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A-Z 831of the Old High German consonant shift. Opinions on the geographical origin and on thespread vary considerably. As the Old High German consonant shift occurred mostconsistently with the Bavarians and the Alemans, whereas its influence became weakerfurther north, the traditional ‘monogenetic’ view regards the south as the origin of thissound change (in contrast to this, see the assumptions of generative phonology (King1969)); ‘polygenetic’ approaches (see Schützeichel 1956), however, proceed fromspecific, autochthonous developments of the sound shift in several regionssimultaneously. An alternative view can be found in Vennemann (1984).The common interpretations of the Old High German sound shift are also contested bya new view: Vennemann’s ‘bifurcation theory’ (1984) says that Low German and HighGerman are two different developments from Proto-Germanic and that High German isnot, as hitherto assumed, a development from an earlier Low German sound system(‘succession theory’). This view is based on a new reconstruction of Germanic thatproceeds not from the Indo-European sound system ( Indo-European), but from thestate of historically attested languages, and emphasizes language-typologicalconsiderations of plausibility.ReferencesBraune, W. and W.Mitzka. 1953. Althochdeutsche Grammatik. (10th edn 1961). Tübingen. 83–90.Draye, L. 1986. Niederländisch und Germanisch: Bemerkungen zu Theo Vennemanns neuerLautverschiebungstheorie aus niederlandistischer Sicht. PBB 108. 180–9.King, R. 1969. Historical linguistics and generative grammar. Frankfurt.Merlingen, W. 1986. Die Vennemannsche Lautverschiebungstheorie. PBB 108. 1–15.Penzl, H. 1986. Zu den Methoden einer neuen germanischen Stammbaumtheorie. PBB 108. 16–29.Sanjosé-Messing, A. 1986. + T h — + T— + D 0 ? Kritische Anmerkungen zu VennemannsRekonstruktion des vorgermanischen Konsonantensystems. PBB 108. 172–9.Schützeichel, R. 1956. Zur althochdeutschen Lautverschiebung am Mittelrhein. ZM 24. 112–24.——1961. Die Grundlagen des westlichen Mitteldeutschen: Studien zur historischenSprachgeographie. Tübingen. (2nd rev. edn 1976.)Stechow, A.von 1986. Notizen zu Vennemanns Anti-Grimm. PBB 108. 159–71.Vennemann, T. 1984. Hochgermanisch und Niedergermanisch: die Verzweigungstheorie dergermanisch-deutschen Lautverschiebungen. PBB (T) 106. 1–45.——1985. The bifurcation theory of the Germanic and German consonant shifts: synopsis andsome further thoughts. In J. Fisiak (ed.), Papers from the sixth International Conference onHistorical Linguistics. Amsterdam. 527–47.——1988. Die innergermanische Lautverschiebung und die Entstehung der germanischen unddeutschen Dialekte. In M.A.Jazayery and W. Winter (eds), Languages and cultures: Studies inhonor of Edgar C.Polomé. Berlin.——1994. Dating the division between high and low Germanic: a summary of arguments. In T.Swan, E.Mørck and O.J.Westvik (eds), Language change and language structure. OlderGermanic languages in a comparative perspective. Berlin and New York. 271–302.