The Scottish Celtic review

—;12 Grimm's Law.II. The medial or soft mutes in Sanskrit, Zend, Celtic, Greek,Latin, Slavonic, and Lithuanian are represented by the correspondingtenucs or hard mutes in Gothic, and by the correspondingbreaths in Old High German.III. The aspirates ^ in Sanskrit and Greek are represented bythe corresponding medial or soft mutes in Celtic, Gothic, Slavonic,and Lithuanian, and by the tenues or hard mutes in Old HighGerman.These statements briefly express the great phonetic law, knownas Grimm's Law, and justly regarded as of the highest importanceas a test of etymological affinity. This law has been formulatedas follows 2 :I. Skr., Celt, Gr., Lat,, Slav., and Litk, K T PGoth., Anglo-Sax., and Eng., ... H (G, F) Th (D) F (B)Old High German,H (G, K)II. Skr., Celt., Gr., Lat., Slav., and Lith.,Goth., Anglo-Sax., and Eng.,Old High German,III. Skr. and Gr.',Celt., Slav., Lith., and Goth.,Old High German,The letters used in these formulae are mere symbols, and notthe real letters of the languages compared. A table of the realletters, taken from Curtius' Grundz. der Griech. Etym. (1873), istherefore given on the opposite page, for the purpose of facilitatingcomparison.We shall now add some exam]iles of the application of Grimm'sLaw, taken chiefly from Fick's Vcrgl. Wofterbuch and Curtius'Grundzilge.1. According to the above table, original or Indo-European kis represented in Sanskrit by k, kit, k', or