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Difficulty: HardExplicit Detail Retrieval

In his 1875 paper on Germanic accentuation, linguist Karl Verner resolved a key exception to Grimm’s Law, which had established a systematic shift of Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops into Proto-Germanic voiceless fricatives. Scholars had long been puzzled by cases where Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops evolved instead into voiced fricatives or voiced stops in Germanic daughter languages. Verner demonstrated that this sound change was strictly conditioned by the position of the ancestral accent: if the preceding vowel did not carry the primary Proto-Indo-European stress, the expected voiceless fricative underwent voicing. Crucially, Verner established that this accentual conditioning occurred only after Grimm’s Law had already transformed the original voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives, rather than operating concurrently with or prior to Grimm's shift. Furthermore, Verner relied on Vedic Sanskrit accent markings to reconstruct the stress patterns of Proto-Indo-European lexical items, as Proto-Germanic itself had fixed stress on the initial syllable prior to the composition of its earliest surviving written attestations.

According to the passage, which of the following is explicitly stated regarding the timing of the accentual sound change identified by Verner?

  1. A
    It took place prior to the operation of Grimm's Law on Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops.
  2. B
    It operated concurrently with Grimm's Law while Proto-Germanic maintained mobile stress.
  3. It occurred exclusively after Grimm's Law had converted Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives.Answer
  4. D
    It transpired after Proto-Germanic had already fixed its accentual stress on the initial syllable.
  5. E
    It was triggered directly by accent patterns preserved in early Proto-Germanic written attestations.

Answer

The accentual sound change occurred exclusively after Grimm's Law had converted Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives.
The passage explicitly states that Verner established that accentual conditioning occurred 'only after Grimm’s Law had already transformed the original voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives, rather than operating concurrently with or prior to Grimm's shift.' Therefore, the option stating that the sound change occurred exclusively after Grimm's Law had converted the stops into voiceless fricatives is directly supported by the text.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Locate the specific sentence in the passage discussing the chronological relationship between Verner's sound change and Grimm's Law.
Identified the sentence: 'Crucially, Verner established that this accentual conditioning occurred only after Grimm’s Law had already transformed the original voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives, rather than operating concurrently with or prior to Grimm's shift.'
Explicit detail retrieval questions require finding exact textual evidence for timing and sequence.
2
Compare the located facts against each provided option to identify the accurate paraphrase.
The option stating that the change occurred 'exclusively after Grimm's Law had converted Proto-Indo-European voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives' perfectly matches 'occurred only after Grimm’s Law had already transformed the original voiceless stops into voiceless fricatives'.
Verifies that the correct choice uses accurate synonym substitution without adding unstated facts.

Key Concept

Explicit Detail Retrieval from Academic Prose
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Explicit Detail Retrieval

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