Band 56- 2002, edited by Erika Langbroek, Annelies
Roeleveld, Paula Vermeyden, Arend Quak, Published by
Rodopi, 2002, ISBN 90-420-1579-9, ISBN 978-90-4201579-1
[11] Vennemann, Theo (1994): Dating the division between
High and Low Germanic. A summary of arguments. In:
Mrck, E./Swan, T./Jansen, O.J. (eds.): Language change
and language structure. Older Germanic languages in a
comparative perspective. Berlin/New York: 271303.
[12] The table of isoglosses is adapted from Rheinischer
Fcher on the German Wikipedia.
[13] Rheinischer Fcher Karte des Landschaftsverband
Rheinland Archived February 15, 2009, at the Wayback
Machine.

12 Sources
The sample texts have been copied over from
Lautverschiebung on the German Wikipedia.
Dates of sound shifts are taken from the dtv-Atlas
zur deutschen Sprache (p. 63).
Waterman, John C. (1991) [1966]. A History of
the German Language (Revised edition 1976 ed.).
Long Grove IL: Waveland Press Inc. (by arrangement with University of Washington Press). p. 284.
ISBN 0-88133-590-8.
Friedrich Kluge (revised Elmar Seebold), Etymologisches Wrterbuch der deutschen Sprache (The Etymological Dictionary of the German Language),
24th edition, 2002.
Paul/Wiehl/Grosse, Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik
(Middle-High German Grammar), 23rd ed, Tbingen 1989, 11422.
Fausto Cercignani, The Consonants of German:
Synchrony and Diachrony, Milano, Cisalpino, 1979.
Philippe Marcq & Thrse Robin, Linguistique historique de l'allemand, Paris, 1997.
Robert S. P. Beekes, Vergelijkende taalwetenschap,
Utrecht, 1990.
Schwerdt, Judith (2000). Die 2. Lautverschiebung:
Wege zu ihrer Erforschung. Heidelberg: Carl Winter. ISBN 3-8253-1018-3.

10

13

13
13.1

TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

High German consonant shift Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German_consonant_shift?oldid=744594710 Contributors:

Leandrod, Edward, Michael Hardy, Menchi, David Newton, Benwing, Wiglaf, Pne, J. 'mach' wust, Oknazevad, Sarcelles, Florian Blaschke,
Dbachmann, Bender235, Kwamikagami, Cmdrjameson, Pschemp, Angr, Woohookitty, Cruccone, Miss Madeline, Maartenvdbent, Doric
Loon, ZanderSchubert, Pitan, Cassowary, Imnotminkus, Nagytibi, Hairy Dude, Purodha, Edinborgarstefan, Aeusoes1, Julian Grybowski,
Marc NL~enwiki, Deville, Sarefo, Petri Krohn, Sardanaphalus, Jsnx, SmackBot, Hans Erren, Wakuran, Chris the speller, Bluebot, Rex
Germanus, Cameron Nedland, Stevenmitchell, Anorak2, Drphilharmonic, Wutzofant, Soap, Pfold, Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii, ShakingSpirit, Joseph
Solis in Australia, Paul Foxworthy, Freelance Intellectual, WikiMarshall, Cydebot, Dimotika, Ufwuct, G Purevdorj, Flibjib8, PhJ, JAnDbot,
Magioladitis, Swpb, Animum, CodeCat, JdeJ, Inspector Baynes, 52 Pickup, Anaxial, R'n'B, Qwanqwa, Maurice Carbonaro, Rammstein
Viking, Mrg3105, Deman7001, Classical geographer, Funkysapien~enwiki, Jalwikip, Kevin Steinhardt, Oznux, Varoon Arya, Wiae, TelecomNut, Homei, Weissbier, Hermann Reichert, Kweniston, Marquetry28, Cyfal, Fadesga, Mild Bill Hiccup, SchreiberBike, Lerner.hu,
Aunt Entropy, Addbot, Benito2, HP1740-B, Lightbot, GastonRabbit, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Citation bot, Eumolpo, J04n, The Wiki ghost,
FrescoBot, Tharthan, Citation bot 1, Leasnam, Lotje, Dinamik-bot, Krzysiek690, John of Reading, Medeis, Autoerrant, Bernardbonvin,
Parcly Taxel, MerlIwBot, Dakhart, Helpful Pixie Bot, Curb Chain, BG19bot, Boeing720, Cyberbot II, Torvalu4, Khazar2, Dexbot, Boydstra, Krakkos, DavidPKendal, Ahls23, Wikilarus, Helloworlditsme, Gati123, Peter238, Nayrb Rellimer, Theutatis and Anonymous: 86

13.2

Images

File:German_dialectal_map.PNG Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/German_dialectal_map.PNG License: Public domain Contributors: ? Original artist: ?

File:Rheinischer_faecher.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Rheinischer_faecher.png License: CC
BY-SA 3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Hans Erren

13.3

Content license

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0