Reconstructing Proto-Germanic

Abstract

In this article, the methodology of protolanguage reconstruction and its application to Proto-Germanic (PG) are discussed, with emphasis on the special case of an intermediate protolanguage and the problem of parallel changes in daughter languages. Then, a short description of PG and its reconstruction is given. The main focus is on phonology (section 2). Section 2.1 is a description of PG phonology as it can be reconstructed: first the segmental inventory (vowels and consonants), then suprasegmentals (accent, quantity, and syllables) and morphophonology. In section 2.2, the most important phonological changes relevant for PG are given, including some common post-PG developments. Section 3 treats PG inflectional morphology: After a short general characterization, section 3.1 describes nominal morphology, discussing inflectional categories and special features of nouns, adjectives, and pronouns, including some example paradigms of nouns. Section 3.2 deals with verbal morphology: After a discussion of the inflectional categories, the main features of morphological classes are described—mainly the characteristics of “strong” and “weak” verbs and their subclasses, followed by so-called preterite-presents and further irregular verbs, with example paradigms of one strong and one weak verb. In section 4, some short remarks on syntax follow. Section 5 discusses lexical reconstruction, especially cases of limited distribution in the daughter branches, showing that the availability of Indo-European comparanda often helps. It also treats language contact and borrowing relations of PG, both into PG (from Celtic or possible substrates) and from PG (into Saamic, Finnic, and Slavonic), as well as the hypothesis of Semitic influence.

Steppe Ancestry in western Eurasia and the spread of the Germanic Languages

“…Here, for the first time we link these dramatic and contested changes with genetic evidence to determine if they were linked to population movements in northern Europe. Around the middle of the 3rd millennium BP, Palaeo-Germanic saw the effects of a set of defining sound changes, by which it developed into Proto-Germanic, the most recent common ancestor of all Germanic descendant languages 10,23,24 . The Proto-Germanic speech community is assumed to have existed in Southern Scandinavia and Northern Germany throughout the Pre-Roman Iron Age (2500 -1950 BP) 25,26 , with the likely cultural sources being the Nordic Iron Age and the Jastorf culture 16,27 .…”