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West Germanic gemination was a sound change that took place in all West Germanic languages, around the 3rd or 4th century. It affected consonants directly followed by , which were generally lengthened ("geminated", came to be held longer) in this position. Because of Sievers' law, the only consonants affected by this process were those that directly followed a short vowel. ==Overview== When followed by , consonants were lengthened (doubled). The consonant , whether original or from earlier through rhotacization, was generally not affected; it occasionally shows gemination in Old High German, but inconsistently and this may be an analogical change. In contrast, the second element of the diphthongs ''iu'' and ''au'' was still underlyingly the consonant at this time, and therefore was lengthened as well. In Proto-Germanic, only appeared at the beginning of a syllable, primarily as the onset of a variety of suffixes and endings. It alternated with its syllabic counterpart in accordance with a phonological rule known as Sievers' law. This law states that consonantal appeared after a "light" syllable: one that contained a short vowel followed by at most one consonant. The syllabic allomorph appeared after "heavy" syllables, which included syllables containing a long vowel, a diphthong, or ending in more than one consonant. As the gemination itself required the consonant to be directly followed by , it therefore affected only light syllables; heavy syllables were not changed. Compare, for example, the Germanic verbs '' *fūlijaną'' "to defile" and '' *fuljaną'' "to fill, to make full", which appear in Old English as ''fȳlan'' and ''fyllan'' respectively, and in Old High German as ''fūlen'' and ''fullen''; the first verb shows no gemination, while the second does. In the early history of most individual Germanic languages, syllabic was generally lost, while consonantal was retained. Earlier consonantal is also lost, however, after a consonant that underwent gemination. Thus, remains only after (Old English ''werian'' < Proto-Germanic '' *warjaną''), while appears in all other cases, even those where Proto-Germanic had (such as '' *fuljaną'' above). It therefore appears that Sievers' law was still productive at this stage, and adapted to the new syllable length by changing the suffix from its consonantal to its syllabic variety. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「West Germanic gemination」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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