Grimm's Law (gr mz)n. A formula describing the regular changes undergone by Indo-European stop consonants represented in Germanic, essentially stating that Indo-European p, t, and k became Germanic f, th, and h; Indo-European b, d, and g became Germanic p, t, and k; and Indo-European bh, dh, and gh became Germanic b, d, and g. [After Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm.] |
Grimm's law
n
(Linguistics) the rules accounting for systematic correspondences between consonants in the Germanic languages and consonants in other Indo-European languages; it states that Proto-Indo-European voiced aspirated stops, voiced unaspirated stops, and voiceless stops became voiced unaspirated stops, voiceless stops, and voiceless fricatives respectively
[formulated by Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm (1785-1863), German philologist and folklorist]
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| Noun | 1. | Grimm's law - a sound law relating German consonants and consonants in other Indo-European languages sound law - a law describing sound changes in the history of a language |
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