Understanding High German consonant shift is extremely helpful when learning German. It helps one see past the unfamiliar appearance of words like Katze, essen, treiben, and easily relate them to familiar cognates in other Germanic languages: cat, eat, drive in English; kat, eten, drijven in Dutch.
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1 Can be /k/ or /t͡ʃ/ due to Anglo-Saxon palatalization. For example, Proto-West Germanic *raikijan, English reach, Dutch reiken, German reichen.
3a /C/ (consonant) here stands for a liquid (/l/ or /r/) or a nasal (/m/ or /n/).
3b There was a strong tendency to simplify /p͡f/ to /f/ after liquids (/r/ and /l/) in various High German dialects. The only Standard German word with /rp͡f/ is Karpfen (‘carp’).
Other examples: Proto-West Germanic *helpan, English help, Dutch helpen, German helfen; Proto-West Germanic *skarp, English sharp, Dutch scherp, German scharf.
4 The shift of Proto-West Germanic /k/ to /k͡x/ is not part of Standard German, and is today only seen in the southernmost Upper German dialects, although it was much more widespread in medieval times. Here are dialectal equivalents of the Standard German words from the table above, with the shift present: Bavarian Kchorn, High Alemannic lekchen, High Alemannic Werch.
5 Can be /ɡ/ or /d͡ʒ/ due to Anglo-Saxon palatalization.
6 Out of all the consonantal shifts in Phase III, only the shift of Proto-West Germanic /d/ to /t/universally finds its way into standard German: tun. The other two occur in Standard German only in original geminates: Rippe, Brücke.