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
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