West Germanic languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| West Germanic | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: |
Originally between the Rhine, Alps, Elbe, and North Sea; today worldwide |
| Genetic classification: |
Indo-European Germanic West Germanic |
| Subdivisions: | |
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages and includes languages such as German, English, Dutch, Afrikaans and Frisian. The other branches of the Germanic languages are the North and East Germanic languages.
Contents |
[edit] History
From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups, West, East and North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. The Western group would have formed as a variety of Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC).
During the Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the second Germanic sound shift on the continent on the other.
The linguistic contact of the Viking settlers of the Danelaw with the Anglo-Saxons left traces in the English language, and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of the Old English inflexional system that marked the onset of the Middle English period 12th century.
The High German consonant shift distinguished the High German languages from the other West Germanic languages. By Early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South (the Walliser dialect being the southernmost surviving German dialect) to Northern Low Saxon in the North. Although both extremes are considered German, they are not mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties have completed the second sound shift, while the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift.
Of modern German varieties the north German Low Saxon is the one that most resembles modern English. The district of 'Angeln' (or Anglia), from which the name "English" derives, is in the extreme north of Germany between the Danish border and the Baltic coast. Saxony lies further to the south. The Anglo-Saxons were a combination of a number of peoples from northern Germany and the Jutland Peninsula.
[edit] Family tree
Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form dialect continua, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.
- Anglo-Frisian
- Old English
- Middle English (with a significant influx of words from Old French)
- Early Scots[1] (from early Northern Middle English with a significant influx of words from Anglo-Norman and Norse inherited from the Danelaw)
- Frisian (descending from Old Frisian)
- West Frisian - Friesland, Netherlands
- East or Saterland Frisian - Germany
- North Frisian - Germany
- Old English
- Old Frankish - France, Germany, Low Countries
- Old East Low Franconian
- Old Dutch (Old West Low Franconian)
- Low Franconian
- Dutch
- Hollandic (in the Netherlands)
- West Flemish (in West Flanders and nearby areas of Belgium, Zeeland in the Netherlands, and France)
- East Flemish
- Limburgish (in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium) including
- Brabantic in Belgium and the Netherlands
- Zuid-Gelders (in Germany and the Netherlands)
- Zealandic in the Netherlands
- Afrikaans (in South Africa and Namibia)
- Dutch
- Low Franconian
- Low German (sometimes called Low Saxon)
- West Low German (sometimes called Low Saxon)
- Westphalian (in Westphalia, in Germany)
- Northern Low Saxon (in East Frisia / Eastern Friesland and other parts of Germany; sometimes called Low Saxon)
- Eastphalian language
- Dutch Low Saxon
- Twents
- Achterhoeks
- Gronings
- Drents
- Stellingwerfs
- East Low German
- West Low German (sometimes called Low Saxon)
- High German branch
- Old High German
- High German languages
- Standard German
- Central German (also Middle or Central Franconian)
- Upper German
- Alemannic German
- Austro-Bavarian
- Bavarian
- Cimbrian (with a heavy influx of words from Italian)
- Mocheno
- Hutterite German (spoken by Hutterites)
- Yiddish (with a significant influx of words from Hebrew and Slavic languages and written in the Hebrew alphabet)
- Wymysorys
- Old High German
[edit] Notes
- ^ Purely modern term; it contradicts contemporary usage, which designated Scottish English as Inglis (i.e. English), whereas Scottis (i.e Scots) meant Gaelic. But such chronological terminology is widely used, for example, by Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. (Formally SNDA), Dr. Anne King of The University of Edinburgh and by The University of Glasgow. It is also used in The Oxford Companion to the English Language and The Cambridge History of English and American Literature.
