Grimm’s Law was highly successful at predicting the forms of Germanic words but there were many exceptions. However, the discovery of Verner’s Law showed that exceptions might just be apparent; sound change is still ‘regular and exceptionless’, you just have to look a bit closer for the regularities.
An example of one such ‘exception’ is father, from above.
Note how Latin pater (which retains the /p/ and /t/ from PIE) shows up as father in English. IE /p/ > Gmc /f/ as predicted by Grimm’s Law, but IE /t/ has not come out as /θ/ instead we find /ð/. More telling are examples of related words which have the predicted sound in some cases but not in others! For example, English birthandburden are both related but show different outcomes of what was historically the same consonant.
Karl Verner noticed, however, that the unpredictable instances correlated with the position of accent in PIE. Sanskrit retains much of the earlier accent system which Germanic has subsequently changed. Sanskrit pater retains the accent following the /t/. Verner noticed that Germanic results from Law A were voiced unless they were immediately preceded by an accented syllable (in which case they would be voiceless) – this is Verner’s Law. Subsequently many of these Germanic voiced fricatives became voiced stops (thus leading to birthandburden). Germanic also underwent an Accent Shift whereby the position of accent changed. This annihilated the conditions for Verner’s Law but left the results of it unchanged, i.e. the results went from being conditioned and predictable (phonetic) to unconditioned and unpredictable (phonemic).
Verner’s Law also helped to explain cases of /s/-/r/ alternations, so called rhotacism. That is /s/ was pronounced as [z] by Verner’s Law unless preceded by accent. This [z] sound then underwent rhotacism to become /r/. Old Latin shows flos-floris‘flower’, English shows was-were etc. Many of the results of Verner’s Law have, however, been lost through analogical levelling. Latin underwent levelling to yield flor-floris‘flower’ and many English dialects have levelled the was-wereparadigm (as has Modern German), i.e. you might hear people saying ‘we was, you was, they was’.
Verner’s Law was and is a fantastic example of how powerful the comparative method is when applied carefully and rigorously. It also gave a great confidence boost to the Neogrammarian Hypothesis which says that sound change is regular and exceptionless. But that is not the end of Verner’s Law…it’s still around in places. When you next come across execute and executor/executive, think carefully about where the stress falls and how you are pronouncing the <x> in those cases – you might just see Verner’s Law in action!
Grimm’s Law (also called the First Germanic Sound Shift) refers to changes which affected the stop consonants in what became the Germanic subgroup of the Indo-European language family (Proto-Germanic being the ancestor of all Germanic languages, i.e. Gothic, German, Yiddish, Swedish, Icelandic, Dutch, Afrikaans, Old English, English etc.). There are in fact three series of changes which changed some aspect of the articulation of the IE stop consonants whilst retaining the same number of distinctions (number of phonemes).
Law A: IE /p t k/ > Gmc /f θ x/
Law B: IE /b d g/ > Gmc /p t k/
Law C: IE /bh dh gh/ > Gmc /β ð γ/ (which later became /b d g/)
Exactly when this happened is not known but we can at least work when the Laws may have taken effect relative to each other, e.g. Law A cannot have happened after Law B because otherwise we would expect IE /b d g/ to show up as /f θ x/ in Germanic.
For example:
Latinpater > Englishfather, German Vater(German orthographic <v> is pronounced /f/)
Greektri > English three
Latincord- > English heart (English /h/ descends from earlier /x/)
Sanskritbhratar > English brother, German Bruder
These are standard but selective examples. Standard in the sense that you’ll find them in text books; selective in that we cannot simply look at one language and expect it to faithfully represent changes which happened hundreds of years ago. Latin, Greek and Sanskrit have undergone changes since Proto-Indo-European and English and German have undergone changes since Proto-Germanic. Modern German shows evidence of a Second Germanic Sound Shift which changed the Germanic stop consonants again! English did not undergo this change as it had already separated from the language that was to become German (compare threeanddrei,daughterandTochteretc.).
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The Imparfait is formed by adding the endings -ais, -ais, -ait, -ions, -iez, -aient to the stem of the verb in its first person plural (nous) form. Example: -parler - to speak - nous form of parler: parlons - Remove the -ons and add the forms of the Imparfait to the stem parl:
Je parlais- I was speaking Tu parlais- You were speaking Il/Elle/On parlait- He/She/It was speaking Nous parlions- We were speaking Vous parliez- You were speaking Ils/Elles parlaient- They were speaking
2. Passé Composé
ThePassé Composé is formed by combining the present tense of the verbs avoirorêtre (for verbs of movement) as auxiliaries with the past participle of the verb being conjugated.
Example: -parler - to speak - Past Participle of parler: parlé - is formed with the verb avoir as auxiliarie:
J’ai parlé - I spoke Tuas parlé - You spoke Il/Elle/Ona parlé - He/She/It spoke Nousavons parlé - We spoke Vousavez parlé - You spoke Ils/Ellesont parlé - They spoke
3. Imparfait or Passé Composé?
In short:
Imparfait = what was happening all around you (including you), background. Also ongoing events, habits, what used to be. Passé composé = what took place at that very moment: a specific event or a succession of specific events, the main storyline.
In detail:
The Imparfait
1.Describes incomplete and ongoing actions or events in the past.It explains what was happening, with no indication of when or even if it ended. ~ Il parlait vite.- He was speaking quickly
2.to describe habitual actions in the past. ~ Nous regardions la télé tous les soirs. - We were watching TV every evening.
3. Describes a person, place, thing or state of mind. (Background information) ~ J’etais ravi. - I was delighted.
The Passé Composé
1. Expresses actions or events that were started and completed at a definite time in the past. It describes what took place and specific events. ~ Un lundi, nous avons dîné au restaurant. - One Monday, we dined in a restaurant.
2. Expresses a specific action or event that was repeated for a stated number of time. ~ J’ai perdu mon livre deux fois. - I lost my book twice.
3. The passé composé describes actions that constitute the storyline. It tells the series of specific events that took place. (No Background information) ~ j’ai pris un selfie et j’ai souri pour la photo. - I took a selfie and I smiled for the picture.
4. Expressions that are usually followed by the Imparfait:
e lundi, le soir, le matin… - On Mondays, in the evening, in the morning…
tous les lundis (tous les matins, tous les soirs, tous les jours…) - Every Monday, every morning, every evening, everyday…
chaque jour (chaque mois, chaque année…), - Each day, month, year…
parfois, quelques fois – sometimes
rarement– rarely, seldom
généralement, en général – in general
5. Expressions that are usually followed by the Passé Composé:
d’abord, premièrement – first
puis, ensuite – then
enfin, finalement – finally
soudain– suddenly
tout à coup – all of a sudden
tout de suite – right away
6. Imparfait and Passé Composé in the same sentence
TheImparfaitdescribes ongoing background actions, what was happening at that time - these actions had started before, and may continue after.
ThePassé Composé describes a specific action that took place at a precise time as the background action was going on:
~ Ils sont entrés pendant que nous dormions. - They came in as we were sleeping. “They came in” is the specific action. “We were sleeping” is the ongoing background action.
