Page:Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German and Slavonic languages (Bopp 1885).pdf/95

CHARACTERS AND SOUNDS. 73 with the exception of the High German, in relation to the Greek, Latin, and, with certain limits, also

to the Sanskrit and Zend, substitute aspirates for the original tenues, h for k, th for t, and f for p; tenues for medials, t for d, p for b, and k for g; finally, medials for aspirates, g for χ d for θ, and b for f. The High German bears the same regular relation to the Gothic as the latter to the Greek, and substitutes its aspirates for the Gothic tenues and Greek medials; its tenues for the Gothic medials and Greek aspirates; and its medials for the Gothic aspirates and Greek tenues. Yet the Gothic labial and guttural medial exhibits itself unaltered in most of the Old High German authorities, as in the Middle and Modern High German; for instance, Gothic biuga, “flecto,” Old High German biuga and piuka, Middle High German biuge, Modern High German biege. For the Gothic f, the Old High German substitutes v, especially as a first letter. In the t sounds, z in High German (= ts) replaces an aspirate. The Gothic has no aspiration of the k, and either replaces the Greek κ by the simple aspiration h, in which case it sometimes coincides with the Sanskṛit ह् h, or it falls to the level of the High German, and, in the middle or end of words, usually gives g instead of k, the High German adhering, as regards the beginning of words, to the Gothic practice, and participating with that dialect in the use of the h. We give here Grimm’s table, illustrating the law of these substitutions, p. 584.