The Germanic languages form one of the branches of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The largest Germanic languages are English and German, with ca. 340 and 120 million native speakers, respectively. Other significant languages includes a number of Low German languages including Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages (principally Danish, Norwegian and Swedish). The SIL Ethnologue lists 53 different Germanic languages and dialects. Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Indo-European is originally a linguistic term, referring to the Indo-European language family. ... The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... The Anatolian languages are a group of extinct languages, either Indo-European or (in some classifications) closely related to Indo-European, which were spoken in Asia Minor, including Hittite. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Balto-Slavic languages are an Indo-European language family, consisting of the (possibly genetically related) Baltic languages and Slavic languages. ... Celtic languages are the languages spoken by the ancient Celts and their modern descendants, the Gaels, Welsh, Cornish and Bretons. ... Indo-Iranian languages (also called Aryan languages) are the eastern-most group of the living Indo-European languages. ... The Italic subfamily is a member of the Centum branch of the Indo-European language family. ... Tocharian is one of the most obscure branches of the Indo-European language group. ... The Proto-Indo-Europeans are the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language, a prehistoric people of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age. ... The Proto-Indo-Europeans (PIE) were a patrilineal society of the Bronze Age (roughly 5th or 4th millennium BC), probably semi-nomadic, relying on animal husbandry. ... This article is about Bronze Age burial mounds and the Kurgan culture. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies The Yamna (from Russian яма pit) or pit grave culture is a prehistoric culture of the Bug/Dniester/Ural region, dating to the 36th–23rd centuries BC. The culture was predominantly nomadic, with some agriculture practiced near rivers and a few hillforts. ... Approximate extent of the Corded Ware horizon with adjacent 3rd millennium cultures (after EIEC). ... Indo-European studies is a field of linguistics, dealing with the Indo-European languages. ... The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe and western Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Low German (in Low German, Platt(düütsch) or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of West Germanic languages spoken in northern Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. ... The North Germanic languages (also Scandinavian languages or Nordic languages) is a branch of the Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the Faroe Islands and Iceland. ... SIL International is a non-profit, faith-based, scientific organization with the main purpose to study, develop and document lesser-known languages for the purpose of expanding linguistic knowledge, promoting world literacy and aiding minority language development. ...

Their common ancestor is Common Germanic, probably spoken in the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age Northern Europe. Common Germanic, and all its descendants, is characterised by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early Germanic dialects enter history with the Germanic peoples who settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire from the 2nd century. 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... (2nd millennium BC – 1st millennium BC – 1st millennium – other millennia) Events The Iron Age began in Western Europe Egypt declined as a major power The Tanakh was written Buddhism was founded Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and created the Persian Empire (6th century BC) Sparta and Athens fought the Peloponnesian... The Jastorf culture is an Iron Age material culture in northern Europe, dated from about 600 BC to 1. ... A consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture sufficient to cause audible turbulence, at one or more points along the vocal tract. ... Grimms law (also known as the [First] Germanic Sound Shift; German: Erste Deutsche (Germanische) Lautverschiebung) was the first non-trivial systematic sound change ever to be discovered; its formulation was a turning-point in the development of linguistics, enabling the introduction of rigorous methodology in historical linguistic research. ... The term Germanic tribes applies to the ancient Germanic peoples of Europe. ... The Roman Empire is the term conventionally used to describe the Ancient Roman polity in the centuries following its reorganization under the leadership of Octavian (better known as Caesar Augustus). ... (1st century - 2nd century - 3rd century - other centuries) Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors (96–180) – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. ...

Writing

Our earliest evidence of Germanic is from names, recorded in the 1st century by Tacitus, and in a single instance in the 2nd century BC, on the Negau helmet. From roughly the 2nd century AD, some speakers of early Germanic dialects developed the Elder Futhark. Early runic inscriptons are also 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. Later, Christian priests and monks who spoke and read Latin in addition to their native Germanic tongue began writing the Germanic languages with slightly modified Latin letters, but in Scandinavia, runic alphabets remained in common use throughout the Viking Age. (1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century - other centuries) The 1st century was that century which lasted from 1 to 100. ... Gaius Cornelius Tacitus Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (c. ... (3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) Events BC 168 Battle of Pydna -- Macedonian phalanx defeated by Romans BC 148 Rome conquers Macedonia BC 146 Rome destroys Carthage in the Third Punic War BC 146 Rome conquers... The Negau helmet usually refers to one of 28 bronze helmets from the 5th century BS, found in a cache in Negau, present Zenjak, in Slovenia on which is inscribed, in the Etruscan alphabet harigastiz fefakit. ... (1st century - 2nd century - 3rd century - other centuries) Events Roman Empire governed by the Five Good Emperors (96–180) – Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Marcus Aurelius. ... The 24 runes of the Elder Futhark The Elder Futhark (or Older Futhark, Old Futhark) are the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Proto-Norse and other Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 7th centuries for inscriptions on artefacts (jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons) and rune... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ... Representation of the Gothic alphabet surrounding its inventor Ulfilas The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed to Wulfila used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language. ... Representation of Ulfilas surrounded by the Gothic alphabet Ulfilas or Wulfila (perhaps meaning little wolf) (c. ... Parts of this article contradict each other. ... (3rd century - 4th century - 5th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented in the New Testament writings of his early followers. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using letters known as runes, formerly used to write Germanic languages, mainly in Scandinavia and the British Isles. ... The Viking Age is the name of the period between 793 A.D and 1066 A.D in Scandinavia. ...

In addition to the standard Latin alphabet, various Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks and extra letters, including umlauts, the ß (Eszett), Ø, Æ, Å, Ð, Ȝ, and Þ and Ƿ, from runes. Historic printed German is frequently set in blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher). Ä ä Ö ö Ãœ ü The term umlaut is used for two closely related notions: a special kind of vowel modification and a particular diacritic mark. ... The ß — Eszett (IPA ) in German or scharfes S (sharp S) if spelled out — is a letter used only in the German alphabet. ... Ø, ø is a vowel and a letter used in the Danish, Faroese and Norwegian alphabets. ... Æ, or æ, is a vowel and a grapheme used in the Icelandic, Danish, Faroese, Norwegian and Ossetian alphabets. ... Ã…, or Ã¥, is a letter, representing a vowel, in the Swedish, Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, Walloon and Chamorro alphabets. ... Ð (capital Ð, lower-case ð) (or eth, eð or edh, Faroese: edd) is a letter used in Old English (Anglo-Saxon) and present-day Icelandic and Faroese. ... Yogh is a letter used in Middle English and Middle Scots, representing y (IPA: ) and various velar phonemes. ... Þþ The letter Þ (miniscule: þ), which is also known as thorn or þorn is a letter in the Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic alphabets. ... Categories: Language stubs | Old English language | Runes | Uncommon Latin letters ... Blackletter in a Latin Bible of AD 1407, on display in Malmesbury Abbey, Wiltshire, England. ... In typography, a typeface consists of a co-ordinated set of character designs. ... The German word Fraktur (pronounced in IPA) refers to a specific blackletter typeface. ... The German word Schwabacher (pronounced in IPA) refers to a specific blackletter typeface. ...

Linguistic Markers

Some unique features of Germanic languages are:

1. The levelling of the IE tense system into past and present (or common)
2. The use of a dental suffix (/d/ or /t/) instead of vowel alternation (ablaut) to indicate past tense. See: Germanic weak verb.
3. The presence of two distinct types of verb conjugation: weak (using dental suffix) and strong (using ablaut). English has 161 strong verbs; all are of native English origin. See: West Germanic strong verb.
4. The use of strong and weak adjectives. Modern English adjectives don't change except for comparative and superlative; this was not the case with Old English, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on whether they were preceded by an article or demonstrative, or not.
5. The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law.
6. A number of words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families, but variants of which appear in almost all Germanic languages. See Germanic substrate hypothesis.
7. The shifting of stress onto the root of the stem. Though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what's added to them. This is arguably the most important change.

Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by an open configuration of the vocal tract, in contrast to consonants, which are characterized by a constriction or closure at one or more points along the vocal tract. ... In linguistics, the term ablaut (from German ab- in the sense down, reducing + Laut sound) designates a system of vowel gradations in Proto-Indo-European and its far-reaching consequences in all of the modern Indo-European languages. ... In Germanic languages, weak verbs are those verbs that form their preterites and past participles by means of a dental suffix, an inflection that contains a /t/ or /d/ sound. ... A verb is a part of speech that usually denotes action (bring, read), occurrence (to decompose (itself), to glitter), or a state of being (exist, live, soak, stand). Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its tense, aspect, mood and voice. ... In linguistics, grammatical conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from the word root by inflection (regular alteration according to rules of grammar). ... In Germanic languages, weak verbs are those verbs that have a regular inflection, in which the stem of a word is not changed by ablaut. ... A strong inflection is an irregular inflection, in which the stem of a word changes. ... In the Germanic languages, strong verbs are those which mark their past tenses by means of ablaut. ... An adjective is a part of speech which modifies a noun, usually making its meaning more specific. ... Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon) is an early form of the English language that was spoken in parts of what is now England and southern Scotland between the mid-fifth century and the mid-twelfth century. ... Grimms law (also known as the [First] Germanic Sound Shift; German: Erste Deutsche (Germanische) Lautverschiebung) was the first non-trivial systematic sound change ever to be discovered; its formulation was a turning-point in the development of linguistics, enabling the introduction of rigorous methodology in historical linguistic research. ... 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. ...

History

All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by their having been subjected to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law. These took place probably 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. 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 Dutch, Yiddish... Grimms law (also known as the [First] Germanic Sound Shift; German: Erste Deutsche (Germanische) Lautverschiebung) was the first non-trivial systematic sound change ever to be discovered; its formulation was a turning-point in the development of linguistics, enabling the introduction of rigorous methodology in historical linguistic research. ... Verners law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *þ, *s and *x, when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively *b, *d, *z and *g. ... 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... See Pie (disambiguation) for other uses of PIE. The Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) is the hypothetical common ancestor of the Indo-European languages. ... 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] // General characteristics Petroglyphs from Scandinavia...

From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic dialects 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 dialects are difficult to classify. The 6th century Lombardic language, for instance, may constitute an originally either North or East Germanic dialect that became assimilated to 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 dialect 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 High German and Old English from about the 9th 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. West Germanic is the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages, including such languages as English, Dutch, and German. ... The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family. ... The North Germanic languages (also Scandinavian languages or Nordic languages) is a branch of the Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the Faroe Islands and Iceland. ... Human migration denotes any movement of groups of people from one locality to another, rather than of individual wanderers. ... (5th century — 6th century — 7th century — other centuries) Events The first academy of the east the Academy of Gundeshapur founded in Persia by the Persian Shah Khosrau I. Irish colonists and invaders, the Scots, began migrating to Caledonia (later known as Scotland) Glendalough monastery, Wicklow Ireland founded by St. ... For the group of modern-day Swiss and Italian dialects, see Lombard language. ... The Lombards (Latin Langobardi, from which the alternative name Longobards found in older English texts), were a Germanic people originally from Scandinavia that entered the late Roman Empire. ... The Elbe River (Czech Labe   listen?, Sorbian/Lusatian Łobjo, Polish Łaba, German Elbe, Hungarian Elba) is one of the major waterways of central Europe. ... 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. ... (1st century BC - 1st century - 2nd century - other centuries) The 1st century was that century which lasted from 1 to 100. ... Gotland is the largest island in the Baltic Sea. ... Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse that was spoken on the island of Gotland. ... (3rd century - 4th century - 5th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 4th century was that century which lasted from 301 to 400. ... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ... The New Testament, sometimes called the Greek Testament or Greek Scriptures is the name given to the part of the Christian Bible that was written after the birth of Jesus. ... Representation of Ulfilas surrounded by the Gothic alphabet Ulfilas or Wulfila (perhaps meaning little wolf) (c. ... Old High German is the earliest recorded form of the modern German language, and was spoken from the middle of the 9th to the end of the 11th century. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... This earthenware dish was made in 9th century Iraq. ... 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. ... Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ... For other uses, see number 800. ... This earthenware dish was made in 9th century Iraq. ... The Eggjum stone is a grave stone that was ploughed up in 1917 on the farm of that name, in Sogndal, parish of Sogn, Norway. ... A black-and-white rendition of the text on one side of the Rök Stone. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... Íslendingabók, Libellus Islandorum or The Book of Icelanders is an historical work dealing with early Icelandic history. ... The type of verse-making unique to the early medieval Scandinavian peoples. ... This earthenware dish was made in 9th century Iraq. ...

By about the 10th century, the dialects had diverged enough to make intercomprehensibility 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. As a means of recording the passage of time, the 10th century was that century which lasted from 901 to 1000. ... A pair of languages is said to be mutually intelligible if speakers of one language can readily understand the other language. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... The Danelaw (from the Old English Dena lagu) was an area of England under the administrative control of the Vikings (or Danes, or Norsemen) from the late 9th century. ... The Anglo-Saxons refers collectively to the groups of Germanic tribes who achieved dominance in southern Britain from the mid-5th century, forming the basis for the modern English nation. ... Middle English is the name given by historical philologists to the diverse forms of the English language spoken in England from around the 12th to the 15th centuries— from after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066 to the mid to late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ...

The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians, Goths and Vandals became linguistically assimilated to their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the 18th century. The Burgundians or Burgundes were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr (the Island of the Burgundians), and from here to mainland Europe. ... A goth girl as seen on the satirical cartoon, South Park. ... The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire, and created a state in North Africa, centered on the city of Carthage. ... // Events Islam starts in Arabia, the Quran is written, and Syria, Iraq, Persia, North Africa and Central Asia convert to Islam. ... The Crimean Gothic language is dialect of the Gothic language that was spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in the Crimea (now Ukraine) perhaps until as late as the 18th century. ... (17th century - 18th century - 19th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 18th century refers to the century that lasted from 1701 through 1800. ...

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, resulting in Upper German and Low German, with graded intermediate Central German dialects. 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 Low Saxon and Frisian in the North, and although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southern dialects have completed the second sound shift, but remained closer to the Middle German vowel system, while the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift, but simplified the vowel system. The second Germanic sound shift (zweite germanische Lautverschiebung in German), which took place during the 7th and 8th centuries, separated High German from Low German. ... Subdivisions Alemannic language Austro-Bavarian language Upper German is a family of High German languages spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy. ... Subdivisions East Low German Low Franconian Low Saxon Low German (in Low German, Platt(düütsch) or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of West Germanic languages spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands. ... Central German (in German: Mitteldeutsch) is a group of German dialects spread from the Rhineland to Thuringia, south of Low German and north of Upper German. ... Highest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though they are not intelligible to German speakers. ... The Walliser German (Walliserdeutsch in German) is a Highest Alemannic dialect spoken in Switzerland, specifically in the German-speaking part of the Canton of Wallis (in French: Valais), in the uppermost Rhône valley. ... Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nedersaksisch, Neddersassisch, Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of Low German dialects spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained more unified, largely retaining mutual intelligibility into modern times.

Classification

Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος, dialektos) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ...

Mentioned here are only the principal or unusual contemporary dialects; individual articles linked to below contain larger family trees. For example, many Low Saxon dialects are discussed on Low Saxon besides just Standard Low Saxon and Plautdietsch. Diachronic stages are listed in the main articles (such as Old English and Middle English, in the English language article) Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nedersaksisch, Neddersassisch, Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of Low German dialects spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... Middle English is the name given by historical philologists to the diverse forms of the English language spoken in England from around the 12th to the 15th centuries— from after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror in 1066 to the mid to late 15th century, when the Chancery Standard... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

• West Germanic
  • High German
    • German
      • Central German
        • East Central German
        • Luxembourgish
        • West Central German
          • Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania)
      • Upper German
        • Alemannic German
        • Austro-Bavarian German
        • Hutterite German (aka "Tirolean")
    • Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet)
    • Wymysojer (with a significant influence from Low Saxon, Dutch, Polish and Scots)
  • Low German
    • Low Franconian
      • Dutch
      • Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages)
      • Limburgish
    • Low Saxon
      • Standard Low Saxon
    • East Low German
      • Plautdietsch (Mennonite "Low German")
  • Insular Germanic
    • Frisian
      • Söl'ring
    • English. Huge influx of Latinate vocabulary and grammar, most via Norman French. Many dialects.
      • British English
        • Northern English
        • Northumberland (Geordie)
        • Durham (Pitmatic)
        • Cumbrian
        • Yorkshire
        • Lancashire
        • Merseyside (Scouse)
      • Midlands English
        • East
          • Derbyshire
          • Nottingham
          • Lincolnshire
          • Leicestershire
        • West
          • Black Country (Yam Yam)
          • Birmingham (Brummie)
      • East Anglian
        • Norfolk (Broad Norfolk)
      • Southern English based
        • Received Pronunciation
        • Estuary English
        • Cockney (London)
        • Somerset
        • Devon
        • Cornwall
        • Australian English
        • New Zealand English
      • Scottish English
      • North American English
        • Canadian English
        • Boston dialect
        • Southern American English
        • General American
        • New York-New Jersey English
        • California English
        • Hawaiian English
        • Black English/AAVE/Ebonics
        • Liberian English
      • (Others)
        • Hiberno-English (Irish English)
        • Caribbean English
        • Jamaican English
        • Newfoundland English
        • Hong Kong English
        • South African English
        • Indian English
        • Singlish (Singaporean English)
        • Manglish (Malaysian English)
    • Scots
      • Insular Scots
      • Northern Scots incl. Doric
      • Central Scots
      • Southern Scots
      • Ulster Scots
      • Urban Scots (City dialects)
    • Yola
• East Germanic (descending from Gothic)
  • Crimean Gothic (extinct in the 1800s)
  • Vandalic (extinct)
  • Burgundian (extinct)
  • Lombardic (extinct)
• North Germanic (descending from Old Norse):
  • West (Insular) Nordic
    • New Norwegian (Nynorsk) (disputed)
    • Icelandic
    • Faroese
    • Norn (Extinct)
  • East (Continental) Nordic
    • Danish
      • Standard Norwegian (Bokmål and Riksmål) (Dano-Norwegian)
    • Swedish

West Germanic is the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages, including such languages as English, Dutch, and German. ... Subdivisions Central German Upper German High German (in German, Hochdeutsch) is any of several German dialects spoken in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Luxembourg (as well as in neighbouring portions of Belgium, France (Alsace), Italy, Poland, and Romania (Transylvania) and in some areas of former colonial settlement, for example in... Central German (in German: Mitteldeutsch) is a group of German dialects spread from the Rhineland to Thuringia, south of Low German and north of Upper German. ... Luxembourgish or Luxembourgian (French: Luxembourgeois, German: Luxemburgisch, Luxembourgish: Lëtzebuergesch) is a West Germanic language spoken in Luxembourg. ... Pennsylvania German, or Pennsylvania Dutch (Pennsilfaani-Deitsch), is a High German language spoken by 150,000 to 250,000 people in North America. ... The Amish are a denomination of Anabaptists related to the Mennonites noted for their restricted use of modern devices such as automobiles and electricity. ... State nickname: The Keystone State Other U.S. States Capital Harrisburg Largest city Philadelphia Governor Ed Rendell (D) Official languages None Area 119,283 km² (33rd)  - Land 116,074 km²  - Water 3,208 km² (2. ... Alemannic (Alemannisch) belongs to the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. ... Subdivisions Northern Austro-Bavarian Central Austro-Bavarian Southern Austro-Bavarian Austro-Bavarian or Bavarian is an Upper Germanic language. ... Hutterite German (Hutterisch) is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. ... Yiddish (Yid. ... Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family spoken by 6 million people mainly in Israel, parts of the Palestinian territories, the United States and by Jewish communities around the world. ... Note: This article contains special characters. ... Wymysojer (Wilamowicean) is a West Germanic language spoken in the small town of Wilamowice (Wymysau in Wymysojer), on the border between Silesia and Little Poland. ... Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nedersaksisch, Neddersassisch, Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of Low German dialects spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands. ... Scots (or Lallans, meaning Lowlands), often Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic of the Highlands, is a language used in Scotland, as well as parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans... Low German (in Low German, Platt(düütsch) or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of West Germanic languages spoken in northern Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. ... Low Franconian is any of several West Germanic languages spoken in The Netherlands, northern Belgium, and South Africa. ... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... Limburgian (Dutch: Limburgs, German: Limburgisch, French: Limbourgeois) is a group of Franconian varieties, spoken in the Limburg and Selfkant regions, near the common Dutch/Flemish(Belgium)/German border. ... Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nedersaksisch, Neddersassisch, Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch) is any of a variety of Low German dialects spoken in northern Germany and the Netherlands. ... Northern Low Saxon (in Low Saxon, Nordneddersassisch or Platt) is a Low Saxon dialect. ... East Low German dialects are spoken in north eastern parts of Germany as well as by minorities in northern Poland. ... Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, is a language spoken by the Mennonites, who are ethnically Dutch, but who adopted a East Low German dialect while they were refugees in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia (later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth), beginning in the early-to-mid 1500s. ... The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations based on the teachings and tradition of Menno Simons. ... 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. ... The German island of Sylt is located in the North Sea off the coast of Germany and Denmark. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... The Norman language is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. ... British English (BrE) is a term used to refer to the form of the English language spoken in the British Isles. ... Northern English is a group of dialects of the English language. ... Geordie refers to a person originating from Tyneside and the former coal mining areas of northern County Durham or the dialect spoken by such people. ... Pitmatic, is a dialect of English used in the county of Northumberland. ... Scouse is the accent or dialect of English found in the northern English city of Liverpool and adjoining urban areas of Lancashire and the Wirral region of Cheshire. ... The Black Country is an area of conurbation to the north and west of Birmingham in the English West Midlands, around the South Staffordshire coal field. ... Brummie (sometimes Brummy) is a colloquial term for the inhabitants, accent and dialect of Birmingham, UK, as well as being a general adjective used to denote a connection with the city, locally called Brum. ... East Anglia - the easternmost area of England - was probably home to the first-ever form of language which can be called English. ... The Norfolk dialect, also known as Broad Norfolk, is a dialect that was once spoken by those living in the county of Norfolk in England. ... Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the educated spoken English of southeastern England. It is the accent of English English most often taught to non-native speakers, and represented in the pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... A Cockney, in the loosest sense of the word, is a working-class inhabitant of the East End of London. ... Australian English is the form of the English language used in Australia. ... New Zealand English is the dialect of English spoken in New Zealand, occasionally referred to within New Zealand as Newzild. ... Diagram showing the geographical locations of selected languages and dialects of the British Isles. ... North American English is a collective term to describe the varieties of the English language that are spoken in the United States and Canada. ... Canadian English is the form of English used in Canada, spoken as a first or second language by over 25 million Canadians (as recorded in the 2001 census [1]). Canadian English spelling is a mixture of American and British, but Canadian English pronunciation is much closer to that of American... Phonological characteristics All phonetic transcriptions in X-SAMPA; for example: how are you? howa:j@ Deletion of post-vocalic r` The traditional Boston accent is non-rhotic; in other words, the phoneme r` does not appear at the end of a syllable or immediately before a consonant. ... Southern American English is a dialect of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from central Kentucky and northern Virginia to the Gulf Coast and from the Atlantic coast to eastern Texas. ... General American is a notional accent of American English based on speech patterns common in the Midwest of the United States and those used by many American network television broadcasters. ... The variety of the English language spoken in the New York City and North Jersey region is often considered to be one of the most recognizable accents within American English. ... California English is a variety of the English language spoken in the U.S. state of California. ... Hawaiian English is the standard of the English language as used in the State of Hawaii, and is — along with the Hawaiian language — an official language of the state. ... African American Vernacular English (AAVE), known colloquially as Ebonics, also called Black English, Black Vernacular or Black English Vernacular, is a dialect and ethnolect of American English. ... Liberian English is the form of English spoken in the African country of Liberia. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Caribbean English is a dialect of the English language spoken in the Caribbean. ... Jamaican English or Jamaican Standard English is a dialect of English encompassing in a very unique way, parts and mergers of both American English and British English dialects. ... Newfoundland English is a dialect of English specific to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, distinct from Canadian English. ... Hong Kong English is sometimes used to refer to the accent and characteristics of English spoken by some of the ethnic Chinese residents of Hong Kong. ... South African English is a dialect of English spoken in South Africa and to some extent, in neighbouring countries with a large number of Anglo-Africans living in them, such as Namibia and Zimbabwe. ... Indian English is a catch-all phrase for the dialects or varieties of English spoken widely in India (by about 11% of the population, according to the 1991 census) and the Indian subcontinent in general, but also by Desis. ... Singlish, a portmanteau of the words Singaporean and English, is the English-based creole spoken colloquially in Singapore. ... Manglish is the version of the English language as spoken in Malaysia and shares substantial linguistic similarities with Singlish in Singapore. ... Scots (or Lallans, meaning Lowlands), often Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic of the Highlands, is a language used in Scotland, as well as parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans... Doric is the name given to the dialect of Lowland Scots spoken in the north-east of Scotland. ... Ulster Scots (also known as Scotch-Irish, Ullans or Hiberno-Scots) refers to dialect varieties of English, Lowland Scots as spoken in parts of Ulster in Ireland. ... Introduction The Yola language is a branch of Middle English that evolved separately among the English who followed the Norman barons Strongbow and Robert Fitzstephens to eastern Ireland in 1169. ... The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family. ... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ... Crimean Gothic language is derived from the Gothic language that was spoken in some isolated locations in Crimea (now Ukraine) until the 18th century. ... Events and Trends Beginning of the Napoleonic Wars (1803 - 1815). ... Vandalic was a Germanic language probably closely related to the Gothic language. ... Burgundian is either of the following; An extinct language of the Germanic language group spoken by the Burgundians. ... For the group of modern-day Swiss and Italian dialects, see Lombard language. ... The North Germanic languages (also Scandinavian languages or Nordic languages) is a branch of the Germanic languages spoken in Scandinavia, parts of Finland and on the Faroe Islands and Iceland. ... Old Norse or Danish tongue is the Germanic language once spoken by the inhabitants of the Nordic countries (for instance during the Viking Age). ... Norwegian is a Germanic language spoken in Norway. ... Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken on the Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands northwest off the coast of Scotland. ... Norwegian is a Germanic language spoken in Norway. ...

Vocabulary comparison

Several of the terms in the table below have had semantic drift. For example, the form 'Sterben' and other terms for 'die' are cognate 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). Semantic drift, in historical linguistics, is a phenomenon whereby words change in meaning over a period of time, resulting in semantic differences between cognates. ... Latin is the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...

The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Scots (or Lallans, meaning Lowlands), often Lowland Scots to distinguish it from the Gaelic of the Highlands, is a language used in Scotland, as well as parts of Northern Ireland and border areas of the Republic of Ireland, where it is known in official circles as Ulster Scots or Ullans... Afrikaans is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia. ... Yiddish (Yid. ... The Gothic language (*gutiska razda, *𐌲𐌿𐍄𐌹𐍃𐌺𐌰 𐍂𐌰𐌶𐌳𐌰) is an extinct Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths and specifically by the Visigoths. ...

See also

• Germanic verb and its various subordinated articles.
• Language families and languages
• Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages
• Folkspraak, a planned language designed to be quickly learnable by a speaker of any Germanic language.
• List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents

The Germanic language family is one of the language groups which resulted from the breakup of Proto-Indo-European (PIE). ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families (families hereforth). ... There are many words in Germanic languages whose roots are difficult to identify. ... Folkspraak (also Folksprák, Folksprahk, Folksprak, and hyphenated versions such as Folk-Spraak) is an international auxiliary language (IAL) based on the Germanic languages, currently in development. ... An artificial or constructed language (known colloquially as a conlang among aficionados), is a language whose vocabulary and grammar were specifically devised by an individual or small group, rather than having naturally evolved as part of a culture as with natural languages. ... This list contains Germanic elements of the English language which have a close corresponding Latinate form. ...

External links

• Proto-Germanic Dictionary
• Ethnologue Report for Germanic
• Proto-Germanic Language Reconstruction Group