GBIMM. 287 GRIMM'S LAW. GRIMM, WiLHELM Karl (178G-1859). A German philologist, brother of Jakob (Jrimm. lie was born at lianau, Fubrnary -4, 1780. He was the companion of liis elder brother at the Lyeeum of C'assel and tlie Universil- of Alar- burg. In 1814 he was secretary of the librarian of C'assel, and on removing to Giittingen in 1830 was appointed assistant librarian under his Irother. and in 18.31 professor extraordinary in the philosophical faculty. He joined his brother in the protest against the King of Hanover, shared his exile, and also his call to Iterlin. They labored together in the Wiirlrrbiicli, the Marchcn, and many other wotUs. and were com- monly known as the Brothers Grimm. Among the works of the younger Grimm are: AUdiinische Heldenlicder (1811), a translation; Altdcutsche Wiilder (1821); and Die deulsche Hehknudyc (1829). He died December 10, 1859. GRIMMA, grim'ma. A town of Saxony, Ger- many, situated in a hollow near the left bank of the Mulde. about 19 miles southeast of Leipzig (ilap: Prussia, E 3). The vicinity is very picturesque, and the town is well laid out and attractive. The Church of Our Lady dates from the thirteenth century. The old electoral castle is now used for i5ublic offices. The town hall dates from 1442. Chief among the educational institutions of the town is the Fiirstenschule, consecrated in 15.50, and occupying since 1892 a new building. In the vicinity of the town are found the ruins of the thirteenth-century convent to which Katharina von Bora. Luther's wife, once belonged. Grimma was once noted for its textiles, which have since given place to iron products, machinery, leather, etc. Population, in 1890, 8957; in" 1900, 10,892. CJrimma is first men- tioned as a town in 1065. GRIMMELSHAUSEN, grim'mcls-hou'zen, H.NS Jakob Chri.stoffel von (e. 1025-76). A German writer. He was a peasant's son, and was born in Gelnhausen. His important .S'nii- pUcissimus is the only German fiction of the seventeenth century that can still be read with pleasure. He served as a soldier through the later period of the Thirty Years' War. when, able to observe the traits of the common people, he thus provided himself with ample material for his future studies in fiction. From Protestantism he turned late in his life to Catholicism, and served for a time the Bishop of Strassburg. For a while, too. he was a magistrate at Rencben, in Baden,* where he died. Dcr ahenteucrliche ffim- plicissinuis Teiitfsch (1009) is. as its subtitle states, "The Description of the Life of a Strange Vagabond Named Melchior Sternfels von Fuch- shaim." It is a direct imitation of the Spanish picaresque novels, as well as a wonderfully real- istic narrative draw'n from the author's own ex- periences. No contemporary writing gives a more vivid realistic picture of the desolation wrought in Germany from 1018 to 1048. At the same time lie exhibited very marked talents as a prose jjoct. He put forth many other books of difTerent genres and of much less general significance. mong them were satirical productions such as Hchuarz vvd ireiss, oder Die satirische Pilgerin (1600) ; gallant romances of the kind that were the mode in that day. as. for instance. Dletwalt nnd Arne- liinle (1070): and popular stories based on biblical subjects, one of which was entitled Joariih (1007). There are good modern editions of f^inipUcissiinus by Keller (Stuttgart, 1852-02)
- ind Tittniann (Leipzig, 1877). and a reprint
edited by Kogel (Halle, 1880) . GRIMM'S LAW. A phonetic law stating tlie changes, eonunonly termed the first and second sound-shiftings, undergone by the mutes or ex- plosives of the Indo-Germanic consonant-system in the Low and High Germanic binguages re- spectively. The law, which is one of the .most important of all phonetic laws (see Phonetic L.w), was first developed by Jakob Grimm (q.v.), who outlined it in a letter to Laehmami, November 25, 1820, and in the second editiem of his Deutsche Grammatik (1822), although the Dan- ish scholar Rask (q.v.) had enunciated its main phenomena in 181!). The law is of nuich im- portance in the history of philology (q.v.) as having furnished one of the basal arguments in favor of the theory of the invarialiilily of phonetic law. The fact that there are many words which seem to violate Grimm's law, but which are explained bj' Verner's law (q'.v.) and Grassmanu's law (q.v.), is a confirmation of this theory, for it is evident that many linguistic Iihenomena which are still obscure are probably due to the action of laws which have not yet been discovered. The law of Grimm concerns the mutes, comprising the tenues, medioe, and niedi.Te as- piratie (the tenues aspiratae being rare and in many cases extremely doubtful) of the Indo- Germanie palatal, velar, and labialized velar series (all combined into palatals in Germanic), R. ff. gh. q,g, gh. g*,g«. gv-h; dentals, t. d. dh: and labials, Pj b, bh. The law in its most general terms may be stated as follows: Indo-Germanie tenues become the corresponding asjiirata' in Low Germanic, and remain unchanged in High Germanic; Indo-Germanic luediie liecome tlu- cur- responding tenues in Low Germanic and affricatie in High Germanic; Indo-Germanic media' as- pirat:e become mediae in Low Germanic and tenues in High Germanic. Representing, for convenience, the Indo-Germanic palatals, velars, and labialized velars as simple palatals, the following table may be constructed to make the definition clear: Tenues.. Mediae.. Mediae aspirate.. I.G. k t P e (f b eh rlh III! b th f k t P e d ii E.G. h tMd) f cli(k) z Pf k{g) t P(W It is evident from the table that the changes are more uniform in Low Germanic than in High Germanic. The various Old High German dia- lects stand in this respect' in different stages of development, as is described in Gerj[.
Lan-
ofAGE. The dialect which has carried out the High Ciermanic change most thoroughly is the .Memannic, e.g. thrl. Ger. drei. three: rluica. Ger. Kiiie. knee; I^ot, Ger. flott. God: jtrufider. Ger. Brudir. brother. As examples of Grimm's law. citations may be made of Indo-Germanic words present in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin. Gothic. Eng- lish, Old High German, and New High Geriuan. There are certain exceptions in addition to those already indicated in the table. Thus, after ,?. the tenues remain unchanged (compare Kixf and its cognates given below: the Indo-Germanic combination pi becomes Germanic ft, and kt.
