Old Valthungian

Old Valthungian represents a period in the development of the Valthungian language lasting from around 800‒1200 a.d. marked mainly by changes to geminates and intervocalic consonants, as well as the introduction of Germanic ī/j-umlaut and some small but important changes to all of the vowels. Though this is a range which experienced many changes, the most representative example of “Old Valthungian” is the language as it is captured in a few surviving texts believed to date to around 950‒975 a.d.

Major Changes from Griutungi to Old Valthungian

Spirantization of Fricatives

This is a change that had likely already started long before the division between Gothic and Griutungi, and probably happened similarly in Gothic as well. In the Griutungi lineage, it occurred in three distinct stages:

Stage I ( < 400 a.d.)

Intervocalic voiced fricatives (i.e. /b/, /d/, and /g/) became spirantized: /β/, /ð/, and /ɣ/. This likely happened quite early, perhaps already by Proto-Germanic times, and was clearly in operation in Gothic as well.

		C		→	[+cnt]	/	V ___ V
		+vox
		-cnt

“A voiced non-continuant (i.e. stop) consonant becomes continuant (i.e. fricative) when intervocalic.”

In more direct terms:

	b	→	β	/	any vowel } ___ { any vowel
	d	→	ð
	g	→	ɣ

E.g. PGmc. *hlaibai ‘loaf.dat’, *mōdēr ‘mother’, *ōganą ‘to fear’ → Gothic hlaiba /hlɛ̄βa/, *mōdar /mōðar/, ōgan /ōɣan/ ~ Griutungi hlǣba /“”/, mōdar, ōgan → O.V. hlaeva /“”/, moðar, oyan (eventually…) → M.V. þlǣva /θlēva/, mōðr /mouðr̩/, ōgn /ougn̩/ → Vlth. þlǣva /θlē̞vɑ/, mōðra /mauðrɑ/, ōgna /augnɑ/

Stage II ( ~ 400 a.d.)

The same process occurred, but in Stage II the environment changes to include /l/ and /r/ before the stop and any sonorant (i.e. /l/, /r/, /m/, or /n/) after. This likely occurred before or during the time of Griutung proper, and may have happened in a similar environment in Gothic.

C

→

[+cnt]

/

+son

___

+son

+vox

-nas

-cnt

“A voiced non-continuant (i.e. stop) consonant becomes continuant (i.e. fricative) when preceded by a vowel or a liquid and followed by any sonorant (a vowel, a liquid, or a nasal).”

In more direct terms:

	b	→	β	/	V, l, r } ___ { V, l, r, m, n
	d	→	ð
	g	→	ɣ

Stage III ( ~ 500 a.d.)

In the final stage, which happened significantly after the earlier two (probably not before 900 a.d.), the unvoiced continuants /f/ and /θ/, became voiced in the same environment as stage II.

C

→

[+vox]

/

+son

___

+son

-vox

-nas

+cnt

(-bck)

“An unvoiced non-back continuant (i.e. fricative other than /h/) consonant becomes voiced when preceded by any non-nasal sonorant and followed by any' sonorant.”

In more direct terms:

	f	→	β	/	V, l, r } ___ { V, l, r, m, n
	þ	→	ð

Voicing and Devoicing of Consonant Clusters

Voicing of Word-Final /s/ after a Voiced Consonant

Word-final /s/ was voiced after /b/, /d/, and /g/. (And thus I dispense with the mystery of what the phonetic and phonemic value of the /g/ of Gothic dags might have been!)

s → z

/

C [+vox] [-cnt]

___#

“S becomes voiced after a voiced stop when word-final.”

In more direct terms:

s → z

/

b,d,g}___#

Devoicing of Word-Internal Obstruent Clusters

Word-internal obstruent clusters (specifically z followed by a voiced stop consonant) are devoiced.

z

C [+vox] [-cnt]

→

[-vox]

/

V___V

“A cluster consisting of z followed by a voiced stop becomes unvoiced when intervocalic.”

In more direct terms:

	zb	→	sp
	zd	→	st
	zg	→	sk

E.g. razda ‘language’ → rasta, azgō ‘ashes’ → askō …aska.

Change of /fl/ to /θl/

This is an expansion of an earlier change in East Germanic in which /fl/ became /θl/ in certain questionable environments which may or may not have included back vowels and velar consonants (there are only a handful of attested words where this change appears in writings of the time). Shortly after the Griutungi split, all remaining word-initial instances of /fl/ became /θl/.

fl → þl

/

#___

“All instances of fl become þl when word-initial.”