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Rask publishes the Germanic consonant correspondences

Rasmus Rask's investigation of the origin of Old Norse, submitted as a prize essay and published in 1818, set out the systematic consonant correspondences between Germanic and the other Indo-European languages that would later be known as Grimm's Law, together with an argument for the relatedness of the Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Greek and Latin languages. Rask worked in Danish and his priority is undisputed; the law carries another name largely because Grimm's later formulation reached a wider readership and framed the changes as a connected system.

Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.

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Recorded on Grimm's Law — the first Germanic sound shift

  1. Rask publishes the Germanic consonant correspondences
  2. Grimm formulates the first sound shift as a system
  3. Verner explains the exceptions to Grimm's Law

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