Exceptions
There are three main systematic exceptions.
1. The voiceless stops did not become fricatives if they were preceded by *s (itself a fricative).
| Non-Germanic examples | Change | Germanic examples |
|---|---|---|
| Latin: spuere, Lithuanian: spjáuti | *sp | English: spew, West Frisian: spije, Dutch: spuwen, German: speien, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish: spy, Icelandic: spýja, Faroese: spýggja, Gothic: speiwan |
| Latin: stāre, Irish: stad, Sanskrit: sta, Russian: стать (stat'), Lithuanian: stoti, Persian: ايستادن (istâdan) | *st | English: stand, Icelandic, Faroese, Norwegian: standa, Gothic: standan; West Frisian: stean, Dutch: staan, German: stehen, Danish, Swedish: stå |
| Lithuanian: skurdus | *sk | English: short, Old High German: scurz, Icelandic: skorta |
| Irish: scéal | *skʷ | English: scold, Icelandic: skáld, Norwegian: skald; West Frisian: skelle, Dutch: schelden, German: schelten |
- Note:
- Some linguists dispute the origin of the word "scold", but Julius Pokorny among others proposed *skwetlo as the assumed root.
- Dutch has *k → *h (ch) even after *s, though this is a separate development.
2. The voiceless stop *t did not become a fricative if preceded by another stop, but the preceding stop was generally devoiced and then fricativised. This also happened to stops before *s, but that sound was not affected by Grimm's law.
Combined with the previous exception it is therefore most convenient to say that in a series of two obstruents, the second does not become a fricative but the first does. This is sometimes treated separately under the heading Germanic spirant law:
| Non-Germanic examples | Change | Germanic examples |
|---|---|---|
| Ancient Greek: κλέπτης (kleptēs), Old Prussian: au-klipts "hidden" | *pt→ft | Gothic: hliftus "thief" |
| Latin: atta, Greek: ἄττα (átta) | *tt→tt | Old High German: atto, Gothic: atta "father" |
| Ancient Greek: οκτώ (oktō), Irish: ocht, Latin: octō | *kt→ht | English: eight, West Frisian, Dutch, German: acht, Gothic: ahtáu, Icelandic: átta (pronounced ) |
| Irish: anocht, Latin: nox, noct-, Greek: νύξ, νυκτ- (núks, nukt-), Sanskrit: नक्तम् (naktam), Lithuanian: naktis, Hittite (genitive): nekuz (pronounced /nekʷts/) | *kʷt→ht | English: night, West Frisian, Dutch, German: nacht, Gothic: nahts, Icelandic: nótt (pronounced ) |
- Note: Icelandic nótt comes from Proto-Germanic *naht-, with the /ht/ regularly becoming /tt/, which was originally pronounced before pre-aspirating. Thus, the of the modern Icelandic form is not a direct descendant of ancient /h/. The same ancestry holds for the /tt/ of Icelandic átta as well.
3. The most recalcitrant set of apparent exceptions to Grimm's law, which defied linguists for a few decades, eventually received explanation from the Danish linguist Karl Verner (see the article on Verner's law for details). (This is not necessarily an actual exception: the traditional dating of Verner's Law occurring after Grimm's would mean that the consonants affected did undergo Grimm's law, and were only changed later.)
Read more about this topic: Grimm's Law
Famous quotes containing the word exceptions:
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—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
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“For true poetry, complete poetry, consists in the harmony of contraries. Hence, it is time to say aloud—and it is here above all that exceptions prove the rule—that everything that exists in nature exists in art.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)