Second Germanic sound shift
The second Germanic sound shift (zweite germanische Lautverschiebung in German), which took place during the 7th and 8th centuries, separated High German from Low German. Although the sound shift affected mainly consonants, it is frequently referred to as a vowel shift in English. Under the influence of the sound shift, the unvoiced plosives p, t and k were transformed to pf or f, ts or s, and ch, respectively. Thus, the German word Straße corresponds to the English word street and the Dutch word straat. High and Low German are separated by the Benrath line. In other words, Straße is one of the High German words that formed during the time when the second Germanic sound shift took place while the forms street and straat are still examples of the Low German languages of which Anglo-Saxon, later Old English, and Old Dutch were part.
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