Proto-language for the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages
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Origin of actual order pattern in English/German
It is well-known, or better said, well-accepted, that the ancestral language Proto-Indo-European (PIE) was a OV language with a very limited (or nonexistent) use of subordinate clauses. In ...
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3answers
264 views
Grimm's law: what motivates stop -> fricative sound change?
I am trying to understand the sound change that brought PIE *dent- to P.Gmc. *tanth-. Grimm's law seems to be the culprit for the consonant changes:
Initial voiced stop /d/ devoiced to /t/
Terminal ...
2
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1answer
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Would a Proto language be easy to learn?
Since English descends from Proto-Germanic, which descends from PIE, would either of those two languages be relatively easy to learn (compared to, say, Japanese), or has the language changed too much ...
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3answers
340 views
What are the Proto-Germanic words for sea, lake and a couple of others?
In Dutch "zee" means "sea" and "meer" means "lake", but in German "das Meer" means "sea" and "der See" means "lake".
Similarly, verbs like to want, to need, to have, to desire, etc. are all mixed up.
...
12
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1answer
571 views
Was there a Semitic influence on Proto-Germanic?
One of the hypotheses supported by Theo Vennemann and other linguists is that Proto-Germanic was influenced by some Semitic language. The evidence they present for their case includes:
Loss of some ...
