GRIMM’S AND VERNER’S LAWS AS A PART OF A PHILOLOGIST PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

Abstract

The research is done in terms of relevant research, since Grimm’s and Verner’s phonetic laws are the basis for comparing the lexical stock of Germanic languages, which contributes to learning a foreign language by a beginning philologist. The term phonetic law belongs to F. Bopp and denotes the fixation of a sound transition that occurred in the past under certain conditions. Grimm’s law is a successful generalization of the historical phonetics of Germanic languages. A detailed exposition and interpretation of these laws in the linguistic literature can be considered exhaustive. Therefore, the goal of our paper is to analyze means of teaching these laws to future philologists. Understanding of Grimm’s and Verner’s laws by first-year students of philology majors is a necessary component of their professional training and is of great practical importance, as it enables them to find parallels between words of different languages and establish their translation. But to achieve this understanding, a teacher must carefully prepare the explanation of the laws and constantly practice the explained material. We offer several stages and options for working with these laws. First, we suggest starting their explanation with a series of slides in the Power Point program, then watching a video with explanations provided by English-speaking specialists. After that, we consider it expedient to explain the content of the laws once again briefly in their native language, if possible, to ask students questions based on the content of the explained material. The final task after the first lecture on Grimm’s and Verner’s laws is to establish the relatedness of words. We consider it necessary to carry out such exercises in each lesson until the end of the course, since this material, in our opinion, is the most important practical component of the discipline “Introduction to Germanic Philology”. Next, it is advisable to perform a certain number of test tasks based on the laws of Grimm – Verner. Therefore, the significance of Grimm’s and Verner’s laws for the professional training of future philologists requires the teacher of the “Introduction to Germanic Philology” course to pay considerable attention and to engage in various types of work. We see research prospects in the development of methodological recommendations for the study of other common phonetic and grammatical features of Old Germanic languages.