A new approach to Primärberührungseffekt

Abstract

This article investigates the so-called Primärberührungseffekt, particularly the question of its relationship to Grimm’s Law, as both are spirantizations originating in the earliest period of Germanic. Yet there are differences across the early Germanic languages in the context of Primär­be­rüh­rungs­effekt, i.e. before a coronal, which include the unique pronunciation of <pt> in Old Norse, the sporadic velarization of /ft/ > [xt], /xt/ in West Germanic, and the evidence of loanwords. Based on these reflexes, I will argue that it is to be regarded as separate from Grimm’s Law and continued to operate later in Germanic. The typological likelihood and predictability of such a sound change arising independently is one I will explore via comparison with notably similar contextual shifts in other branches of early IE (and Finnish), in both development and eventual obsolescence.