This study represents a bold reanalysis of the phonemic system of Germanic consonants. The accepted primary voiced-voiceless phonemic contrast is replaced by fortis-lenis, whose origin is projected back into Proto-Germanic. It is proposed to view the Germanic consonant shift as the result of lenition in Gmc. /b d g f

Knowing that the so-called voiced and voiceless stops in languages like English and German do not always literally differ in voicing, several linguists — among them Roman Jakobson — have proposed that dichotomies such as fortis/lenis or tense/lax might be more suitable to capture the invariant phonetic core of this

The processes of gemination, lenition, and vowel lengthening are central to the study of phonology, as they reveal much about the treatment of quantity in a given language. Using data from older language stages, modern dialects and standard languages, this study examines the interdependence of vowel and consonant quantity in

This book provides a detailed introduction to the development of the German language from the earliest reconstructible prehistory to the present day. A key to understanding how any human language works is understanding how that language developed over time. German speakers, as well as language learners and teachers are often

First published in 1970 in Germany, this is a revised and enlarged English translation of what remains the standard introduction to the subject. Each section contains a detailed bibliography.