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The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 (IE) language family
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe
Pre-Roman Iron Age

The Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe designates the earliest part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Netherlands north of the Rhine River....
. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant
Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
 change known as Grimm's law
Grimm's law

Grimm's law named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European language stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC....
. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic peoples settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 in the second century BC.

The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 and German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, with approximately 310-375 million and over 100 million native speakers respectively.






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The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European
Indo-European languages

The Indo-European languages are a Language family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau , Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent ....
 (IE) language family
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe
Pre-Roman Iron Age

The Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe designates the earliest part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Netherlands north of the Rhine River....
. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant
Consonant

In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
 change known as Grimm's law
Grimm's law

Grimm's law named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European language stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC....
. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic peoples settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 in the second century BC.

The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 and German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, with approximately 310-375 million and over 100 million native speakers respectively. The group includes other major languages, such as Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 with 23 million and Afrikaans
Afrikaans

Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch language and thus classified as Low Franconian languages West Germanic languages. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Taiwa...
 with over 6 million native speakers; and the North Germanic languages
North Germanic languages

The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages....
 including Norwegian
Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
, Danish
Danish language

Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
, Swedish
Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
, Icelandic
Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic languages, the language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese language and Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognam?l....
, and Faroese
Faroese language

Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese people in Denmark....
 with a combined total of about 20 million speakers. The SIL
SIL International

SIL International is a United States, worldwide Evangelicalism non-profit organization, whose main purpose is to study, develop and document lesser-known languages, in order to expand linguistics knowledge, promote literacy and aid minority language development....
 Ethnologue lists 53 different Germanic languages.

Characteristics

Germanic languages possess several unique features, such as the following:
  1. The leveling of the Indo-European verbal system of tense
    Grammatical tense

    Grammatical tense is a temporal language quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs.Tense is one of at least five qualities, along with grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, and grammatical person, which verb forms may express....
     and aspect
    Grammatical aspect

    In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow in the described event or state. In English, for example, the past-tense sentences "I swam" and "I was swimming" differ in aspect ....
     into the present tense
    Present tense

    The present tense is the Grammatical tense that may be used to express:* action at the present* a state of being;* a habitual action;* an occurrence in the near future; or...
     and the past tense
    Past tense

    The past tense is a verb grammatical tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past of the current moment , or prior to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future ....
     (also called the preterite
    Preterite

    The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place in the past. It is similar to the aorist in languages such as Greek language....
    )
  2. A large class of verbs that use a dental suffix
    Suffix

    In grammar, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the grammatical conjugation of verbs....
     (/d/ or /t/) instead of vowel alternation
    Apophony

    In linguistics, apophony is the alternation of sounds within a word that indicates grammar ....
     (Indo-European ablaut
    Indo-European ablaut

    In linguistics, the term ablaut designates a system of vowel gradation in Proto-Indo-European language and its far-reaching consequences in all of the modern Indo-European languages....
    ) to indicate past tense; these are called the Germanic weak verb
    Germanic weak verb

    In Germanic languages, including English language, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group....
    s; the remaining verbs with vowel ablaut are the Germanic strong verb
    Germanic strong verb

    In the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of Indo-European ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung....
    s
  3. The use of so-called strong and weak adjective
    Adjective

    In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
    s: different sets of inflectional endings for adjectives depending on the definiteness
    Definiteness

    In grammar, definiteness is a feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities which are specific and identifiable in a given context and entities which are not ....
     of the noun phrase (modern English adjectives do not inflect at all, except for the comparative and superlative; this was not the case in Old English
    Old English language

    Old English is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century....
    , where adjectives were inflected differently depending on the type of determiner they were preceded by)
  4. The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law
    Grimm's law

    Grimm's law named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European language stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC....
     (the consonants in High German have shifted farther yet by the High German consonant shift
    High German consonant shift

    In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift was a phonological development which took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest written recor...
    )
  5. 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
    Germanic substrate hypothesis

    The Germanic substrate hypothesis is an attempt to explain the distinctive nature of the Germanic languages within the context of the Indo-European languages....
  6. The shifting of stress accent onto the root of the stem and later to the first syllable of the word (though English has an irregular stress, native words always have a fixed stress regardless of what is added to them)


Germanic languages differ from each other to a greater degree than do some other language families
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
 such as the Romance
Romance languages

The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages comprising all the languages that descend from Latin language, the language of ancient Rome....
 or Slavic languages
Slavic languages

File:Slavic europe.svgThe Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia....
. 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 German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 and Icelandic
Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic languages, the language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese language and Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognam?l....
 have preserved much of the complex inflectional morphology
Inflectional morphology

Inflectional morphology is a part of the study of linguistics.To apply an inflection is to change the form of a word so as to give it extra meaning....
 inherited from the Proto-Indo-European language
Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
. Others, such as English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
, Swedish
Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
, and Afrikaans
Afrikaans

Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch language and thus classified as Low Franconian languages West Germanic languages. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Taiwa...
 have moved toward a largely analytic type.

Another characteristic of Germanic languages is the verb second or V2 word order
V2 word order

Verb-second word order, in syntax, is the rule in some languages that the second Constituent of declarative main clauses is always a verb, while this is not necessarily the case in other types of clauses....
, which is quite uncommon cross-linguistically. This feature is shared by all modern Germanic languages except modern English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 (which nevertheless appears to have had V2 earlier in its history), but has largely replaced the structure with an overall Subject Verb Object syntax.

Writing

The earliest evidence of Germanic languages comes from names recorded in the first century by Tacitus
Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
 (especially from his work Germania
Germania (book)

The Germania , written by Tacitus around 98, is an ethnography work on the Germanic tribes outside the Roman Empire.This work survived only in one single manuscript that was found in Hersfeld Abbey, Holy Roman Empire and brought to Italy in 1455 where Enea Silvio Piccolomini, the later Pope Pius II, first examined and analyzed it, wher...
), but the earliest Germanic writing occurs in a single instance in the second century BC on the Negau helmet
Negau helmet

File:Elmo Negau.jpgNegau helmet refers to one of 28 bronze helmets dating to ca. 200 BC, found in 1811 in a cache in Zenjak, near Negau, now Negova, Slovenia....
. From roughly the second century AD, certain speakers of early Germanic varieties developed the Elder Futhark
Elder Futhark

The Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts and runestones....
, an early form of the Runic alphabet
Runic alphabet

The runic alphabets are a set of related alphabets using Letter known as runes to write various Germanic languages prior to the adoption of the Latin alphabet and for specialized purposes thereafter....
. Early runic inscriptions also are largely limited to personal names, and difficult to interpret. The Gothic language
Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct language Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic languages with a sizable corpus....
 was written in the Gothic alphabet
Gothic alphabet

The Gothic alphabet is an alphabetic writing system attributed by Philostorgius to Ulfilas , used exclusively for writing the ancient Gothic language....
 developed by Bishop Ulfilas
Ulfilas

Ulfilas, or Gothic language Wulfila , bishop, missionary, and bible translator, was a Goths or half-Goth who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy....
 for his translation of the Bible
Bible

The Bible is the central religious text of Judaism and Christianity. The exact Books of the Bible is dependent on the religious traditions of specific denominations....
 in the fourth century. Later, Christian
Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
 priests and monks who spoke and read Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 in addition to their native Germanic varieties began writing the Germanic languages with slightly modified Latin letters. However, throughout the Viking Age
Viking Age

Viking Age is the term for the period in European history, especially Northern European and Scandinavian history, spanning the eighth to eleventh centuries....
, Runic alphabets remained in common use in Scandinavia.

In addition to the standard Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumae alphabet, and was initially developed by the Ancient Romes to write the Latin....
, many Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks
Diacritic

A diacritic is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek language d?a???t???? ....
 and extra letters, including umlaut
Umlaut (diacritic)

The word umlaut is the name of a type of sound shift in spoken language and of the diacritic mark used to represent it Orthography. The diacritic mark comprises a pair of dots or lines placed over the letter that represents the affected Vowel....
s, the ß
ß

The letter ? is a letter in the German alphabet. Its German language name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s ....
 (Eszett), ?
IJ (letter)

The IJ is the Digraph of the letters i and j. Occurring in the Dutch language, it is sometimes considered a ligature , or even a letter in itselfalthough in most fonts that have a separate character for ij the two composing parts are not connected, but are separate glyphs, sometimes slightly kerning....
, Ø
Ø

? , is a vowel and a Letter used in the Danish and Norwegian alphabet, Faroese language#Alphabet and Danish and Norwegian alphabet languages....
, Æ
Æ

? is a grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a ligature representing a Latin diphthong, it has been promoted to the full status of a letter in the alphabets of many languages....
, Å
Å

The Letter ? represents various sounds in the Swedish alphabet, Finnish alphabet , Danish alphabet, Norwegian alphabet, North Frisian language, Walloon language, Chamorro language, and Istro-Romanian language alphabets....
, Ä
Æ

? is a grapheme formed from the letters a and e. Originally a ligature representing a Latin diphthong, it has been promoted to the full status of a letter in the alphabets of many languages....
, Ü
Y

The letter Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the modern Latin alphabet. Its name in English language is spelled wye or occasionally wy' , plural wyes....
, Ö
Ö

"?", or "?", is a character used in several extended Latin alphabets, or the letter O with umlaut ....
, Ð
D

D is the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English language is spelled dee , plural dees....
,
Yogh

The letter yogh was used in Middle English and Middle Scots, representing y and various velar consonant phonemes. Velars are sounds that are usually made when the back of the tongue is pressed against the soft palate....
, and the runes Þ and
Wynn

Wynn was a letter of the Old English alphabet. It was used to represent the sound .While the earliest Old English language texts represent this phoneme with the Digraph , scribes soon borrowed the rune wynn for this purpose....
. Historical printed German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 is frequently set in blackletter
Blackletter

Blackletter, also known as Gothic scriptor Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500....
 typeface
Typeface

In typography, a typeface is a set of one or more fonts, in one or more sizes, designed with stylistic unity, each comprising a coordinated set of glyphs....
s (e.g. fraktur
Fraktur (typeface)

The German word Fraktur refers to a specific sub-group of blackletter typefaces. The word derives from the past participle fractus of Latin frangere ....
 or schwabacher
Schwabacher

The German language word Schwabacher refers to a specific blackletter typeface. The term derives from the village of Schwabach....
).

History

All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic
Proto-Germanic language

Proto-Germanic, or Common Germanic, as it is sometimes known, is the hypothetical common ancestor of all the Germanic languages such as modern English language, Dutch language, German language, Danish language, Norwegian language, Icelandic language, Faroese language, and Swedish language....
, united by subjection to the sound shifts of Grimm's law
Grimm's law

Grimm's law named for Jacob Grimm, is a set of statements describing the inherited Proto-Indo-European language stops as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the 1st millennium BC....
 and Verner's law
Verner's law

Verner's law, stated by Karl Verner in 1875, describes a historical sound change in the Proto-Germanic language whereby voiceless fricatives *f, *?, *s, *h , when immediately following an unstressed syllable in the same word, underwent voicing and became respectively the fricatives *b, *d, *z, *g ....
. These probably took place during the Pre-Roman Iron Age
Pre-Roman Iron Age

The Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe designates the earliest part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Netherlands north of the Rhine River....
 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
Nordic Bronze Age

The Nordic Bronze Age is the name given by Oscar Montelius to a period and a Bronze Age archaeological culture in Scandinavian pre-history, ca 1800 BCE - 500 BCE, with sites that reached as far east as Estonia....
.

From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups, West
West Germanic languages

The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic languages family of languages and include languages such as English language, Dutch language and Afrikaans, German language, the Frisian languages, as well as Yiddish language....
, East
East Germanic languages

The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic languages. The only East Germanic language of which texts are known is Gothic language; other languages that are assumed to be East Germanic include Vandalic language, Burgundian language , and Crimean Gothic language....
, and North
North Germanic languages

The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages....
 Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration period
Migration Period

The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions or V?lkerwanderung , was a period of human migration which occurred within the period of roughly 300?700 Common Era in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages....
, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify.

The sixth century Lombardic language
Lombardic language

Lombardic or Langobardic is the extinct language of the Lombards , the Germanic languages speaking settlers in Italy in the 6th century. The language declined from the 7th century, but may have been in scattered use until as late as ca....
, for instance, may be a variety originally either Northern or Eastern, before being assimilated to West Germanic as the Lombards
Lombards

The Lombards were a Germanic peoples originally from Northern Europe who settled in the valley of the Danube and from there invaded Byzantine Italian peninsula in 568 under the leadership of Alboin....
 settled at the Elbe
Elbe

The River Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It originates in the Krkonose Mountains of northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Germany and flowing into the North Sea....
. The Western group would have formed in the late Jastorf culture
Pre-Roman Iron Age

The Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe designates the earliest part of the Iron Age in Scandinavia, northern Germany, and the Netherlands north of the Rhine River....
, the Eastern group may be derived from the first century variety of Gotland
Gotland

is a Counties of Sweden, Provinces of Sweden and Municipalities of Sweden of Sweden and the largest island in the Baltic Sea. At 3,140 square kilometers in area, it makes up less than one percent of Sweden's total land area....
 (see Old Gutnish
Old Gutnish

Old Gutnish was the dialect of Old Norse language that was spoken on the island of Gotland. It shows sufficient differences from the Old East Norse dialects Old Swedish and Old Danish that it is considered to be a separate branch....
), leaving southern Sweden
Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
 as the original location of the Northern group. The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the fourth century Gothic
Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct language Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic languages with a sizable corpus....
 translation of the New Testament
New Testament

The New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christianity Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
 by Ulfilas
Ulfilas

Ulfilas, or Gothic language Wulfila , bishop, missionary, and bible translator, was a Goths or half-Goth who had spent time inside the Roman Empire at the peak of the Arian controversy....
. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old High German
Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of Old High German proper to 750 for this reason...
 (scattered words and sentences sixth century, coherent texts ninth century) and Old English
Old English language

Old English is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century....
 (coherent texts tenth century). North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norse
Proto-Norse language

Proto-Norse was an Indo-European languages language spoken in Scandinavia that is thought to have evolved from Proto-Germanic language over the first centuries AD....
, until it evolves into Old Norse
Old Norse

Old Norse is a North Germanic languages that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age, until about 1300....
 by about 800.

Longer runic inscriptions survive from the eighth and ninth centuries (Eggjum stone
Eggjum stone

The Eggja stone is a grave stone that was ploughed up in 1917 on the farm Eggja in Sogn og Fjordane in Norway.It was found with the written side downwards over a man's grave which is dated to the period 650-700....
, Rök stone), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the twelfth century (Íslendingabók
Íslendingabók

?slendingab?k, Libellus Islandorum or The Book of Icelanders is an historical work dealing with early history of Iceland. The author was an Icelandic priest, Ari ?orgilsson, working in the early 12th century....
), and some skaldic poetry held to date back to as early as the ninth century.

By about the tenth century, the varieties had diverged enough to make inter-comprehensibility
Mutual intelligibility

In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort....
 difficult. The linguistic contact of the Viking
Viking

A Viking is one of the Norsemen explorers, warriors, merchants, and Piracy who raided and colonized wide areas of Europe from the late eighth to the early eleventh century....
 settlers of the Danelaw
Danelaw

The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , is a historical name given to the part of Great Britain in which the laws of the "Danes" dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons....
 with the Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons

Anglo-Saxons is the term usually used to describe the invading tribes in the south and east of Great Britain starting from the early 5th century AD, and their creation of the English nation, lasting until the Norman conquest of England of 1066....
 left traces in the English language, and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of Old English grammar that resulted in Middle English
Middle English

Middle English is the name given by historical linguistics to the diverse forms of the English language spoken between the Norman conquest of England of 1066 and about 1470, when the #Chancery Standard, a form of London-based English, began to become widespread, a process aided by the introduction of the printing press into England by William...
 from the twelfth century.

The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians
Burgundians

File:Roman Empire 125.svgThe Burgundians were an East Germanic language Germanic tribes which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose old form in Old Norse still was Burgundarholmr , and from there to mainland Europe....
, Goths
Goths

The Goths were East Germanic tribes who, in the 3rd and 4th centuries, invasion the Roman Empire and later adopted Arian Christianity. In the 5th and 6th centuries, divided as the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths, they established powerful successor-states of the Roman Empire in the Iberian peninsula and Italy....
, and Vandals
Vandals

The Vandals were an East Germanic tribe that entered the late Roman Empire during the 5th century. The Goths Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths and regent of the Visigoths, was allied by marriage with the Vandals as well as with the Burgundians and the Franks under Clovis I....
 became linguistically assimilated to their respective neighbors by about the seventh century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the eighteenth 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
High German consonant shift

In historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift was a phonological development which took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost complete before the earliest written recor...
 on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German
Upper German

Upper German is a family of High German languages dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy....
 and Low Saxon
Low Saxon

Low Saxon may refer to:*Of or relating to Lower Saxony*Any West Low German speech variety*The Northern Low Saxon speech varieties*Especially in the Netherlands, any Low German speech variety ? see also Dutch Low Saxon...
, with graded intermediate Central German
Central German

Central German is a group of High German languages dialects spread from the Rhineland to Thuringia, south of Low German and Low Franconian and north of Upper German....
 varieties. By Early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic
Highest Alemannic German

Highest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic German and belongs to the German language, even though mutual intelligibility with Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited....
 in the South to Northern Low Saxon
Northern Low Saxon

Northern Low Saxon is a West Low German dialect.It is considered to be "Standard language Low German" within Germany because it is spoken and understood in a huge central area including most of Lower Saxony, Bremen , Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, areas north of the Benrath line....
 in the North and, although both extremes are considered German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
, 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.

Classification

Note that divisions between and among subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent varieties
Variety (linguistics)

In sociolinguistics, a variety, also called a lect, is a language or dialect considered as a variety or development of another language or dialect....
 being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.

Diachronic


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.

Contemporary

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
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 and all its varieties, while Continental West Germanic includes German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 (standard register
Standard German

Standard German is the standard language of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas....
 and dialects
German dialects

German dialect is dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant shift, and the dialect continuum that connects the German language with the Dutch language....
) as well as Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 (standard register and dialects
Dutch dialects

Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are cognate with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language....
).

  • West Germanic languages
    West Germanic languages

    The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic languages family of languages and include languages such as English language, Dutch language and Afrikaans, German language, the Frisian languages, as well as Yiddish language....
    • High German languages
      High German languages

      The High German languages are any of the variety of German language, Luxembourgish language and Yiddish language, as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighbouring portions of Belgium, France , Italy, and Poland....
       (includes Standard German
      Standard German

      Standard German is the standard language of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas....
      , see also German dialects
      German dialects

      German dialect is dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant shift, and the dialect continuum that connects the German language with the Dutch language....
      )
      • Central German
        Central German

        Central German is a group of High German languages dialects spread from the Rhineland to Thuringia, south of Low German and Low Franconian and north of Upper German....
        • East Central German
          East Central German

          East Central German is the non-Franconian languages sub-group of Central German dialects, themselves part of High Germanic languages:*Thuringian...
        • West Central German
          West Central German

          West Central German belongs to the Central German, High German languages dialect family in the German language. Its dialects are thoroughly Franconian languages including the following sub-families:...
          • Luxembourgish
            Luxembourgish language

            Luxembourgish , also called Luxembourgian, also spelled Luxemburgish, is one of the West Central German dialects of High German spoken in Luxembourg....
          • Pennsylvania German
            Pennsylvania German language

            The Pennsylvania German language is a variety of West Central German possibly spoken by more than 250,000 people in North America. It has traditionally been the language of many of the descendants of late 17th and early 18th century immigrants to Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and even North Carolina from southern Germany, eastern Franc...
             (spoken by the Amish
            Amish

            The various Amish or Amish Mennonite church fellowships are Christian religious denominations, and form a very traditional subgrouping of Mennonite churches....
             and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania
            Pennsylvania

            The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a U.S. state located in the Northeastern United States and Mid-Atlantic States regions of the United States....
            )
      • Upper German
        Upper German

        Upper German is a family of High German languages dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Italy....
        • Alemannic German
          Alemannic German

          Alemannic German is a group of dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language. It is spoken by approximately ten million people in six countries, including southern Germany, Switzerland, France, Austria, Liechtenstein, and Italy....
        • Austro-Bavarian German
    • Low Franconian
      Low Franconian languages

      Low Franconian, or Low Frankish, is a group of several West Germanic language languages spoken in the Netherlands, northern Belgium , in the northern department of France, in western Germany , as well as in Suriname, South Africa and Namibia that originally descended from Old Frankish....
      • Dutch
        Dutch language

        Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
         (see Dutch dialects
        Dutch dialects

        Dutch dialects are primarily the dialects that are cognate with the Dutch language and are spoken in the same language area as the Dutch standard language....
        )
      • Afrikaans
        Afrikaans

        Afrikaans is an Indo-European language, derived from Dutch language and thus classified as Low Franconian languages West Germanic languages. It is mainly spoken in South Africa and Namibia, with smaller numbers of speakers living in Botswana, Angola, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Australia, New Zealand, United States of America, Taiwa...
         (separate standard language
        Standard language

        A standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status. As it is usually the form promoted in schools and the media, it is usually considered by speakers of the language to be more "correct" in some sense than other dialects....
        )
    • Low German
      Low German

      Low German or Low Saxon is any of the regional language varieties of the West Germanic languages spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands....
      • West Low German
      • East Low German
        East Low German

        East Low German is a group of Low German dialects spoken in Northeast Germany as well as by minorities in present northern Poland. Together with West Low German, it constitutes Low German....
    • Anglo-Frisian
      Anglo-Frisian languages

      The Anglo-Frisian languages are a group of Ingvaeonic West Germanic languages consisting of Old English language, Old Frisian, and their descendants....
      • Frisian group
      • English group
        • English
          English language

          English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
           (see English dialects)
        • Lowland Scots
          Scots language

          Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
        • Yola
          Yola language

          Yola is an Extinct language West Germanic language formerly spoken in Ireland. A branch of Middle English language, it evolved separately among the English who followed the Normans barons Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke and Robert Fitz-Stephen to eastern Ireland in 1169....
  • North Germanic
    North Germanic languages

    The North Germanic languages or Scandinavian languages make up one of the three branches of the Germanic languages, a sub-family of the Indo-European languages, along with the West Germanic languages and the extinct East Germanic languages....
    • West Scandinavian
      • Norwegian
        Norwegian language

        Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
         (genealogically Western branch, but heavy influence from Eastern branch)
      • Icelandic
        Icelandic language

        Icelandic is a North Germanic languages, the language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese language and Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognam?l....
      • Faroese
        Faroese language

        Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese people in Denmark....
      • Norn
        Norn language

        Norn is an extinct North Germanic language that was spoken on Shetland and Orkney, off the north coast of mainland Scotland, and in Caithness. After the islands were pledge to Scotland by Norway in the 15th century, it was gradually replaced by Scots language....
         (extinct)
    • East Scandinavian
      • Danish
        Danish language

        Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
      • Swedish
        Swedish language

        Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....


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 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
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
).
English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
 West Frisian
West Frisian language

West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside of the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian language and North Frisian language, which are spoken in Germany...
 Afrikaans Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 Low Saxon
Low Saxon

Low Saxon may refer to:*Of or relating to Lower Saxony*Any West Low German speech variety*The Northern Low Saxon speech varieties*Especially in the Netherlands, any Low German speech variety ? see also Dutch Low Saxon...
 Groningan German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 Gothic
Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct language Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic languages with a sizable corpus....
 Icelandic
Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic languages, the language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese language and Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognam?l....
 Faroese
Faroese language

Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese people in Denmark....
 Swedish
Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
 Danish
Danish language

Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
 Norwegian (Bokmål)
Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
 Norwegian (Nynorsk)
Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
 Limburgish
Apple Aiple Apel Appel Appel Appel Abbel Apfel Aplus Epli Epl(i) Äpple Æble Eple Eple Appel
Board Buird Board Bord Bord Boord Bred Brett / Bord Baúrd Borð Borð Bord Bord Bord Bord Bórdj
Beech Beech Boeke/ Boekebeam Beuk Beuk Böke Beukenboom Buche Boka/-bagms Bók Bók Bok Bøg Bøk Bok/Bøk Beuk
Book Beuk Boek Boek Boek Book Bouk Buch Boka Bók Bók Bok Bog Bok Bok Book
Breast Breest Boarst Bors Borst Bost Bôrst Brust Brusts Brjóst Bróst Bröst Bryst Bryst Bryst Bórs
Brown Broun Brún Bruin Bruin Bruun Broen Braun Bruns Brúnn Brúnur Brun Brun Brun Brun Broen
Day Day Dei Dag Dag Dag Dag Tag Dags Dagur Dagur Dag Dag Dag Dag Daag
Dead Deid Dea Dood Dood Dood Dood Tod Dauþs Dauður Deyður Död Død Død Daud Doeaje
Die (Starve) Dee Stjerre Sterf Sterven Döen/ Starven Straarven Sterben Diwan Deyja Doyggja Dö Dø Dø Døy Stèrve
Enough Eneuch Genôch Genoeg Genoeg Noog Genog Genug Ganohs Nóg Nóg/Nógmikið Nog Nok Nok Nok Genóg
Finger Finger Finger Vinger Vinger Finger Vinger Finger Figgrs Fingur Fingur Finger Finger Finger Finger Vinger
Give Gie Jaan Gee Geven Geven Geven Geben Giban Gefa Geva Ge/Giva Give Gi Gje(va) Gaeve
Glass Gless Glês Glas Glas Glas Glas Glas Gler Glas Glas Glas Glass Glas Glaas
Gold Gowd Goud Goud Goud Gold Gold Gold Gulþ Gull Gull Guld/Gull Guld Gull Gull Góldj
Good Guid Gód Goed Goed Guot Goud Gut Goþ(is) Góð God God God God God Good
Hand Haund Hân Hand Hand Hand Haand Hand Handus Hönd Hond Hand Hånd Hånd Hand Handj
Head Heid Holle Hoof/ Kop Hoofd/ Kop Kopp Heufd/ Kop Haupt/ Kopf Háubiþ Höfuð Høvd/ Høvur Huvud Hoved Hode Hovud Huudj
High Heich Heech Hoog Hoog Hoog Hoog/Höch Hoch Háuh Hár Høg/ur Hög Høj Høy/høg Høg Hoeag
Home Hame Hiem Heim/ Tuis Heim/Thuis Heim Thoes Heim Háimoþ Heim Heim Hem Hjem Hjem/heim Heim Heim
Hook/Crook Heuk Hoek Haak Haak Haak Hoak Haken Kram/ppa Krókur Krókur/Ongul Hake/Krok Hage/Krog Hake/Krok Hake/Krok Haok
House Hoose Hûs Huis Huis Huus Hoes Haus Hus Hús Hús Hus Hus Hus Hus Hoes
Many Mony Mannich/Mennich Menige Menig Mennig Ìnde Manch Manags Margir Mangir/Nógvir Många Mange Mange Mange Mäönech
Moon Muin Moanne Maan Maan Maan Moan Mond Mena Máni/Tungl Máni/Tungl Måne Måne Måne Måne Maon
Night Nicht Nacht Nag Nacht Natt/ Nacht Nacht Nacht Nótt Nótt Natt Natt Nat Natt Natt Nach
No (Nay) Nae Nee Nee Nee(n) Nee Nee/Nai Nee/Nein/Nö Ne Nei Nei Nej/Nä Nej Nei Nei Nae/Nein
Old (but: elder, eldritch) Auld Âld Oud Gammel /Oud Oll Old/Olleg Alt Sineigs Gamall (but: eldri, elstur) Gamal (but: eldri, elstur) Gammal (but: äldre, äldst) Gammel (but: ældre, ældst) Gammel (but: eldre, eldst) Gam(m)al (but: eldre, eldst) Aad (old) Gammel (decayed)
One Ane Ien Een Een Een Aine Eins Áins Einn Ein En En En Ein Ein
Ounce Unce Ûns Ons Ons Ons Onze Unze Unkja Únsa Únsa Uns Unse Unse Unse Óns
Snow Snaw Snie Sneeu Sneeuw Snee Snij/Snèj Schnee Snáiws Snjór Kavi/Snjógvur Snö Sne Snø Snø Snieë
Stone Stane Stien Steen Steen Steen Stain Stein Stáins Steinn Steinur Sten Sten Stein Stein Stein
That That Dat Daardie/Dit Dat/Die Dat/Dit Dat/Dij Das Þata Það Tað Det Det Det Det Det
Two/Twain Twa Twa Twee Twee Twee Twij/Twèje Zwei/Zwo Twái Tveir/Tvær/Tvö Tveir/Tvey/Tvær/Tvá Två To To To Twieë
Who Wha Wa Wie Wie Wokeen Wel Wer ?as/Hwas Hver Hvør Vem Hvem Hvem Kven Wae
Worm Wirm Wjirm Wurm Worm/Wurm Worm Wörm Wurm Maþa Maðkur/Ormur Maðkur/Ormur Mask/Orm  Orm Makk/Mark/Orm Makk/Mark/Orm  Wórm
English
English language

English is a West Germanic language that originated in Anglo-Saxon England and has lingua franca status in many parts of the world as a result of the military, economic, scientific, political and cultural influence of the British Empire in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries and that of the United States from the mid 20th century onwa...
 Scots
Scots language

Scots or Lowland Scots refers to the Germanic Variety derived from Middle English spoken in parts of Lowland Scotland, Northern Ireland and the border areas of the Republic of Ireland....
 West Frisian
West Frisian language

West Frisian is a language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. West Frisian is the name by which this language is usually known outside of the Netherlands, to distinguish it from the closely related Frisian languages of Saterland Frisian language and North Frisian language, which are spoken in Germany...
 Afrikaans Dutch
Dutch language

Dutch is a West Germanic languages spoken by over 22 million people as a first language, and about 5 million people as a second language."1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language speakers of Dutch is very small. Most native...
 Low Saxon
Low Saxon

Low Saxon may refer to:*Of or relating to Lower Saxony*Any West Low German speech variety*The Northern Low Saxon speech varieties*Especially in the Netherlands, any Low German speech variety ? see also Dutch Low Saxon...
 Groningan German
German language

German is a West Germanic languages, thus related to and classified alongside English language and Dutch language. It is one of the world's world language and the most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union....
 Gothic
Gothic language

Gothic is an extinct language Germanic language that was spoken by the Goths. It is known primarily from Codex Argenteus, a 6th century copy of a 4th century Bible translation, and is the only East Germanic languages with a sizable corpus....
 Icelandic
Icelandic language

Icelandic is a North Germanic languages, the language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese language and Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognam?l....
 Faroese
Faroese language

Faroese , often also spelled Faeroese , is a West Nordic or West Scandinavian language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 12,000 Faroese people in Denmark....
 Swedish
Swedish language

Swedish is a North Germanic languages language, spoken by around 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along the coast and on the ?land islands....
 Danish
Danish language

Danish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic languages branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the status of minority language....
 Norwegian (Bokmål)
Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
 Norwegian (Nynorsk)
Norwegian language

Norwegian is a North Germanic languages language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is an official language. It is also spoken as a second language among Norwegian-Americans in the United States of America, especially in the central northern states....
 Limburgish


See also

  • Germanic verb
    Germanic verb

    The Germanic languages is one of the language groups which resulted from the breakup of Proto-Indo-European language . It in turn divided into North Germanic language, West Germanic languages and East Germanic language Germanic groups, and ultimately produced a large group of mediaeval and modern languages, most importantly: Danish language, Norwe...
     and its various subordinated articles
  • Language families and languages
  • Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages
  • List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents
    List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents

    This list contains Germanic languages elements of the English language which have a close corresponding Latinate form. The correspondence is semantic - in most cases these words are not cognates....
  • Germanization and Anglicization
  • Germanic name
    Germanic name

    Germanic languages forenames are traditionally formed from two elements .For example, Ethelred II of England's name was derived from "??el", for "noble", and "r?d", for "counsel"....
  • Germanic placenames
    Germanic placenames

    Wal/Gal Many region names in Europe derive from the original Germanic word for stranger or foreigner, rendered as "wal" or "gal" . Germanic w became gu when borrowed into Old French....
  • German name
    German name

    German names consist of one or several Vornamen and a German family name etymology . The Vorname is usually gender-specific....
  • German placename etymology
    German placename etymology

    Placenames in the German language area can be classified by the language from which they originate, and by their age....


External links