Development of diphtongs












3














Is there a specific reason for which diphthongs in German and English words like "mein" and "like" arose? It seems to be a pretty common phenomenon,but somehow it seems to be limited to germanic languages. The same question could apply to "Haus" and "House" etc.






phonology historical-linguistics







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    3














    Is there a specific reason for which diphthongs in German and English words like "mein" and "like" arose? It seems to be a pretty common phenomenon,but somehow it seems to be limited to germanic languages. The same question could apply to "Haus" and "House" etc.






    phonology historical-linguistics







    share|improve this question



























      3












      3








      3


      1





      Is there a specific reason for which diphthongs in German and English words like "mein" and "like" arose? It seems to be a pretty common phenomenon,but somehow it seems to be limited to germanic languages. The same question could apply to "Haus" and "House" etc.






      phonology historical-linguistics







      share|improve this question















      Is there a specific reason for which diphthongs in German and English words like "mein" and "like" arose? It seems to be a pretty common phenomenon,but somehow it seems to be limited to germanic languages. The same question could apply to "Haus" and "House" etc.






      phonology historical-linguistics




      phonology historical-linguistics






      share|improve this question















      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question








      edited 3 hours ago

























      asked 3 hours ago









      X30Marco

      885




      885






















          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

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          3














          Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages. It is pretty common in the languages of the world.



          I can cite four phonetic aspects that lead to the outbreak of diphthongs. First of all, there are the diphthongs stemming from long vowels. This diphthongization is found in English (see: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/courses/lx310/handouts/handouts-09/ringe/gvs-revised.pdf)



          The other origin comes from the fall of a consonant. This lost consonant has allowed two vowels to merge together and if they have different qualities, they became diphthongs. This consonant can also be vocalized bringing about the same thing. Such a evolution can be found in Riffian (see: http://www.academia.edu/29199244/Tarifiyt_Long_Vowels_and_Diphthongs_Independent_Phonemes_or_Simple_Phonetic_Variants_of_the_Basic_Amazighe_Vowels_2004_)



          The third case is when a vowel is stressed, a breaking vowel can occur. This process existed in old French, the stressed Latin vowels had been broken (see: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00365006/PDF/vaissiere_1996_from_latin_to_modern_French.pdf)



          The last phenomenon corresponds to the assimilation or coalescence. When two sounds are adjacent, in this case a vowel next to a consonant or vowel, and where one takes a feature from the other, that leads to a diphthongization. Hausa is a language where this kind of assimilation have been observed (see: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21060/HausaDiphthongs.pdf?sequence=1)






          share|improve this answer



















          • 2




            And there are also diphthongs that emerge when a consonant is vocalized.
            – tobiornottobi
            1 hour ago






          • 1




            Yes, it is the case in Riffian, where the tap [ɾ] is vocalized as an open vowel. So a sequence "ir" or "ur" is carried out as diphthong.
            – amegnunsen
            1 hour ago










          • That also applies to German /r/.
            – tobiornottobi
            58 mins ago






          • 1




            @X30Marco that's why I think this answer is not completely to the point of the question. "Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages" True, but the West Germanic languages tend to have the same chain shift of the long vowels and it is usually argued that it happened independently. If it is really true that it happened independently then there has to be a shared feature in these languages that caused the chain shift.
            – tobiornottobi
            54 mins ago








          • 1




            [something to add to my own statement: the sound changes are not completely the same, but they affected the same (kind of) vowels and had the same effect. In German and Dutch dialects that still had the diphthongs ie, uo, üö the diphthongization can't be the result of a push chain] :)
            – tobiornottobi
            43 mins ago



















          1














          True. The other long vowels were raised but /iː/ and /uː/ can't be raised further. The diphthongization was surely partly a strategy to differentiate the raised /eː : oː/ from /iː : uː/ (chain shifts/ push/pull chain).



          Why these whole significant vowel shifts happened though is a good question. It seems that vowels in Germanic languages are very unstable, which leads to the Germanic languages having very many vowel qualities. This may be related to the Germanic word stress.






          share|improve this answer





















          • But why is there a need to differentiate in the first place?And could you please elaborate the part about the stress?
            – X30Marco
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            If you don't differentiate sounds you can't transmit information. Speaking is similar to transmitting information digitally only base-40-ish instead of base-2. A computer distinguishes a one and a zero by different voltages, speech sounds are distinguished by sound frequencies. If 1 and 0 are the same, you can't transmit information anymore.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            Proto-Germanic switched from a Proto-Indo-European accent pattern to a very predictable strong stress accent on the first syllable of a word (stem). In all living Germanic languages the unstressed syllables have then become simplified in some way. In most very drastically and often up to an apocope of the final syllable. Before being simplified the final syllables could have an influence on the stressed syllables (Umlauts as foot – feet, de. Fuß – Füße, nl. vallen – vellen). Those were early changes clearly influenced by the stress accent.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            Without the stress difference between syllables, the weakly stressed syllables wouldn't have been simplified and we wouldn't have ended up with Umlauts and other additions to the vowel inventory. The raising and diphthongization of vowels is not as easily explained by the stress but it is a common denominator in the Germanic languages that has had its influence on the vowels.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago











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          2 Answers
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          2 Answers
          2






          active

          oldest

          votes









          active

          oldest

          votes






          active

          oldest

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          3














          Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages. It is pretty common in the languages of the world.



          I can cite four phonetic aspects that lead to the outbreak of diphthongs. First of all, there are the diphthongs stemming from long vowels. This diphthongization is found in English (see: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/courses/lx310/handouts/handouts-09/ringe/gvs-revised.pdf)



          The other origin comes from the fall of a consonant. This lost consonant has allowed two vowels to merge together and if they have different qualities, they became diphthongs. This consonant can also be vocalized bringing about the same thing. Such a evolution can be found in Riffian (see: http://www.academia.edu/29199244/Tarifiyt_Long_Vowels_and_Diphthongs_Independent_Phonemes_or_Simple_Phonetic_Variants_of_the_Basic_Amazighe_Vowels_2004_)



          The third case is when a vowel is stressed, a breaking vowel can occur. This process existed in old French, the stressed Latin vowels had been broken (see: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00365006/PDF/vaissiere_1996_from_latin_to_modern_French.pdf)



          The last phenomenon corresponds to the assimilation or coalescence. When two sounds are adjacent, in this case a vowel next to a consonant or vowel, and where one takes a feature from the other, that leads to a diphthongization. Hausa is a language where this kind of assimilation have been observed (see: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21060/HausaDiphthongs.pdf?sequence=1)






          share|improve this answer



















          • 2




            And there are also diphthongs that emerge when a consonant is vocalized.
            – tobiornottobi
            1 hour ago






          • 1




            Yes, it is the case in Riffian, where the tap [ɾ] is vocalized as an open vowel. So a sequence "ir" or "ur" is carried out as diphthong.
            – amegnunsen
            1 hour ago










          • That also applies to German /r/.
            – tobiornottobi
            58 mins ago






          • 1




            @X30Marco that's why I think this answer is not completely to the point of the question. "Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages" True, but the West Germanic languages tend to have the same chain shift of the long vowels and it is usually argued that it happened independently. If it is really true that it happened independently then there has to be a shared feature in these languages that caused the chain shift.
            – tobiornottobi
            54 mins ago








          • 1




            [something to add to my own statement: the sound changes are not completely the same, but they affected the same (kind of) vowels and had the same effect. In German and Dutch dialects that still had the diphthongs ie, uo, üö the diphthongization can't be the result of a push chain] :)
            – tobiornottobi
            43 mins ago
















          3














          Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages. It is pretty common in the languages of the world.



          I can cite four phonetic aspects that lead to the outbreak of diphthongs. First of all, there are the diphthongs stemming from long vowels. This diphthongization is found in English (see: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/courses/lx310/handouts/handouts-09/ringe/gvs-revised.pdf)



          The other origin comes from the fall of a consonant. This lost consonant has allowed two vowels to merge together and if they have different qualities, they became diphthongs. This consonant can also be vocalized bringing about the same thing. Such a evolution can be found in Riffian (see: http://www.academia.edu/29199244/Tarifiyt_Long_Vowels_and_Diphthongs_Independent_Phonemes_or_Simple_Phonetic_Variants_of_the_Basic_Amazighe_Vowels_2004_)



          The third case is when a vowel is stressed, a breaking vowel can occur. This process existed in old French, the stressed Latin vowels had been broken (see: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00365006/PDF/vaissiere_1996_from_latin_to_modern_French.pdf)



          The last phenomenon corresponds to the assimilation or coalescence. When two sounds are adjacent, in this case a vowel next to a consonant or vowel, and where one takes a feature from the other, that leads to a diphthongization. Hausa is a language where this kind of assimilation have been observed (see: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21060/HausaDiphthongs.pdf?sequence=1)






          share|improve this answer



















          • 2




            And there are also diphthongs that emerge when a consonant is vocalized.
            – tobiornottobi
            1 hour ago






          • 1




            Yes, it is the case in Riffian, where the tap [ɾ] is vocalized as an open vowel. So a sequence "ir" or "ur" is carried out as diphthong.
            – amegnunsen
            1 hour ago










          • That also applies to German /r/.
            – tobiornottobi
            58 mins ago






          • 1




            @X30Marco that's why I think this answer is not completely to the point of the question. "Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages" True, but the West Germanic languages tend to have the same chain shift of the long vowels and it is usually argued that it happened independently. If it is really true that it happened independently then there has to be a shared feature in these languages that caused the chain shift.
            – tobiornottobi
            54 mins ago








          • 1




            [something to add to my own statement: the sound changes are not completely the same, but they affected the same (kind of) vowels and had the same effect. In German and Dutch dialects that still had the diphthongs ie, uo, üö the diphthongization can't be the result of a push chain] :)
            – tobiornottobi
            43 mins ago














          3












          3








          3






          Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages. It is pretty common in the languages of the world.



          I can cite four phonetic aspects that lead to the outbreak of diphthongs. First of all, there are the diphthongs stemming from long vowels. This diphthongization is found in English (see: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/courses/lx310/handouts/handouts-09/ringe/gvs-revised.pdf)



          The other origin comes from the fall of a consonant. This lost consonant has allowed two vowels to merge together and if they have different qualities, they became diphthongs. This consonant can also be vocalized bringing about the same thing. Such a evolution can be found in Riffian (see: http://www.academia.edu/29199244/Tarifiyt_Long_Vowels_and_Diphthongs_Independent_Phonemes_or_Simple_Phonetic_Variants_of_the_Basic_Amazighe_Vowels_2004_)



          The third case is when a vowel is stressed, a breaking vowel can occur. This process existed in old French, the stressed Latin vowels had been broken (see: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00365006/PDF/vaissiere_1996_from_latin_to_modern_French.pdf)



          The last phenomenon corresponds to the assimilation or coalescence. When two sounds are adjacent, in this case a vowel next to a consonant or vowel, and where one takes a feature from the other, that leads to a diphthongization. Hausa is a language where this kind of assimilation have been observed (see: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21060/HausaDiphthongs.pdf?sequence=1)






          share|improve this answer














          Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages. It is pretty common in the languages of the world.



          I can cite four phonetic aspects that lead to the outbreak of diphthongs. First of all, there are the diphthongs stemming from long vowels. This diphthongization is found in English (see: https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kroch/courses/lx310/handouts/handouts-09/ringe/gvs-revised.pdf)



          The other origin comes from the fall of a consonant. This lost consonant has allowed two vowels to merge together and if they have different qualities, they became diphthongs. This consonant can also be vocalized bringing about the same thing. Such a evolution can be found in Riffian (see: http://www.academia.edu/29199244/Tarifiyt_Long_Vowels_and_Diphthongs_Independent_Phonemes_or_Simple_Phonetic_Variants_of_the_Basic_Amazighe_Vowels_2004_)



          The third case is when a vowel is stressed, a breaking vowel can occur. This process existed in old French, the stressed Latin vowels had been broken (see: https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00365006/PDF/vaissiere_1996_from_latin_to_modern_French.pdf)



          The last phenomenon corresponds to the assimilation or coalescence. When two sounds are adjacent, in this case a vowel next to a consonant or vowel, and where one takes a feature from the other, that leads to a diphthongization. Hausa is a language where this kind of assimilation have been observed (see: https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/21060/HausaDiphthongs.pdf?sequence=1)







          share|improve this answer














          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer








          edited 1 hour ago

























          answered 1 hour ago









          amegnunsen

          59627




          59627








          • 2




            And there are also diphthongs that emerge when a consonant is vocalized.
            – tobiornottobi
            1 hour ago






          • 1




            Yes, it is the case in Riffian, where the tap [ɾ] is vocalized as an open vowel. So a sequence "ir" or "ur" is carried out as diphthong.
            – amegnunsen
            1 hour ago










          • That also applies to German /r/.
            – tobiornottobi
            58 mins ago






          • 1




            @X30Marco that's why I think this answer is not completely to the point of the question. "Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages" True, but the West Germanic languages tend to have the same chain shift of the long vowels and it is usually argued that it happened independently. If it is really true that it happened independently then there has to be a shared feature in these languages that caused the chain shift.
            – tobiornottobi
            54 mins ago








          • 1




            [something to add to my own statement: the sound changes are not completely the same, but they affected the same (kind of) vowels and had the same effect. In German and Dutch dialects that still had the diphthongs ie, uo, üö the diphthongization can't be the result of a push chain] :)
            – tobiornottobi
            43 mins ago














          • 2




            And there are also diphthongs that emerge when a consonant is vocalized.
            – tobiornottobi
            1 hour ago






          • 1




            Yes, it is the case in Riffian, where the tap [ɾ] is vocalized as an open vowel. So a sequence "ir" or "ur" is carried out as diphthong.
            – amegnunsen
            1 hour ago










          • That also applies to German /r/.
            – tobiornottobi
            58 mins ago






          • 1




            @X30Marco that's why I think this answer is not completely to the point of the question. "Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages" True, but the West Germanic languages tend to have the same chain shift of the long vowels and it is usually argued that it happened independently. If it is really true that it happened independently then there has to be a shared feature in these languages that caused the chain shift.
            – tobiornottobi
            54 mins ago








          • 1




            [something to add to my own statement: the sound changes are not completely the same, but they affected the same (kind of) vowels and had the same effect. In German and Dutch dialects that still had the diphthongs ie, uo, üö the diphthongization can't be the result of a push chain] :)
            – tobiornottobi
            43 mins ago








          2




          2




          And there are also diphthongs that emerge when a consonant is vocalized.
          – tobiornottobi
          1 hour ago




          And there are also diphthongs that emerge when a consonant is vocalized.
          – tobiornottobi
          1 hour ago




          1




          1




          Yes, it is the case in Riffian, where the tap [ɾ] is vocalized as an open vowel. So a sequence "ir" or "ur" is carried out as diphthong.
          – amegnunsen
          1 hour ago




          Yes, it is the case in Riffian, where the tap [ɾ] is vocalized as an open vowel. So a sequence "ir" or "ur" is carried out as diphthong.
          – amegnunsen
          1 hour ago












          That also applies to German /r/.
          – tobiornottobi
          58 mins ago




          That also applies to German /r/.
          – tobiornottobi
          58 mins ago




          1




          1




          @X30Marco that's why I think this answer is not completely to the point of the question. "Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages" True, but the West Germanic languages tend to have the same chain shift of the long vowels and it is usually argued that it happened independently. If it is really true that it happened independently then there has to be a shared feature in these languages that caused the chain shift.
          – tobiornottobi
          54 mins ago






          @X30Marco that's why I think this answer is not completely to the point of the question. "Diphthongs are not limited to Germanic languages" True, but the West Germanic languages tend to have the same chain shift of the long vowels and it is usually argued that it happened independently. If it is really true that it happened independently then there has to be a shared feature in these languages that caused the chain shift.
          – tobiornottobi
          54 mins ago






          1




          1




          [something to add to my own statement: the sound changes are not completely the same, but they affected the same (kind of) vowels and had the same effect. In German and Dutch dialects that still had the diphthongs ie, uo, üö the diphthongization can't be the result of a push chain] :)
          – tobiornottobi
          43 mins ago




          [something to add to my own statement: the sound changes are not completely the same, but they affected the same (kind of) vowels and had the same effect. In German and Dutch dialects that still had the diphthongs ie, uo, üö the diphthongization can't be the result of a push chain] :)
          – tobiornottobi
          43 mins ago











          1














          True. The other long vowels were raised but /iː/ and /uː/ can't be raised further. The diphthongization was surely partly a strategy to differentiate the raised /eː : oː/ from /iː : uː/ (chain shifts/ push/pull chain).



          Why these whole significant vowel shifts happened though is a good question. It seems that vowels in Germanic languages are very unstable, which leads to the Germanic languages having very many vowel qualities. This may be related to the Germanic word stress.






          share|improve this answer





















          • But why is there a need to differentiate in the first place?And could you please elaborate the part about the stress?
            – X30Marco
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            If you don't differentiate sounds you can't transmit information. Speaking is similar to transmitting information digitally only base-40-ish instead of base-2. A computer distinguishes a one and a zero by different voltages, speech sounds are distinguished by sound frequencies. If 1 and 0 are the same, you can't transmit information anymore.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            Proto-Germanic switched from a Proto-Indo-European accent pattern to a very predictable strong stress accent on the first syllable of a word (stem). In all living Germanic languages the unstressed syllables have then become simplified in some way. In most very drastically and often up to an apocope of the final syllable. Before being simplified the final syllables could have an influence on the stressed syllables (Umlauts as foot – feet, de. Fuß – Füße, nl. vallen – vellen). Those were early changes clearly influenced by the stress accent.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            Without the stress difference between syllables, the weakly stressed syllables wouldn't have been simplified and we wouldn't have ended up with Umlauts and other additions to the vowel inventory. The raising and diphthongization of vowels is not as easily explained by the stress but it is a common denominator in the Germanic languages that has had its influence on the vowels.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago
















          1














          True. The other long vowels were raised but /iː/ and /uː/ can't be raised further. The diphthongization was surely partly a strategy to differentiate the raised /eː : oː/ from /iː : uː/ (chain shifts/ push/pull chain).



          Why these whole significant vowel shifts happened though is a good question. It seems that vowels in Germanic languages are very unstable, which leads to the Germanic languages having very many vowel qualities. This may be related to the Germanic word stress.






          share|improve this answer





















          • But why is there a need to differentiate in the first place?And could you please elaborate the part about the stress?
            – X30Marco
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            If you don't differentiate sounds you can't transmit information. Speaking is similar to transmitting information digitally only base-40-ish instead of base-2. A computer distinguishes a one and a zero by different voltages, speech sounds are distinguished by sound frequencies. If 1 and 0 are the same, you can't transmit information anymore.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            Proto-Germanic switched from a Proto-Indo-European accent pattern to a very predictable strong stress accent on the first syllable of a word (stem). In all living Germanic languages the unstressed syllables have then become simplified in some way. In most very drastically and often up to an apocope of the final syllable. Before being simplified the final syllables could have an influence on the stressed syllables (Umlauts as foot – feet, de. Fuß – Füße, nl. vallen – vellen). Those were early changes clearly influenced by the stress accent.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            Without the stress difference between syllables, the weakly stressed syllables wouldn't have been simplified and we wouldn't have ended up with Umlauts and other additions to the vowel inventory. The raising and diphthongization of vowels is not as easily explained by the stress but it is a common denominator in the Germanic languages that has had its influence on the vowels.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago














          1












          1








          1






          True. The other long vowels were raised but /iː/ and /uː/ can't be raised further. The diphthongization was surely partly a strategy to differentiate the raised /eː : oː/ from /iː : uː/ (chain shifts/ push/pull chain).



          Why these whole significant vowel shifts happened though is a good question. It seems that vowels in Germanic languages are very unstable, which leads to the Germanic languages having very many vowel qualities. This may be related to the Germanic word stress.






          share|improve this answer












          True. The other long vowels were raised but /iː/ and /uː/ can't be raised further. The diphthongization was surely partly a strategy to differentiate the raised /eː : oː/ from /iː : uː/ (chain shifts/ push/pull chain).



          Why these whole significant vowel shifts happened though is a good question. It seems that vowels in Germanic languages are very unstable, which leads to the Germanic languages having very many vowel qualities. This may be related to the Germanic word stress.







          share|improve this answer












          share|improve this answer



          share|improve this answer










          answered 3 hours ago









          tobiornottobi

          4008




          4008












          • But why is there a need to differentiate in the first place?And could you please elaborate the part about the stress?
            – X30Marco
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            If you don't differentiate sounds you can't transmit information. Speaking is similar to transmitting information digitally only base-40-ish instead of base-2. A computer distinguishes a one and a zero by different voltages, speech sounds are distinguished by sound frequencies. If 1 and 0 are the same, you can't transmit information anymore.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            Proto-Germanic switched from a Proto-Indo-European accent pattern to a very predictable strong stress accent on the first syllable of a word (stem). In all living Germanic languages the unstressed syllables have then become simplified in some way. In most very drastically and often up to an apocope of the final syllable. Before being simplified the final syllables could have an influence on the stressed syllables (Umlauts as foot – feet, de. Fuß – Füße, nl. vallen – vellen). Those were early changes clearly influenced by the stress accent.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            Without the stress difference between syllables, the weakly stressed syllables wouldn't have been simplified and we wouldn't have ended up with Umlauts and other additions to the vowel inventory. The raising and diphthongization of vowels is not as easily explained by the stress but it is a common denominator in the Germanic languages that has had its influence on the vowels.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago


















          • But why is there a need to differentiate in the first place?And could you please elaborate the part about the stress?
            – X30Marco
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            If you don't differentiate sounds you can't transmit information. Speaking is similar to transmitting information digitally only base-40-ish instead of base-2. A computer distinguishes a one and a zero by different voltages, speech sounds are distinguished by sound frequencies. If 1 and 0 are the same, you can't transmit information anymore.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago








          • 1




            Proto-Germanic switched from a Proto-Indo-European accent pattern to a very predictable strong stress accent on the first syllable of a word (stem). In all living Germanic languages the unstressed syllables have then become simplified in some way. In most very drastically and often up to an apocope of the final syllable. Before being simplified the final syllables could have an influence on the stressed syllables (Umlauts as foot – feet, de. Fuß – Füße, nl. vallen – vellen). Those were early changes clearly influenced by the stress accent.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago






          • 1




            Without the stress difference between syllables, the weakly stressed syllables wouldn't have been simplified and we wouldn't have ended up with Umlauts and other additions to the vowel inventory. The raising and diphthongization of vowels is not as easily explained by the stress but it is a common denominator in the Germanic languages that has had its influence on the vowels.
            – tobiornottobi
            2 hours ago
















          But why is there a need to differentiate in the first place?And could you please elaborate the part about the stress?
          – X30Marco
          2 hours ago




          But why is there a need to differentiate in the first place?And could you please elaborate the part about the stress?
          – X30Marco
          2 hours ago




          1




          1




          If you don't differentiate sounds you can't transmit information. Speaking is similar to transmitting information digitally only base-40-ish instead of base-2. A computer distinguishes a one and a zero by different voltages, speech sounds are distinguished by sound frequencies. If 1 and 0 are the same, you can't transmit information anymore.
          – tobiornottobi
          2 hours ago






          If you don't differentiate sounds you can't transmit information. Speaking is similar to transmitting information digitally only base-40-ish instead of base-2. A computer distinguishes a one and a zero by different voltages, speech sounds are distinguished by sound frequencies. If 1 and 0 are the same, you can't transmit information anymore.
          – tobiornottobi
          2 hours ago






          1




          1




          Proto-Germanic switched from a Proto-Indo-European accent pattern to a very predictable strong stress accent on the first syllable of a word (stem). In all living Germanic languages the unstressed syllables have then become simplified in some way. In most very drastically and often up to an apocope of the final syllable. Before being simplified the final syllables could have an influence on the stressed syllables (Umlauts as foot – feet, de. Fuß – Füße, nl. vallen – vellen). Those were early changes clearly influenced by the stress accent.
          – tobiornottobi
          2 hours ago




          Proto-Germanic switched from a Proto-Indo-European accent pattern to a very predictable strong stress accent on the first syllable of a word (stem). In all living Germanic languages the unstressed syllables have then become simplified in some way. In most very drastically and often up to an apocope of the final syllable. Before being simplified the final syllables could have an influence on the stressed syllables (Umlauts as foot – feet, de. Fuß – Füße, nl. vallen – vellen). Those were early changes clearly influenced by the stress accent.
          – tobiornottobi
          2 hours ago




          1




          1




          Without the stress difference between syllables, the weakly stressed syllables wouldn't have been simplified and we wouldn't have ended up with Umlauts and other additions to the vowel inventory. The raising and diphthongization of vowels is not as easily explained by the stress but it is a common denominator in the Germanic languages that has had its influence on the vowels.
          – tobiornottobi
          2 hours ago




          Without the stress difference between syllables, the weakly stressed syllables wouldn't have been simplified and we wouldn't have ended up with Umlauts and other additions to the vowel inventory. The raising and diphthongization of vowels is not as easily explained by the stress but it is a common denominator in the Germanic languages that has had its influence on the vowels.
          – tobiornottobi
          2 hours ago


















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