On the trail of the West German phonematic substitute |χt| and |ft| in German

Indo-European *kt and *pt changed according to Grimm's law in Common Germanic *ht and *ft in 3(rd) c. B.C. at the latest, in any case before Teutones got in touch with the Romans. Nevertheless, there are old borrowings from Latin into West Germanic in which Latin ct and pt appear as *bt and *ft, e.g. L. fructus > OFris. frucht, OHG. and OS. fruht (cf. G. Frucbt, Du. vrucht). Such changes, which obviously do not belong to the well-known Germanic sound shifting, should be regarded as a specific West Germanic phonematic substitution. The words presented in this article show a trace in Modern German of the phonematic substitution mentioned: dichten, trahten, Dachtel, Pacht, Triebter, nuchtern, resp. Gruft, Schfift etc.