South Germanic
Encyclopedia
South Germanic is a term used for a number of proposed groupings of the Germanic tribes or dialects
. However, it is not widely used and has no agreed definition. The following uses are found:
Germanic languages
The Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
. However, it is not widely used and has no agreed definition. The following uses are found:
- As a straightforward synonym for West Germanic. This usage is particularly found in the study of Germanic mythologyGermanic mythologyGermanic mythology is a comprehensive term for myths associated with historical Germanic paganism, including Norse mythology, Anglo-Saxon mythology, Continental Germanic mythology, and other versions of the mythologies of the Germanic peoples...
and cultureGermanic cultureHistorical culture of the Germanic peoples:*Migration period art**Animal style**Anglo-Saxon cultureContemporary culture of Germanic Europe:*Dutch culture *English culture*Flemish culture*Frisian culture*Culture of German-speaking Europe...
, where it covers English and German sources in contrast to those from Scandinavia, which are termed North Germanic. (The East Germanic tribes are generally ignored because there are no pre-Christian texts.) But it is also found in the work of linguists (for example, Stefan Sonderegger). - As a term in Ernst Schwarz's theory of the GermanicGermanic languagesThe Germanic languages constitute a sub-branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic , which was spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
dialects. He divides Germanic into a North Germanic and a South Germanic (or Continental Germanic) group, with the Scandinavian languages and Gothic in the former. A feature of his grouping is the intermediate position of two other groups, Elbe Germanic and North Sea GermanicIngvaeonicIngvaeonic , also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that comprises Old Frisian, Old English and Old Saxon....
(Anglo-Frisian and Old SaxonOld SaxonOld Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in the Netherlands by Saxon peoples...
), with the latter viewed "floating" being initially part of North Germanic (in the 2nd Century BC), but moving closer to the more southerly dialects in the subsequent five centuries. This view has received some support, although a number of those who share Schwarz's view, such as Lehmann, use instead the terms Northeast Germanic and Southwest Germanic. Nowadays the five linguistic groups of his definition are mostly considered separate and can be recognized in the division North Germanic, North Sea Germanic, Rhine-Weser Germanic, Elbe Germanic and East Germanic, all mutually linked into sets of two to four groups that share linguistic innovations, thus achieving to replace the late 19th century North-West-East model that tended to overemphasize "splits" and to obscure gradual transitions and cross relations. - As a synonym for High GermanHigh German languagesThe High German languages or the High German dialects are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish, as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighboring portions of Belgium and the...
. This usage seems to be exclusive to Hutterer, who groups North Sea Germanic separately from the Weser-Rhine Germanic and Elbe Germanic groups which give rise to (among others) the High German varietiesVariety (linguistics)In sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a specific form of a language or language cluster. This may include languages, dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard variety itself...
. Although it can be seen as a development of Schwarz's theory, it implies that Northsea Germanic and South Germanic did not form any sort of larger West Germanic grouping. The German term Binnengermanisch (Inland Germanic) is also used in a similar sense to contrast the coastal West Germanic dialects with the rest, though it does not imply that they are not all part of West Germanic.