Map of the Pre-Roman Iron Age culture(s) associated with Proto-Germanic, ca 500 BC-50 BC. The area south of Scandinavia is the Jastorf culture

Proto-Germanic, the proto-language believed by scholars to be the common ancestor of the Germanic languages, includes among its descendants Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Icelandic, Frisian, Old Norse, German, English, Dutch, Flemish and Afrikaans. There are no extant documents in Proto-Germanic, which was unwritten, and virtually all our knowledge of this extinct language has been obtained by application of the comparative method. There are a few surviving inscriptions in a runic script from Scandinavia dated to c. 200 which many feel represent a stage of Proto-Norse immediately after the "Proto-Germanic" stage, if not exactly identical. As well, some loanwords exist in neighbouring non-Germanic languages which are believed to have been borrowed from Germanic during the Proto-Germanic phase; an example is Finnish kuningas "king", which closely resembles the reconstructed Proto-Germanic *kuningaz. Download high resolution version (657x683, 31 KB)Map of the Nordic Iron Age and the Jastorf culture. ... Download high resolution version (657x683, 31 KB)Map of the Nordic Iron Age and the Jastorf culture. ... The Pre-Roman Iron Age (ca 500 BC - ca 1 AD) is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period in Scandinavian and North German pre-history and a part of the European Iron Age. ... Centuries: 7th century BC - 6th century BC - 5th century BC Decades: 550s BC - 540s BC - 530s BC - 520s BC - 510s BC - 500s BC - 490s BC - 480s BC - 470s BC - 460s BC - 450s BC Events and Trends 509 BC - Foundation of the Roman Republic 508 BC - Office of pontifex maximus created... Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 100s BC 90s BC 80s BC 70s BC 60s BC - 50s BC - 40s BC 30s BC 20s BC 10s BC 0s BC Years: 55 BC 54 BC 53 BC 52 BC 51 BC 50 BC 49 BC 48 BC 47... The Jastorf culture is an Iron Age material culture in northern Europe, dated from about 600 BC to 1. ... Proto-language may either refer to a language that preceded a certain set of given languages, or to system of communication during a stage in glottogony that may not yet be properly called a language. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ... Frisian is a Germanic language, or group of closely related languages, spoken by around half a million members of an ethnic group living on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. ... This is the approximate extent of Old Norse and related languages in the early 10th century. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... The comparative method (in linguistics) is a method used to detect genetic relationships between languages and to establish a consistent relationship hypothesis by reconstructing: the common ancestor of the languages in question, a plausible sequence of regular changes by which the historically known languages can be derived from that common... Technical note: Due to technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... Scandinavia, Fennoscandia, and the Kola Peninsula. ... For other uses, see number 200. ... Proto-Norse, Proto-Nordic, Ancient Nordic or Proto-North Germanic was an Indo-European language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved from Proto-Germanic between the 1st century BC and the 2nd century, and was spoken until ca 800, when it evolved into the Old Norse language. ... The Germanic king originally had three main functions. ...

Proto-Germanic is itself descended from Proto-Indo-European, which is also the distant ancestor of a great many other languages in Europe and Asia. For the changes undergone by Proto-Germanic during its descent from Proto-Indo-European, see Germanic languages. See Pie (disambiguation) for other uses of PIE. The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. ... The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family, spoken by the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire. ...

Timeline for the evolution of Proto-Germanic

Map of the Nordic Bronze Age culture, ca 1200 BC

Proto-Indo-European speakers are thought by some scholars to have arrived at the plains of southern Sweden and Denmark, regarded to be the original dwelling-place of the Germanic peoples, during the early Bronze Age (about four thousand years ago). This is the only area where no pre-Germanic place names have been found. The Battle-axe people are the best candidate for this immigration. Download high resolution version (657x683, 31 KB)The Nordic Bronze Age culture, ca 1200 BC. The map based on Image:Europe plain rivers. ... Download high resolution version (657x683, 31 KB)The Nordic Bronze Age culture, ca 1200 BC. The map based on Image:Europe plain rivers. ... Map of the Nordic Bronze Age culture, ca 1200 BC The Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius (1843-1921) to a period in Scandinavian pre-history, ca 1700 BC -500 BC, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia [1] Even though Scandinavians joined the... (Redirected from 1200 BC) Centuries: 14th century BC - 13th century BC - 12th century BC Decades: 1250s BC 1240s BC 1230s BC 1220s BC 1210s BC - 1200s BC - 1190s BC 1180s BC 1170s BC 1160s BC 1150s BC Events and Trends 1204 BC - Theseus, legendary King of Athens is deposed after... Germanic peoples are ethnic groups of Germanic origin, the linguistic, cultural, and racial descendants of the old Germanic tribes. ... The Bronze Age is a period in a civilizations development when the most advanced metalworking has developed the techniques of smelting copper from natural outcroppings and alloys it to cast bronze. ... The name Battle-axe people (corded ware culture) identifies widely-scattered late Neolithic sites in Europe (3rd millennium BC). ...

Colin Renfrew has proposed that the I-E languages were spread much earlier, with agriculture. However, the present view among Swedish archaeologists is that the local population learned agricultural skills without the infusion of immigrants. Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn (born 25 July 1937), English archaeologist, notable for his work on the radiocarbon revolution, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, and the prevention of looting of archaeological sites. ...

Hybridization as conjectured cause

Some also suggest that Proto-Germanic may have arisen somewhat as a Creole language due to cultural diffusion among geographically static indigenous population groups. However, considering the inflected character and the homogeneous forms of the Germanic languages, the creation of such a creole would have been a resounding and unique feat indeed. A Creole is a language descended from a pidgin that has become the native language of a group of people. ...

It has been suggested that proto-Germanic arose as a hybrid of two Indo-European dialects, one each of Centum and Satem types though they would have been mutually intelligible at the time of hybridization. This hypothesis may help to explain the difficulty of finding the right place for Germanic within the Indo-European family. Centum is the collective name for the branches of Indo-European in which the so-called Satem shift, the change of palato-velar *k^, *g^, *g^h into fricatives or affricates, did not take place, and the palato-velar consonants merged with plain velars (*k, *g, *gh). ... The Satem division of the Indo-European family includes the following branches: Indo-Iranian, Baltic and Slavic, Armenian, Albanian, perhaps also a number of barely documented extinct languages, such as Thracian (see: Indo-European languages). ...

Non-Indo-European elements

The reconstructed Proto-Germanic vocabulary includes a number of fundamental words (referring to, among other things, parts of the body, animals and nature) which are clearly non-Indo-European in origin, suggesting a vocabulary influence from the earlier inhabitants of northern Europe. The mechanism of this influence is unknown; it may have been simple borrowing, or perhaps retention of old words by people who adopted Proto-Germanic as their new language. For examples, see Germanic substrate hypothesis. A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... The Germanic substrate hypothesis is a hypothesis that some have ventured that attempts to explain the distinctiveness of the Germanic languages within the Indo-European language family. ...

External links

• Proto-Germanic discussion group