Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Old High German consonant shift (also Second Sound Shift)
Changes in the consonant system of Proto-Germanic that led to the separation of Old High German from the group of the other Germanic languages and dialects. (a) The voiceless stops p, t, k are shifted, depending on their position, to (i) affricates initially, medially, and at the end of a word after a consonant as well as in geminates; cf. Proto-Germanic *to, Eng. to, Ger. zu; Proto-Germanic *hert-, Eng. heart, Ger. Herz. The different affricates did not all have the same regional extension; (ii) voiceless fricatives after vowels medially and at the end in the entire German-speaking region, cf. Proto-Germanic *lētan, Eng. let, Ger. lassen; Proto-Germanic *fat, Eng. vat, Ger. 
. (b) The voiced stops b, d, g (which in Proto-Germanic had developed from the voiced fricatives, 
Grimm’s Law) in Upper German, especially Bavarian, are shifted to the corresponding voiceless stops, with strong regional differentiation (these voiceless stops, however, were later mostly weakened again), cf. Old Saxon (Low German) beran, bindan, giban, Old High German (Bav.) peran, pindan, kepan. (c) The voiceless fricative [θ] becomes the voiced stop [d], cf. Eng. brother, Ger. Bruder. (On details on the different extension in the German dialects, see Braune and Mitzka 1953:83–90). Shifted forms are here and there attested in names as early as the sixth century AD (Attila>Etzel); the fifth to eighth centuries AD are generally regarded as the time of the rise and spread of the Old High German consonant shift. Opinions on the geographical origin and on the spread vary considerably. As the Old High German consonant shift occurred most consistently with the Bavarians and the Alemans, whereas its influence became weaker further north, the traditional ‘monogenetic’ view regards the south as the origin of this sound change (in contrast to this, see the assumptions of generative phonology (King 1969)); ‘polygenetic’ approaches (see Schützeichel 1956), however, proceed from specific, autochthonous developments of the sound shift in several regions simultaneously. An alternative view can be found in Vennemann (1984).
The common interpretations of the Old High German sound shift are also contested by a new view: Vennemann’s ‘bifurcation theory’ (1984) says that Low German and High German are two different developments from Proto-Germanic and that High German is not, as hitherto assumed, a development from an earlier Low German sound system (‘succession theory’). This view is based on a new reconstruction of Germanic that proceeds not from the Indo-European sound system ( Indo-European), but from the state of historically attested languages, and emphasizes language-typological considerations of plausibility.
References
Braune, W. and W.Mitzka. 1953. Althochdeutsche Grammatik. (10th edn 1961). Tübingen. 83–90.
Draye, L. 1986. Niederländisch und Germanisch: Bemerkungen zu Theo Vennemanns neuer Lautverschiebungstheorie aus niederlandistischer Sicht. PBB 108. 180–9.
King, R. 1969. Historical linguistics and generative grammar. Frankfurt.
Merlingen, W.
1986. Die Vennemannsche Lautverschiebungstheorie. PBB 108. 1–15.
Penzl, H. 1986. Zu den Methoden einer neuen germanischen Stammbaumtheorie. PBB 108. 16–29.
Sanjosé-Messing, A. 1986. +Th—+T—+D0? Kritische Anmerkungen zu Vennemanns Rekonstruktion des vorgermanischen Konsonantensystems. PBB 108. 172–9.
Schützeichel, R. 1956. Zur althochdeutschen Lautverschiebung am Mittelrhein. ZM 24. 112–24.
——1961. Die Grundlagen des westlichen Mitteldeutschen: Studien zur historischen Sprachgeographie. Tübingen. (2nd rev. edn 1976.)
Stechow, A.von 1986. Notizen zu Vennemanns Anti-Grimm. PBB 108. 159–71.
Vennemann, T. 1984. Hochgermanisch und Niedergermanisch: die Verzweigungstheorie der germanisch-deutschen Lautverschiebungen. PBB (T) 106. 1–45.
——1985. The bifurcation theory of the Germanic and German consonant shifts: synopsis and some further thoughts. In J. Fisiak (ed.), Papers from the sixth International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam. 527–47.
——1988. Die innergermanische Lautverschiebung und die Entstehung der germanischen und deutschen Dialekte. In M.A.Jazayery and W. Winter (eds), Languages and cultures: Studies in honor of Edgar C.Polomé. Berlin.
——1994. Dating the division between high and low Germanic: a summary of arguments. In T. Swan, E.Mørck and O.J.Westvik (eds), Language change and language structure. Older Germanic languages in a comparative perspective. Berlin and New York. 271–302.
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