User:Ceige/Germlang1

History of Sound Changes

Sound changes from Proto-Germanic to Proto-NEEDANAME

/ɛː/ opens to /æː/ This has the effect of fronting long and short a afterwards.

/ɑ/ is centralised to /ä/ for both long and short variants.

/äː/ and /æː/ merge. This eliminates a phoneme from the inventory, reducing it to an 8-vowel system, with /a/, /i/ and /u/ retaining the length distintions and /e/ and /ɔː/ lacking their long and short counterparts respectively.

/e/ opens to /ɛ/. This must happen before /i/ in closed syllables opens to /e/. Presumably this also balances out the long /ɔː/.

/i/ and /u/ open in closed syllables /i/ > /e/ /u/ > /o/

• /i/ and /u/ in closed syllables shift to /e/ and /o/ respectively

ɑ