High German Consonant Shift

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, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest written records in the High German language were made in the 9th 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 unaffected.

Read more about High German Consonant Shift:  General Description, Overview Table, Other Changes, Chronology, Geographical Distribution, Lombardic, Sample Texts, Unshifted Forms in Standard German

Famous quotes containing the words high, german and/or shift:

    There’s Margaret and Marjorie and Dorothy and Nan,
    A Daphne and a Mary who live in privacy;
    One’s had her fill of lovers, another’s had but one,
    Another boasts, “I pick and choose and have but two or three.”
    If head and limb have beauty and the instep’s high and light
    They can spread out what sail they please for all I have to say....
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    Boys hide in lunging cubes
    Crouching to explode,
    Beyond the Atlantic skies,
    With cheerful cries
    Their barking tubes
    Upon the German toad.
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in travelling in a stage- coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place.
    Washington Irving (1783–1859)