language change

Question 1

describe what happened with p and t consonants e.g Pound and zwei

Answer 1

During the OHG period (AD 750 and 1050) many consonants changed
GMC /p, t/ > /pf, ts/ word-initially
e.g Pfund, zwei, pound, two

Question 2

what happened to p, t and k consonants after vowels?
e.g soap, water, book

Answer 2

GMC /p, t, k/ > /f, s, x/ after vowels e.g Seife, Wasser, Buch

Question 3

what happened to d consonants e.g day, drink, good?

Answer 3

GMC /d/ > /t/: e.g Tag, trinken, gut

Question 4

what happened to -th consonant e.g think, the, path

Answer 4

GMC /θ, d/ > /d/ e.g denken, der, Pfad

Question 5

what happened to v consonants ? e.g live, give

Answer 5

GMC /v/ > /b/
e.g leben, geben

Question 6

what germanic consonants were retained in german but changed in english?

Answer 6

GMC /k/ > /t{/ in Old english (AD 400-1100) when next to /i/ or /e/.
Known as palatalisation e.g chin, cheese, Kinn, Käse

GMC /x/ lost after the middle english period (around 1400) e.g light, brought, licht, brachte

Question 7

describe the diphthongs in mein and haus

Answer 7

GMC /i:/ and /u:/ diphthongised to /ai/ and /au/ in early new high german (1350-1650)

Question 8

what vowel change occurred before consonants (/t, d, s, z, n, l/)

Answer 8

GMC /au/ > /o:/ OHG before alveolar consonants but otherwise remained /au/ e.g Traum, Baum, Brot, Bohne.

in english GMC /au/ > /ea/ in OE and then /i:/ in some words but /e/ in others e.g dream, beam, bread, bean

Question 9

what occurred with the umlaut or i-mutation?

Answer 9

the i-mutation occurred in late germanic so affects both english and german. Back vowels were fronted and /a/ was raised to /e/. This happened before a following /i/ or /j/.
German has kept the rounding but english has unrounded to /i/ (füllen, fill)