Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia - n. In philology, ‘shifting
of sounds’: applied to the changes which a series of regular
Indo-European mute consonants of the same class underwent in the
Teutonic languages, as if each consonant were shifted forward
one degree in its class. See Grimm's law, under law. A later
shifting, sometimes called the second lautverschiebung, appears
in the Old High German. GNU Webster's 1913 - n. The regular
changes which the primitive Indo-European stops, or mute
consonants, underwent in the Teutonic languages, probably as
early as the 3d century b. c. , often called the first
Lautverschiebung, sound shifting, or consonant shifting. - n. A
somewhat similar set of changes taking place in the High German
dialects (less fully in modern literary German) from the 6th to
the 8th century, known as the second Lautverschiebung, the
results of which form the striking differences between High
German and The Low German Languages. The statement of these
changes is commonly regarded as forming part