"second Germanic" consonant shift to distinguish it from the "(first) Germanic consonant shift" as defined by Grimm's law and its refinement, Verner's law. The High German consonant shift did not occur in a single movement, but rather as a series of waves over several centuries. The geographical extents of these waves vary. They all appear in the southernmost dialects, and spread northwards to differing degrees, giving the impression of a series of pulses of varying force emanating from what is now Austria and Switzerland. Whereas some are found only in the southern parts of Alemannic German (which includes Swiss German) or Bavarian (which includes Austrian), most are found throughout the Upper German area, and some spread on into the Central German dialects. Indeed, Central German is often defined as the area between the / and the / boundaries, thus between complete shift of Germanic (Upper German) and complete lack thereof (Low German). The shift > was more successful; it spread all the way to the North Sea and affected Dutch as well as German. Most of these changes have become part of modern Standard German. The High German consonant shift is a good example of a chain shift, as was its predecessor, the first Germanic consonant shift. For example, phases 1 and 2 left the language without a phoneme, as this had shifted to or . Phase 3 filled this gap ( > ), but left a new gap at , which phase 4 then filled ( > ). Overview table The effects of the shift are most obvious for the non-specialist when comparing Modern German lexemes containing shifted consonants with their Modern English or Dutch unshifted equivalents. The following overview table is arranged according to the original Proto-Indo-European (PIE) phonemes. Note that the pairs of words used to illustrate sound shifts are cognates; they need not be semantic equivalents. Notes: Core group Phase 1 The first phase, which affected the whole of the High German area, affected the voiceless plosives , and in intervocalic and word-final position. These became geminated (long) fricatives, except in word-final position where they were shortened and merged with the existing single consonants. Geminate plosives in words like "apple" or "cat" were not affected, nor were plosives preceded by another consonant like in "sharp" or "heart". These remained unshifted until the second phase. > (> finally) > (> finally) > (> finally) presumably went through