{{Short description|Proto-Germanic sound law}} {{multiple issues| {{More citations needed|date=July 2024}} {{Lead rewrite|date=December 2019}} {{cleanup lang |date=January 2025}} }} {{Use dmy dates |date=January 2025}} '''Holtzmann's law''' is a Proto-Germanic sound law originally noted by Adolf Holtzmann in 1838. The sound law describes the development of Proto-Germanic sequences of intervocalic geminate glides {{lang|gem-x-proto|*-ww-}} and {{lang|gem-x-proto|*-jj-}} in East and North Germanic, i.e. Gothic and Old Norse respectively. It is mainly known by its traditional German name '''{{lang|de|Verschärfung}}''' ({{lit|sharpening}}). A similar sound law which has affected modern Faroese, called {{lang|fo|skerping}} in Faroese itself, is also known as "Faroese {{lang|de|Verschärfung}}" in English.
==Description and occurrences== The law involves the gemination, or doubling, of PIE semivowels (glides) {{lang|ine-x-proto|*-y-}} and {{lang|ine-x-proto|*-w-}} in strong prosodic positions into Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|-jj-}} and {{lang|gem-x-proto|-ww-}}, which had two outcomes: * hardening into occlusive onsets: ** {{lang|gem-x-proto|-ggj-}}/{{lang|gem-x-proto|-ggw-}} in North Germanic; ** {{lang|gem-x-proto|-ddj-}}/{{lang|gem-x-proto|-ggw-}} in East Germanic * vocalization of the first semivowel, its addition to a diphthong, and division of the diphthong and remaining semivowel into two separate segments in West Germanic. The process is brought about by the fact that vowels (or semivowels) in the syllable margin are invariably transformed into consonantal articulations.<ref>Natalie Operstein, ''Consonantal Structure and Prevocalization'' (John Benjamins, 2010), 91.</ref>
The conditions of the sound change were long debated, since there was a seemingly random distribution of affected and unaffected words. At first, dependence on word accent was assumed, parallel to Verner's Law. One solution, first proposed by Smith (1941),<ref>Henry Lee Smith, Jr., ''The Verschärfung in Germanic'', Language 17 (1941), 93–9.</ref> postulates dependency on the presence of a PIE laryngeal, which when lost, triggered lengthening as if the semivowels were vowels, and forced them into the syllable margin.
According to Lehmann (1955),<ref>Winfred P. Lehmann, ''Proto-Indo-European Phonology'' (1955), chapter 4: 'Lengthened /w/ and /y/ in the Gmc. Dialects'{{cite web |url=http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/piep04.html |title=Proto-Indo-European Phonology: Chapter 4: Lengthened /W/ And /Y/ In the GMC. Dialects |access-date=2007-04-28 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070711184431/http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/books/piep04.html#txu-oclc-3953445.xml-div-d0e7586 |archive-date=2007-07-11 }}</ref> the lengthening occurs in the contexts of PIE {{lang|ine-x-proto|*-VwH-}}, {{lang|ine-x-proto|*-iyH-}}, {{lang|ine-x-proto|*-ayH-}}, {{lang|ine-x-proto|*-aHy-}} (where ''V'' is any short vowel, and ''H'' is any laryngeal).
For example, PIE {{lang|ine-x-proto|drewh₂yo}} → early Proto-Germanic {{lang|gem-x-proto|trewwjaz}} 'trustworthy, faithful' →: * {{lang|gem-x-proto|triwwjaz}}: Old Norse {{lang|non|tryggr}}, Gothic {{tlit|got|triggws}} * {{lang|gem-x-proto|*triuwjaz}}: Old English {{lang|ang|trēowe}}, Old High German {{lang|goh| gitriuwi}}.
One instance where a laryngeal was never present is PIE {{lang|ine-x-proto|h₂ōwyóm}} 'egg', but after the loss of {{lang|ine-x-proto|-w-}}, the {{lang|ine-x-proto|-y-}} shifted into the syllable margin, giving: * with hardening: ** *{{lang|mis|ajjis}}: Crimean Gothic {{lang|mis|ada}} (pl.) (*{{lang|mis|addi}} (sg.) < *{{lang|mis|ajjis}}) ** *{{lang|non|ajją}}: Old Norse ''egg'' * with diphthongization: ** *{{lang|de|aijaz}}:{{efn |The plurals OHG {{lang|goh|eigir}} and OE {{lang|ang|ǣgru}} exhibit an ''s''-stem.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.indoeuropean.nl/cgi-bin/startq.cgi?flags%3Dendnnnl%26root%3Dleiden%26basename%3D%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cpokorny |title=Archived copy |access-date=2016-02-07 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110809064309/http://www.indoeuropean.nl/cgi-bin/startq.cgi?flags=endnnnl&root=leiden&basename=%5Cdata%5Cie%5Cpokorny |archive-date=2011-08-09 }}</ref>}} German ''Ei'', Old English {{lang|ang|ǣġ}}
== Alternative views == Some linguists (e.g. Joseph Voyles)<ref>Joseph B. Voyles, ''Early Germanic Grammar'' (San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1992), 25–6.</ref> hold that Holtzmann's Law represents two separate and independent sound changes, one applying to Gothic and another to Old Norse, rather than being a common innovation. This is supported by James W. Marchand's<ref>James W. Marchand, ''The Sounds and Phonemes of Wulfila's Gothic'', The Hague: Mouton (1973), 87.</ref> observation that a Runic inscription ({{lang|non|niuwila}} on the Naesbjaerg bracteate of the 5th century) and an early loan into Finnic ({{lang|fiu-x-proto|kuva}} 'picture', cf. Gothic {{lang|got|skuggwa}} 'mirror', Old High German {{lang|goh|skūwo}} 'look') do not exhibit this change. If true, this would prevent Holtzmann's law from being used as an example of early Gotho-Nordic unity, in which context it is often cited. Voyles's explanations of the changes do not involve laryngeal theory.
== Similar developments in later Nordic languages == Faroese shows a similar development, where some Old Norse long vowels developed into diphthongs, which then hardened into stops, e.g. Old Norse {{lang|non|þrír}} → Faroese {{lang|fo|tríggir}}, ON {{lang|non|róa}} → Far. {{lang|fo|rógva}}. This phenomenon is commonly called "Faroese Verschärfung" or by the Faroese term {{lang|fo|skerping}} ("sharpening"), which, however, also refers to the fronting of vowels that subsequently takes place in these contexts. Another similar change occurs in a number of Jutlandic dialects of Danish, where high vowels carrying the ''stød'' prosody develop diphthongal glides which are then "hardened" into stops or fricatives, a phenomenon commonly called "klusilspring" ("stop shifting") or "klusilparasit" ("stop parasite").<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Petersen|first=Hjalmar P.|date=2002|title=Verschärfung in Old Norse and Gothic|url=https://journals.lub.lu.se/anf/article/view/11647|journal=Arkiv för Nordisk Filologi|volume=117|pages=5–27|issn=0066-7668}}</ref>
== See also == * Glossary of sound laws in the Indo-European languages * Grimm's law * Northwest Germanic
== Notes == {{Notelist}}
== References == {{Reflist |30em}}
==Further reading == {{Refbegin |30em}} * William M. Austin. ‘Germanic Reflexes of Indo-European -Hy- and -Hw-’, ''Language'' (1958): 203–11. * Neville E. Collinge. ''The Laws of Indo-European''. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1985, pp. 93–101. * Kuryƚowicz, J. ‘The Germanic Verschärfung’, ''Language'' 43, no. 2 (1967): 445–51. doi:10.2307/411544. * Jens Elmegård Rasmussen. ‘Germanic Verschärfung: Tying up loose ends’, in ''Historical Linguistics, 1987: Papers from the 8th International Conference on Historical Linguistics''. Eds. Henning Andersen & E. F. K. Koerner. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1990, pp. 425–41. * H. A. Roe. ''Verschärfung in Faroese''. Diss., Harvard University, 1965. * Rowe, Charley. ‘The problematic Holtzmann's Law in Germanic’, ''Indogermanische Forschungen'' 108, (2003): 258–66. *L. C. Smith. ‘What's all the fuss about 16 words? A new approach to Holtzmann's law’, ''Göttinger Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft'' 1 (1998): 75–100. *L. C. Smith. ''Holtzmann's law: getting to the hart of the Germanic verscharfung''. Thesis, University of Calgary, 1997; {{ISBN|0-612-24623-X}}. {{Refend}}
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Category:Germanic sound laws