Grimm's law

English

Etymology

Named for Jacob Grimm (1785–1863), German author, linguist and folklorist.

Proper noun

Grimm's law

1. (Indo-European studies) A sound change that affected the Proto-Indo-European stop consonants in the development of Proto-Germanic, causing devoicing or change into a fricative.
2. (Indo-European studies) The description of this sound change (as originally formulated by Jacob Grimm), which establishes a set of regular correspondences between early Germanic stops and fricatives, and the consonants of Proto-Indo-European and most other Indo-European languages.

Translations

sound change that affected the Proto-Indo-European stop consonants in the development of Proto-Germanic

• Dutch: eerste Germaanse klankverschuiving f, wet van Grimm f
• French: loi de Grimm (fr) f
• German: erste Lautverschiebung (de) f, Grimmsches Gesetz n