result of contacts with Lombardic. If, in fact, there is a relationship here, the evidence of Lombardic would force us to conclude that the third phase must have begun by the late 6th century, rather earlier than most estimates, but this would not necessarily require that it had spread to German so early. If, as some scholars believe, Lombardic was an East Germanic language and not part of the German language dialect continuum, it is possible that parallel shifts took place independently in German and Lombardic. However, extant words in Lombardic show clear relations to the Bavarian language. Therefore, Werner Betz and others prefer to treat Lombardic as an Old High German variety. There were close connections between Lombards and Proto-Bavarians. For example, the Lombards settled in Tullner Feld — about west of Vienna — until 568, but it is evident that not all Lombards went to Italy after that time; the rest seem to have become part of the then newly formed Bavarian groups. According to Jonas of Bobbio (before 650) in Lombardy, when Columbanus came to the Alemanni at Lake Constance shortly after 600, he made ("barrels", English cup, German ) burst. This shows that in the time of Columban the shift from p to f had occurred neither in Alemannic nor in Lombardic. But the (643; surviving manuscript after 650) attests the forms ('throwing a corpse out of the grave', German and ), ('a horse', OHG , 'throws the rider off'), and many similar shifted examples. So it is best to see the consonant shift as a common Lombardic—Bavarian—Alemannic shift between 620 and 640, when these tribes had plenty of contact. Sample texts As an example of the effects of the shift one may compare the following texts from the later Middle Ages, on the left a Middle Low German citation from the (1220), which does not show the shift, and on the right the equivalent text from the Middle High German (1274), which shows the shifted consonants; both are standard legal texts of the period. Unshifted forms in modern Standard German The High German consonant shift – at least as far as the core group of changes is concerned – is an example of an exceptionless sound change and was frequently cited as such by the Neogrammarians. Modern standard German is a compromise form between East Central German and northern Upper German, mainly based on the