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

“Word-final s becomes voiced when following a voiced stop.”

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		/	V ___ V
			+vox
			-cnt

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

In more direct terms:

	zb	→	sp	/	any vowel } ___ { any vowel
	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/.

f

→

þ

/

# ___ l

“Word-initial f becomes þ before l.”

Changes to Geminate Consonants

Between 500‒650 a.d. all of the geminate consonants inherited from Griutungi were condensed to a single consonant. This also put an end to a persistent rule inherited from Proto-Germanic whereby geminate consonants collapsed before and obstruent or a word-boundary, there being no more geminate consonants to encounter such an environment.

Changes to Geminate Obstruents

In geminate obstruents – that is, geminate stops and fricatives – the first obstruent of the pair is lenited to /h/. (Later, in a separate process of h-deletion, these are eliminated completely.)

		CC		→	hC
		-son

To put it more simply:

pp → hp
tt → ht
kk → hk
bb → hb
dd → hd
gg → hg*
ff → hf
þþ → hþ
ss → hs

Changes to Geminate Sonorants

In geminate sonorants – that is, geminate nasals and liquids – the first sonorant of the pair becomes -son, -vox and -cnt; that is, it is replaced by an unvoiced stop (in the same place of articulation).

Stage I

		CC		→		C		C
		+son				-son
						-vox
						-cnt

To put it more simply:

mm → pm
nn → tn
rr → tr
ll → tl

Stage II

Much later, perhaps as late as 750 or 800 a.d., pm shifts to tm, but only in words which had previously contained geminate mm

pm → tm

Vowel Changes

Lengthening of Word-Final Stressed Vowels

Vowel lengthening applies mainly to monosyllabic function words such as articles, pronouns, and prepositions.

		V		→		+lng		/	___ #
		+str
		-lng

“Stressed short vowels become long when word-final.”

E.g. bi, þu, sa → bī, þū, sā

Lengthening of /ij/

All instances of ij become lengthened. (More accurately, ij becomes ī, and then the persistent glide-insertion rule immediately restores j before a following vowel, but it's simpler to just say that ij becomes īj.)

i

→

ī

/

___ j

“Short i is lengthened before j.”

Reversal of High Diphthong Altitude Trajectory

The high rising diphthong iu becomes a falling diphthong and is reanalyzed as a glide.

iu

→

ju

Change of Word-Initial /j/ to /g/

This is sometimes considered a part of Verschärfung, but I'm placing it here because it must necessarily occur contemporaneously with the iu → ju change above. More specifically, there are a small number of words which begin with the sequence ⟨jiu-⟩, and this sequence as a whole becomes ⟨gju-⟩.

j'

→

'g

/

# ___ iu

Rhotacism Launch

The phoneme /z/ begins the same process towards rhotacism seen in the other Germanic languages. This change occurs in all environments.

z

→

ʐ

Expansion of East Germanic Verschärfung

There are actually several changes which occurred at different time periods which have been assembled here under the banner of “Verschärfung”. All of these changes deal with the way glide consonants change in intervocalic environments between the Gothic and Old Valthungian Periods.