* Voiceless fricatives become voiced syllable-initially: >, > ( merging with from Proto-Germanic ), >.

If the change of a sequence of fricatives such that one becomes a stop is dissimilation, then such changes as Proto-Germanic * χs to ( spelled x ) in English would count as a regular sound law: PGmc.

Verner's law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives * f, * þ, * s, * h, * hʷ, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively the fricatives * b, * d, * z, * g, * gʷ.

However, they are considered to come from Proto-Germanic * ainlif and * twalif ( respectively one left and two left ), both of which were decimal.

Originally ælf / elf and its plural ælfe were the masculine forms, while the corresponding feminine form ( first found in eighth century glosses ) was ælfen or elfen ( with a possible feminine plural-ælfa, found in dunælfa ) which became the Middle English elven, using the feminine suffix-en from the earlier-inn which derives from the Proto-Germanic *- innja ).

Some scholars have doubted that they were known outside Scandinavia ; however, there is evidence that the god Freyr is the same god as the Germanic deity Ing ( reconstructed as Proto-Germanic * Ingwaz ), and that, if so, he is attested as having been known among the Goths.

It is linguistically cognate to fjord ( both from Proto-Germanic * ferþuz ) which has a more constrained sense in English ; a firth would most likely be called a fjord if it were situated in Scandinavia.

Codanovia and Scatinavia were both Latin renderings of the Proto-Germanic * Skaðinawio, the Germanic name for Scandinavia.

The derived noun hight, also highth, is from Old English híehþo, later héahþu, as it were from Proto-Germanic * xaux-iþa.

In Proto-Germanic such verbs had no ablaut -- that is, all forms of all tenses were formed from the same stem, with no vowel alternations within the stem.

In Proto-Germanic, there were five main classes of weak verbs:

Unstressed diphthongs were also monophthongized, as in haitē ( Kragehul I ) from Proto-Germanic * haitai, and likewise unstressed * au became ō.

In Proto-Germanic, strong and weak verbs were clearly distinguished from each other in their conjugation, and the strong verbs were grouped into seven coherent classes.

Geat was originally Proto-Germanic *, and Goths and Gutes were *.

In Proto-Germanic, / ð / and / θ / were separate phonemes, usually represented in Germanic studies by the symbols * đ and * þ.

The linguists define Proto-Frankish, analogous to Proto-Germanic, as follows :" The Frankish dialects have a clear and separate identity as a consequence of exclusively shared common innovations .... And these innovations in turn reflect a period of exclusively shared common prehistory during which the dialects were in contact only with each other, so that innovations spread only through these dialects.

The Germanic peoples ( also called Teutonic or Gothic in older literature ) are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.

Scholars believe their name derives possibly from Proto-Germanic forms of " march " (" frontier, border ") and " men ".

It is unlikely that either Proto-Celtic or Proto-Germanic entered western Europe as late as the 7th century BC ; their formation was commonly associated with the Bronze Age Urnfield and Nordic Bronze Age cultures, respectively.

Map showing the distribution of the Germanic tribes in Proto-Germanic times, and stages of their expansion up to 50 BC, AD 100 and AD 300.

Therefore, the case of English go is not unique among the Germanic languages, and it would appear that most have in a like manner reproduced equivalent suppletive conjugations for their words for ‘ to go ’, suggesting a cyclical change patterned after the state of affairs in Proto-Germanic.

* The remaining strong verbs, which display the vowel shift called ablaut, and which sometimes have their past participles end in-en or-n: e. g., ride / rode / ridden. This verb group was inherited from the parent Proto-Germanic language, and before that from the Proto-Indo-European language.

In English, the term Saxon ( from French Saxon, from Proto-Germanic * sahsan, meaning ' knife ') most typically denotes a member of the confederation of ancient Germanic peoples that invaded or migrated to Sub-Roman Britain, during the Late Antiquity period ; and / or to their descendants.

The lack of agreement between the various glyphs and their names in Gothic, Anglo-Saxon, and Old Norse makes it difficult to reconstruct the Elder Futhark rune's Proto-Germanic name.

The corresponding Old English name is Siȝel, continuing Proto-Germanic * Sôwilô or * Saewelô.

Both * Gautoz and * Gutaniz are derived ( specifically they are two ablaut grades ) from the Proto-Germanic word * geutan, meaning " to pour ".

Grimm's law ( also known as the First Germanic Sound Shift or the Rask's-Grimm's rule ), named after Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European ( PIE ) stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic ( the common ancestor of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family ) in the 1st millennium BC.

The form of these words imply that they are descended from a Proto-Germanic form * walhiska -.

It has been suggested that Proto-Germanic arose as a hybrid of two Indo-European dialects, one each of Centum and Satem types, although they would have been mutually intelligible at the time of hybridisation.

When the Franks first appeared as such in the 3rd century, they spoke the same language, Proto-Germanic.

The Frankish word marka and the Old English word mearc both come from Proto-Germanic * marko ( Old Norse merki " boundary, sign " and mörk " borderland, forest "), denoting a border land between two centres of power.

The similarity between " Ceorl " and the personal name " Charles " is no accident: " Charles ", " ceorl " and " churl ", along with the modern German name " Karl " derive from the same Proto-Germanic word * karlaz.

The connection between the two is due to the linguistic relationship between Njörðr and the reconstructed Proto-Germanic * Nerþuz, Nerthus being the feminine, Latinized form of what Njörðr would have looked like around the first century.

The historical linguists reconstruct a Proto-Germanic language between Indo-European and the specific Germanic languages.

They further reconstruct a number of dialects and other stages between Proto-Germanic and modern languages, most of which are primarily theoretical and uncertain as to date and location.

It postulates that the elements of the common Germanic vocabulary and syntactical forms that do not seem to have an Indo-European origin show Proto-Germanic to be a creole language: a contact language synthesis between Indo-European speakers and a non-Indo-European substrate language used by the ancestors of the speakers of the Proto-Germanic language.

The differences between attested Proto-Norse and unattested Proto-Germanic are rather small, though substantial, as several hundred years separate these language stages.

Some of the distinctions between Proto-Norse and Proto-Germanic can be partially proved and demonstrated by the names inscribed on the Negau helmet harigastiteiwa, Harigasti Teiwa, which can be said to be late Proto-Germanic.

Another distinctive difference between the two is the Proto-Norse lowering of Proto-Germanic ē to ā ; this is demonstrated by the pair mēna ( Gothic ) and máni ( Old Norse ) ( English moon ).

Proto-Germanic and its early descendant Gothic still allowed more or less the full complement of vowels and diphthongs to appear in unstressed syllables, except notably short / e /, which merged with / i /.

Jacob Grimm theorized that Hel ( whom he refers to here as Halja, the theorized Proto-Germanic form of the term ) is essentially an " image of a greedy, unrestoring, female deity " and that " the higher we are allowed to penetrate into our antiquities, the less hellish and more godlike may Halja appear.