The aim of this thesis is to examine lexemes of a substratum origin in Guus Kroonen's Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic and to define the phonetic characteristics of the Proto-Germanic substratum language, here called Pre-Germanic. After an overview of the development of Proto- Germanic I summarize the most important hypotheses about the Proto-Germanic substratum. Based on five characteristics (a) limited geographical distribution; b) phonological and morphonological irregularity; c) unusual phonological makeup; d) unusual word formation; e) specific semantics) given by the Leiden school I make a selection of those lexemes, which are likely of substratum origin, and describe them. Then, a quantitative analysis of the phonetic characteristics of lexemes of substratum and Indo-European origin is performed and the results compared and examined. I conclude that lexemes of substratum origin display a different structure than inherited Indo- European ones and that while the consonant systems of Proto- and Pre-Germanic were comparable, the vowel and structural system was not.

The present Ph.d. thesis entitled Archaisms and innovations: four interconnected studies on Germanic historical phonology and morphology consists of two articles on archaisms and innovations in the derivational system of Germanic nouns and two articles on regular sound changes that may support the conclusions reached in the former two articles. The first article Layers of root nouns in Germanic: chronology, structure and origin suggests that we can recognise Germanic root nouns inherited from Proto-Indo-European by the circumstance that their radical ablaut grade is predicted by the phonotaxis of their root. Germanic root nouns violating these principles have entered the inflectional class of the root nouns at a later stage. Few exceptions exist, but these may all be accounted for in various ways. The seeming exception of PG *aik- f. ‘oak’ deserves special mentioning in that the new regular sound change of PIE *#h2i- > PG *#ai-, which I suggest in the third article The outcome of PIE *#Hi- and *#Hu- in Germanic along with a parallel sound change of PIE *#h2u > PG *#au-, allows for the interpretation of PG *aik- as PIE *h2iĝ- which is the shape expected for a root noun of that phonotactic structure. The second article The structure, form and function of the Germanic primary i-stems also centres on derivational morphology; in this case, however, with the i-stems as the object of study. For the primary i-stems, I tentatively suggest that the archaic-looking types of i-stem adjectival agent nouns and i-stem action nouns or verbal abstracts that occur with both radical o-grade and zero grade originate from only one type in which, as was the case with the root nouns, the choice of radical ablaut grade depends on the phonotaxis of the root. When handed down to Germanic, however this system was abandoned and shaped anew in a manner compatible with the ablaut system of the Germanic strong verbs, thereby giving rise to new radical ablaut grades in the primary i-stems. In order to obtain a better understanding of possible transitions of nouns between i-stems and other inflectional classes, the fourth article The outcome of PIE *-ē̆i̯(C)# and *-ē̆u̯(C)# in Germanic makes a few adjustments to the standard assumption on the history of some of the i-stem case endings by suggesting a series of regular sound changes pertaining to PIE e-vowel diphthongs in final syllables. With its primary focus on how to identify archaisms and subsequently how to separate them from later innovations in Germanic derivational morphology, this thesis will hopefully contribute to the further development of the general field of Germanic and Indo-European studies by identifying and removing some such forms that can easily be disregarded as innovations by future scholarship.

Proto-Germanic (PGmc.) ai in stressed syllables shows varied outcomes in Germanic languages (ā, ē, ei), with many of these developments being conditioned by different phonological contexts. This article presents a reconstruction that unifies this variation by assuming that the monophthongisation spread over 'Germania' in two waves with different scopes and directions. The first wave expanded from north to south and was primarily limited to the contexts before-h and-r. A second wave, affecting the remaining instances of PGmc. ai, did not reach Old High German and Old West Nordic. The whole process covered the time between 400 and 900. The monophthongisation of PGmc. ai does not reflect any structural contrast among the Germanic languages, but the results had a differentiating impact on their vowel systems. The presented reconstruction is consistent with the information from runic inscriptions. It supposes a geographical configuration of tribes in a post-Migration setting.

It has long been acknowledged that Proto-Germanic *-dl- developed into *-ll- by a process of regular assimilation. Since long stops are regularly simplified in heavy and unstressed syllables in Proto-Germanic, some formations that superficially look like l-stems in this language are in reality to be derived from Proto-Indo-European instrumental nouns in PIE *-tl-and *-dʰl-. In this paper, I adduce a number of new cases focusing on those l-stems that have instrumental semantics, but also including some abstract nouns.