Grimm's Law: The Great Consonant Push Chain (2D)

Grimm's Law is the sound-change rule that separated the Germanic languages (English, German, Norse) from the rest of the Indo-European family: PIE voiceless stops became fricatives, voiced stops became voiceless, and voiced aspirates became plain voiced stops. This 2D simulator places all nine consonants across two synchronized phonetic-feature panels — place × manner and place × voicing/aspiration — and integrates a real coupled push-chain ODE each frame, so the shift genuinely cascades: the voiceless-stop series moves first, and each following series only accelerates once the series ahead has opened enough phonetic space. Adjust the lead rate, push margin and follower gain, or switch to the rival "drag chain" model for comparison, and watch the live minimum-gap readouts show why a push chain avoids merging series that a drag chain risks colliding.