Germanic | |
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Geographic distribution: |
In northern, western and central Europe, Anglo-America, Oceania, southern Africa |
Linguistic classification: | Indo-European
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Proto-language: | Proto-Germanic |
Subdivisions: |
East Germanic (extinct)
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ISO 639-2 and 639-5: | gem |
Countries where a Germanic language is the first language of the majority of the population
Countries where a Germanic language is an official but not primary language
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The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic (also known as Common Germanic), which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic peoples moving south from northern Europe in the 2nd century BC, to settle in north-central Europe.
The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English and German, with approximately 300–400 million[1][2] and over 100 million[3] native speakers respectively. The group includes other major languages, such as Dutch with 23 million[4] and Afrikaans with over 6 million native speakers;[5] and the North Germanic languages including Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese with a combined total of about 20 million speakers.[6] The SIL Ethnologue lists 53 different Germanic languages.
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Germanic languages possess several unique features, such as the following:
Germanic languages differ from each other to a greater degree than do some other language families such as the Romance or Slavic languages. Roughly speaking, Germanic languages differ in how conservative or how progressive each language is with respect to an overall trend toward analyticity. Some, such as Icelandic, and to a lesser extent, German, have preserved much of the complex inflectional morphology inherited from the Proto-Indo-European language. Others, such as English, Swedish, and Afrikaans, have moved toward a largely analytic type.
Another characteristic of Germanic languages is verb second (V2) word order, which is quite uncommon cross-linguistically. This feature was not inherited from Proto-Germanic, but was probably already present in latent form, and may have begun with auxiliary verbs that were treated as sentence clitics, which were generally placed second. The later parallel innovation of V2 word order in the individual languages may have been a result of the loss of noun declension, which tended to 'fix' word order into its most common form. It is now shared by all modern Germanic languages except modern English which has more or less replaced the earlier V2 structure with fixed Subject–verb–object word order.
The earliest evidence of Germanic languages comes from names recorded in the 1st century by Tacitus (especially from his work Germania), but the earliest Germanic writing occurs in a single instance in the 2nd century BC on the Negau helmet.[7] From roughly the 2nd century AD, certain speakers of early Germanic varieties developed the Elder Futhark, an early form of the Runic alphabet. Early runic inscriptions also are largely limited to personal names, and difficult to interpret. The Gothic language was written in the Gothic alphabet developed by Bishop Ulfilas for his translation of the Bible in the 4th century.[8] Later, Christian priests and monks who spoke and read Latin in addition to their native Germanic varieties began writing the Germanic languages with slightly modified Latin letters. However, throughout the Viking Age, Runic alphabets remained in common use in Scandinavia. In addition to the standard Latin alphabet, many Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks and extra letters, including umlauts, the ß (Eszett), IJ, Ø, Æ, Å, Ä, Ü, Ö, Ð, Ȝ, and the Latinized runes Þ and Ƿ (with its Latin counterpart W). In print, German used to be prevalently set in blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher) up until the 1940s (though see Antiqua–Fraktur dispute), whereas Kurrent and since the early 20th century Sütterlin was used for German handwriting.
All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by subjection to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law. These probably took place during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe from ca. 500 BC, but other common innovations separating Germanic from Proto-Indo European suggest a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the Nordic Bronze Age.
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 6th-century Lombardic language, for instance, may be a variety originally either Northern or Eastern, before being assimilated by West Germanic as the Lombards settled at the Elbe. The Western group would have formed in the late Jastorf culture, the Eastern group may be derived from the 1st-century variety of Gotland (see Old Gutnish), leaving southern Sweden as the original location of the Northern group. The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old Frankish (5th century), Old High German (scattered words and sentences 6th century, coherent texts 9th century) and Old English (coherent texts 10th century). North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norse, until it evolves into Old Norse by about 800.
Longer runic inscriptions survive from the 8th and 9th centuries (Eggjum stone, Rök stone), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the 12th century (Íslendingabók), and some skaldic poetry held to date back to as early as the 9th century.
By about the 10th century, the varieties had diverged enough to make inter-comprehensibility difficult. 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 Old English grammar that resulted in Middle English from the 12th century.
The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians, Goths, and Vandals became linguistically assimilated by their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the 18th century.
During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low Saxon, with graded intermediate Central German varieties. By Early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South to Northern Low Saxon in the North and, although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties had completed the second sound shift, while the northern varieties remained unaffected by the consonant shift.
The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained more unified, with the peninsular languages largely retaining mutual intelligibility into modern times.
Note that divisions between and among subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent varieties being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.
The table below shows the succession of the significant historical stages of each language (vertically), and their approximate groupings in subfamilies (horizontally). Horizontal sequence within each group does not imply a measure of greater or lesser similarity.
All living Germanic languages belong either to the West Germanic or to the North Germanic branch. The West Germanic group is the larger by far, further subdivided into Anglo-Frisian on one hand, and Continental West Germanic on the other. Anglo-Frisian notably includes English and all its variants, while Continental West Germanic includes German (standard register and dialects) as well as Dutch (standard register and dialects).
The oldest Germanic languages all share a number of features, assumed to be inherited from Proto-Germanic. Phonologically, this includes the important sound changes known as Grimm's Law and Verner's Law, which introduced a large number of fricatives; late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) had only one, /s/.
The main vowel developments are the merging (in most circumstances) of long and short /a/ and /o/, producing short /a/ and long /ō/. This likewise affected the diphthongs, with PIE /ai/ and /oi/ merging into /ai/, and PIE /au/ and /ou/ merging into /au/. PIE /ei/ developed into long /ī/. PIE long /ē/ developed into a vowel denoted as /ē1/ (often assumed to be phonetically [ǣ]), while a new, fairly uncommon long vowel /ē2/ developed in varied and not completely understood circumstances. Proto-Germanic had no front rounded vowels, although all Germanic languages except for Gothic subsequently developed them through the process of i-umlaut.
Proto-Germanic developed a strong stress accent on the first syllable of the root (although remnants of the original free PIE accent are visible due to Verner's Law, which was sensitive to this accent). This caused a steady erosion of vowels in unstressed syllables. In Proto-Germanic this had progressed only to the point that absolutely final short vowels (other than /i/ and /u/) were lost and absolutely final long vowels were shortened, but all of the early literary languages show a more advanced state of vowel loss. This ultimately resulted in some languages (e.g. modern English) in the loss of practically all vowels following the main stress, and the consequent rise of a very large number of monosyllabic words.
The oldest Germanic languages have the typical complex inflected morphology of old Indo-European languages, with four or five noun cases; verbs marked for person, number, tense and mood; multiple noun and verb classes; few or no articles; and rather free word order. The old Germanic languages are famous for having only two tenses (present and past), with three PIE past-tense aspects (imperfect, aorist, and perfect/stative) merged into one and no new tenses (future, pluperfect, etc.) developing. There were three moods: indicative, subjunctive (developed from the PIE optative mood) and imperative. Gothic verbs had a number of archaic features inherited from PIE that were lost in the other Germanic languages with few traces, including dual endings, an inflected passive voice (derived from the PIE mediopassive voice), and a class of verbs with reduplication in the past tense (derived from the PIE perfect). The complex tense system of modern English (e.g. In three months, the house will still be being built or If you had not acted so stupidly, we would never have been caught) is almost entirely due to subsequent developments (although paralleled in many of the other Germanic languages).
Among the other innovations in Proto-Germanic (hence common to all Germanic languages) are the preterite present verbs, a special set of verbs whose present tense looks like the past tense of other verbs and which is the origin of most modal verbs in English; a past-tense ending (in the so-called "weak verbs", marked with -ed in English) that appears variously as /d/ or /t/, often assumed to be derived from the verb "to do"; and two separate sets of adjective endings, originally corresponding to a distinction between indefinite semantics ("a man", with a combination of PIE adjective and pronoun endings) and definite semantics ("the man", with endings derived from PIE n-stem nouns). The two sets of adjective endings were lost in English in the late Middle English period but are still preserved (as a distinction between "strong" and "weak" endings) in most other Germanic languages.
The subgroupings of the Germanic languages are defined by shared innovations. It is important to distinguish innovations from cases of linguistic conservatism. That is, if two languages in a family share a characteristic that is not observed in a third language, that is evidence of common ancestry of the two languages only if the characteristic is an innovation compared to the family's proto-language.
The following innovations are common to the Northwest Germanic languages (all but Gothic):
The following innovations are also common to the Northwest Germanic languages, but represent areal changes:
The following innovations are common to the West Germanic languages:
The following innovations are common to the Ingvaeonic subgroup of the West Germanic languages:
The following innovations are common to the Anglo-Frisian subgroup of the Ingvaeonic languages:
Several of the terms in the table below have had semantic drift. For example, the form Sterben and other terms for die are cognates with the English word starve. There is also at least one example of a common borrowing from a non-Germanic source (ounce and its cognates from Latin).
English | Scots | West Frisian | Afrikaans | Dutch | Dutch (Limburgish) | Low German | Low German (Groningen) | Middle German (Luxemburgish) |
German | Gothic | Icelandic | Faroese | Swedish | Danish | Norwegian (Bokmål) | Norwegian (Nynorsk) |
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apple | aiple/aipil | apel | appel | appel | appel | Appel | Abbel | Apel | Apfel | aplus | epli | epli[20] | äpple | æble | eple | eple |
board | buird | board | bord | bord | bórdj/telleur | Boord | Bred | Briet | Brett[21] | baúrd | borð | borð | bräde | bord | bord | bord |
beech | beech | boeke | beuk | beuk | beuk | Boeoek / Böök | Beukenboom | Bich | Buche | bōka[22]/-bagms | beyki | bók(artræ) | bok | bøg | bok | bok / bøk |
book | beuk/buik | boek | boek | boek | book | Book | Bouk | Buch | Buch | bōka | bók | bók | bok | bog | bok | bok |
breast | breest | boarst | bors | borst | boors | Bost | Bôrst | Broscht | Brust | brusts | brjóst | bróst / bringa | bröst | bryst | bryst | bryst |
brown | broun | brún | bruin | bruin | broen | bruun | broen | brong | braun | bruns | brúnn | brúnur | brun | brun | brun | brun |
day | day | dei | dag | dag | daag | Dag | Dag | Do | Tag | dags | dagur | dagur | dag | dag | dag | dag |
dead | deid | dea | dood | dood | doed | doot | dood | dout | tot | dauþs | dauður | deyður | död | død | død | daud |
die (starve) | dee | stjerre | sterf | sterven | stèrve | starven / döen | staarven | stierwen | sterben | diwan | deyja | doyggja | dö | dø | dø | døy / starva |
enough | eneuch | genôch | genoeg | genoeg | genóg | noog | genog | genuch | genug | ganōhs | nóg | nóg/nógmikið | nog | nok | nok | nok |
finger | finger | finger | vinger | vinger | veenger | Finger | Vinger | Fanger | Finger | figgrs | fingur | fingur | finger | finger | finger | finger |
give | gie | jaan | gee | geven | geve | geven | geven | ginn | geben | giban | gefa | geva | ge / giva | give | gi | gje(va) |
glass | gless | glês | glas | glas | glaas | Glas | Glas | Glas | Glas | – | glas | glas | glas | glas | glass | glas |
gold | gowd | goud | goud | goud | goud / góldj | Gold | Gold | – | Gold | gulþ | gull | gull | guld / gull | guld | gull | gull |
good | guid | gód | goed | goed | good | goot | goud | gutt | gut | gōþ(is) | góð(ur) / gott | góð(ur) / gott | god | god | god | god |
hand | haund | hân | hand | hand | hand | Hand | Haand | Hand | Hand | handus | hönd | hond | hand | hånd | hånd | hand |
head | heid | holle | hoof[23] / kop[24] | hoofd / kop[24] | kop[24] | Kopp[24] | Heufd / Kop[24] | Kopp[24] | Haupt / Kopf[24] | háubiþ | höfuð | høvd / høvur | huvud | hoved | hode | hovud |
high | heich | heech | hoog | hoog | hoeg | hoog | hoog / höch | héich | hoch | háuh | hár | høg / ur | hög | høj | høy / høg | høg |
home | hame | hiem | heim[25] / tuis[26] | heem, heim[25] / thuis[26] | thoes[26] | Tohuus[26] | Thoes[26] | Heem | Heim | háimōþ | heim | heim | hem | hjem | hjem / heim | heim |
hook / crook | heuk/huik | hoek | haak | haak | haok | Haak | Hoak | Krop / Kramp | Haken | kramppa | haki / krókur | krókur / ongul | hake / krok | hage / krog | hake / krok | hake / krok[27] |
house | hoose/houss | hûs | huis | huis | hoes | Huus | Hoes | Haus | Haus | hūs | hús | hús | hus | hus | hus | hus |
many | mony/monie | mannich / mennich | baie / menige | menig | minnig | Mennig | Ìnde | – | manch | manags | margir | mangir / nógvir | många | mange | mange | mange |
moon | muin | moanne | maan | maan | maon | Maan | Moan | Mound | Mond | mēna | máni / tungl | máni | måne | måne | måne | måne |
night | nicht | nacht | nag | nacht | nach | Nach / Nacht | Nacht | Nuecht | Nacht | nótt | nótt | nátt | natt | nat | natt | natt |
no (nay) | nae | nee | nee | nee(n) | nei | nee | nee / nai | nee(n) | nee / nein / nö | nē | nei | nei | nej / nä | nej / næ | nei | nei |
old (but: elder, eldest) | auld | âld | oud | oud | aajt (old) / gammel (decayed) | oolt / gammelig | old / olleg | aalt | alt | sineigs | gamall (but: eldri, elstur) / aldinn | gamal (but: eldri, elstur) | gammal (but: äldre, äldst) | gammel (but: ældre, ældst) | gammel (but: eldre, eldst) | gam(m)al (but: eldre, eldst) |
one | ane | ien | een | een | ein | een | aine | een | eins | áins | einn | ein | en | en | en | ein |
ounce | unce | ûns | ons | ons | óns | Ons | Onze | – | Unze | unkja | únsa | únsa | uns | unse | unse | unse / unsa |
snow | snaw | snie | sneeu | sneeuw | sjnie | Snee | Snij / Snèj | Schlue | Schnee | snáiws | snjór | kavi / snjógvur | snö | sne | snø | snø |
stone | stane | stien | steen | steen | stein | Steen | Stain | Steen | Stein | stáins | steinn | steinur | sten | sten | stein | stein |
that | that | dat | daardie / dit | dat / die | dat / tot | dat / dit | dat / dij | dat | das | þata | það | tað | det | det | det | det |
two / twain | twa | twa | twee | twee | twie | twee | twij / twèje | zoo / zwou / zwéin | zwei/zwo | twái | tveir / tvær / tvö | tveir / tvey / tvær / tvá | två | to | to | to[28] |
who | wha | wa | wie | wie | wee | wokeen | wel | wien | wer | Ƕas / hwas | hver | hvør | vem | hvem | hvem | kven |
worm | wirm | wjirm | wurm | worm | weurm | Worm | Wörm | Wuerm | Wurm | maþa | maðkur / ormur | maðkur / ormur | mask / orm [29] | orm | makk / mark / orm [29] | makk/mark/orm[29] |
English | Scots | West Frisian | Afrikaans | Dutch | Dutch (Limburgish) | Low German | Low German (Groningen) | Middle German (Luxemburgish) |
German | Gothic | Icelandic | Faroese | Swedish | Danish | Norwegian (Bokmål) | Norwegian (Nynorsk) |
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