Germanic languages

This article is about a branch of languages. Not to be confused with German language.

Germanic
Geographic distribution	Principally northern, western and central Europe, the Americas (Anglo-America, Caribbean Netherlands and Suriname), Southern Africa and Oceania
Linguistic classification	Indo-European Germanic
Proto-language	Proto-Germanic
Subdivisions	North Germanic West Germanic East Germanic (extinct)
Language codes
ISO 639-5	gem
–
Linguasphere	52- (phylozone)
Glottolog	germ1287
Countries where a Germanic language is the first language of the majority of the population   Countries where a Germanic language is an official but not primary language

The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of approximately 500 million people mainly in North America, Oceania, Southern Africa, and Central, Western and Northern Europe. It is the third most spoken Indo-European subdivision, behind Italic and Indo-Iranian, and ahead of Balto-Slavic languages.

The West Germanic branch includes the three most widely spoken Germanic languages: English with approximately 360–400 million native speakers, German with over 100 million native speakers, and Dutch with 23 million native speakers. Other major West Germanic languages are Afrikaans—an offshoot of Dutch—with over 7.1 million native speakers, Low German with roughly 6.7 million native speakers (considered a separate collection of dialects; 5 million in Germany and 1.7 million in the Netherlands), Yiddish—once used by approximately 13 million Jews in pre-World War II Europe —and Scots, both with 1.5 million native speakers. Limburgish varieties have roughly 1.3 million speakers along the Dutch–Belgian–German border.

The main North Germanic languages are Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese, which have a combined total of about 20 million speakers.

The East Germanic branch included Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic, all of which are now extinct. The last to die off was Crimean Gothic, spoken in the late 18th century in some isolated areas of Crimea.

The SIL Ethnologue lists 48 different living Germanic languages, of which 41 belong to the Western branch, and 6 to the Northern branch; they place Hunsrik language in neither of the categories, though it is often considered a dialect of the German language by linguists. The total number of Germanic languages throughout history is unknown, as some of them—especially East Germanic languages—disappeared during or after the Migration Period.

The common ancestor of all of the languages in this branch is called Proto-Germanic—also known as Common Germanic—which was spoken in approximately the middle-1st millennium BC in Iron Age Scandinavia. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic tribes moving south from Scandinavia in the 2nd century BC, to settle in the area of today's northern Germany and southern Denmark.

Modern status

West Germanic languages

English is an official language of Belize, Canada, Falkland Islands, Malta, New Zealand, Ireland, South Africa, Philippines, Jamaica, Dominica, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, American Samoa, Palau, St. Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Puerto Rico, Guam, Hong Kong, Pakistan, India, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, and former British colonies in Asia, Africa, and Oceania. Furthermore, it is the de facto language of the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. It is also a recognized language in Nicaragua and Malaysia. German is an official language of Austria, Belgium, Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland and has regional status in Italy, Poland, Namibia and Denmark. German also continues to be spoken as a minority language by immigrant communities in North America, South America, Central America, Mexico, and Australia. A German dialect, Pennsylvania Dutch, is still present amongst Anabaptist populations in Pennsylvania in the United States. Dutch is an official language of Aruba, Belgium, Curaçao, the Netherlands, Sint Maarten and Suriname. The Netherlands also colonised Indonesia, but Dutch was scrapped as an official language after Indonesian independence. Dutch was until 1925 an official language in South Africa, but evolved in and was replaced by Afrikaans, a partially mutually intelligible daughter language of Dutch. Afrikaans is one of the 11 official languages in South Africa and is a lingua franca of Namibia. It is used in other Southern African nations as well. Low German (or Low Saxon) is a collection of sometimes very diverse dialects spoken in the northeast of the Netherlands and northern Germany. Scots is spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots). Frisian is spoken among half a million people who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Luxembourgish is mainly spoken in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, though it also extends into small parts of Belgium, France and Germany. Yiddish, once a native language of some 11 to 13 million people, is used by some Jewish communities throughout the world, mainly in North America, Europe, Israel, and other regions with Jewish populations. Limburgish varieties are spoken in the Limburg and Rhineland regions, along the Dutch–Belgian–German border.

North Germanic languages

In addition to being the official language in Sweden, Swedish is also spoken natively by the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland, who make up a large part of the population along the coast of western and southern Finland. Swedish is also one of the two official languages in Finland, along with Finnish, and the only official language in the Åland Islands. Danish is an official language of Denmark and in its overseas territory of the Faroe Islands, and is a lingua franca and language of education in its other overseas territory of Greenland, where it was one of the official languages until 2009. Danish is also spoken natively by the Danish minority in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, where it is recognised as a minority language. Norwegian is the official language of Norway. Icelandic is the official language of Iceland, and is spoken by a significant minority in the Faroe Islands. Faroese is the official language of the Faroe Islands, and is also spoken by some people in Denmark.

Statistics

Germanic languages by share

  English (69%)

  German (19.2%)

  Dutch (4.4%)

  Swedish (1.8%)

  Afrikaans (1.4%)

  Low Saxon (1.3%)

  Danish (1.1%)

  Norwegian (1%)

  Other Germanic (0.8%)

Germanic languages by number of native speakers (million)

Language	Native speakers
English	360-400
German (Deutsch)	100
Dutch (Nederlands)	23
Swedish (Svenska)	9.2
Afrikaans (Afrikaans)	7.1
Low Saxon (Platt/Neddersassch/Leegsaksies)	6.7
Danish (Dansk)	5.5
Norwegian (Norsk)	5
Yiddish (ייִדיש)	1.5
Scots (Scots)	1.5
Limburgish (Lèmburgs)	1.3
Frisian (Frysk/Noordfreesk/Seeltersk)	0.5
Luxembourgish (Lëtzebuergesch)	0.4
Icelandic (Íslenska)	0.3
Faroese (Føroyskt)	0.07
Total	est. 500

History

Expansion of early Germanic tribes into previously mostly Celtic Central Europe:

   Settlements before 750 BC

   New settlements by 500 BC

   New settlements by 250 BC

   New settlements by AD 1

Some sources also give a date of 750 BC for the earliest expansion out of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany along the North Sea coast towards the mouth of the Rhine.

All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by subjection to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law. These probably took place during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe from c. 500 BC. Proto-Germanic itself was likely spoken after c. 500 BC, and Proto-Norse from the 2nd century AD and later is still quite close to reconstructed Proto-Germanic, but other common innovations separating Germanic from Proto-Indo-European suggest a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the Nordic Bronze Age.

From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups: West, East, and North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions.

The western group would have formed in the late Jastorf culture, and the eastern group may be derived from the 1st-century variety of Gotland, leaving southern Sweden as the original location of the northern group. The earliest period of Elder Futhark (2nd to 4th centuries) predates the division in regional script variants, and linguistically essentially still reflect the Common Germanic stage. Vimose inscriptions AD 160, are the oldest Germanic writing.

The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old Frankish/Old Dutch (the 5th century Bergakker inscription), Old High German (scattered words and sentences 6th century and coherent texts 9th century), and Old English (oldest texts 650, coherent texts 10th century). North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norse, until it evolves into Old Norse by about 800.

Longer runic inscriptions survive from the 8th and 9th centuries (Eggjum stone, Rök stone), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the 12th century (Íslendingabók), and some skaldic poetry dates back to as early as the 9th century.

By about the 10th century, the varieties had diverged enough to make inter-comprehensibility difficult. The linguistic contact of the Viking settlers of the Danelaw with the Anglo-Saxons left traces in the English language and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of Old English grammar that resulted in Middle English from the 12th century.

The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians, Goths, and Vandals became linguistically assimilated by their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the 18th century.

During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low Saxon, with graded intermediate Central German varieties. By early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South to Northern Low Saxon in the North, and, although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties had completed the second sound shift, while the northern varieties remained unaffected by the consonant shift.

The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained unified until well past 1000 AD, and in fact the mainland Scandinavian languages still largely retain mutual intelligibility into modern times. The main split in these languages is between the mainland languages and the island languages to the west, especially Icelandic, which has maintained the grammar of Old Norse virtually unchanged, while the mainland languages have diverged greatly.

Characteristics

Germanic languages possess a number of defining features compared with other Indo-European languages.

Probably the most well-known are the following:

1. The sound changes known as Grimm's Law and Verner's Law, which shifted the values of all the Indo-European stop consonants. (For example, original */t d dh/ became Germanic */θ t d/ in most cases; compare three with Latin tres, two with Latin duo, do with Sanskrit dha-.) The recognition of these two sound laws were seminal events in the understanding of the regular nature of linguistic sound change and the development of the comparative method, which forms the basis of modern historical linguistics.
2. The development of a strong stress on the first syllable of the word, which triggered significant phonological reduction of all other syllables. This is responsible for the reduction of most of the basic English words into monosyllables, and the common impression of modern English and German as consonant-heavy languages. Examples are Proto-Germanic *strangiþō → strength, *aimaitijō → "ant", *haubudan → "head", *hauzijanan → "hear", *harubistaz → German Herbst "autumn, harvest", *hagatusjō → German Hexe "witch, hag".
3. A change known as Germanic umlaut, which modified vowel qualities when a high front vocalic segment (/i/, /iː/ or /j/) followed in the next syllable. Generally, back vowels were fronted, and front vowels were raised. In many languages, the modified vowels are indicated with a diaeresis (e.g., ä ö ü in German, pronounced /ɛ ø y/, respectively). This change resulted in pervasive alternations in related words — still extremely prominent in modern German but present only in remnants in modern English (e.g., mouse/mice, goose/geese, broad/breadth, tell/told, old/elder, foul/filth, gold/gild).
4. Large numbers of vowel qualities. English is typical in this respect, with around 11–12 vowels in most dialects (not counting diphthongs). Standard Swedish has 17 pure vowels, standard German and Dutch 14, and Danish at least 11. The Amstetten dialect of Bavarian German has 13 distinctions among long vowels alone, one of the largest such inventories in the world.
5. Verb second (V2) word order, which is uncommon cross-linguistically. Exactly one noun phrase or adverbial element must precede the verb; in particular, if an adverb or prepositional phrase precedes the verb, then the subject must immediately follow the finite verb. This is no longer present in modern English except in sentences beginning with "Here is," "There is," "Here comes," "There goes," and related expressions, as well as in a few relic sentences such as "Over went the boat", "Pop Goes The Weasel", the palindrome "Able was I ere I saw Elba" or "Boom goes the dynamite", and in most if not all (if not an absolute) of the Five Ws and one H questions e.g. "What has happened here?", "Who was here today?", "Where will we go?", "When did he go to the stadium?", "Why would this happen to us now?", and "How could these things get here?", but is found in all other modern Germanic languages.

Other significant characteristics are:

1. The reduction of the various tense and aspect combinations of the Indo-European verbal system into only two: the present tense and the past tense (also called the preterite).
2. A large class of verbs that use a dental suffix (/d/ or /t/) instead of vowel alternation (Indo-European ablaut) to indicate past tense. These are called the Germanic weak verbs; the remaining verbs with vowel ablaut are the Germanic strong verbs.
3. A distinction in definiteness of a noun phrase that is marked by different sets of inflectional endings for adjectives, the so-called strong and weak adjectives. A similar development happened in the Balto-Slavic languages. This distinction has been lost in modern English but was present in Old English and remains in all other Germanic languages to various degrees.
4. Some words with etymologies that are difficult to link to other Indo-European families but with variants that appear in almost all Germanic languages. See Germanic substrate hypothesis.

Note that some of the above characteristics were not present in Proto-Germanic but developed later as areal features that spread from language to language:

• Germanic umlaut only affected the North and West Germanic languages (which represent all modern Germanic languages) but not the now-extinct East Germanic languages, such as Gothic, nor Proto-Germanic, the common ancestor of all Germanic languages.
• The large inventory of vowel qualities is a later development, due to a combination of Germanic umlaut and the tendency in many Germanic languages for pairs of long/short vowels of originally identical quality to develop distinct qualities, with the length distinction sometimes eventually lost. Proto-Germanic had only five distinct vowel qualities, although there were more actual vowel phonemes because length and possibly nasality were phonemic. In modern German, long-short vowel pairs still exist but are also distinct in quality.
• Proto-Germanic probably had a more general S-O-V-I word order. However, the tendency toward V2 order may have already been present in latent form and may be related to Wackernagel's Law, an Indo-European law dictating that sentence clitics must be placed second.

Roughly speaking, Germanic languages differ in how conservative or how progressive each language is with respect to an overall trend toward analyticity. Some, such as Icelandic and, to a lesser extent, German, have preserved much of the complex inflectional morphology inherited from Proto-Germanic (and in turn from Proto-Indo-European). Others, such as English, Swedish, and Afrikaans, have moved toward a largely analytic type.

Linguistic developments

The subgroupings of the Germanic languages are defined by shared innovations. It is important to distinguish innovations from cases of linguistic conservatism. That is, if two languages in a family share a characteristic that is not observed in a third language, that is evidence of common ancestry of the two languages only if the characteristic is an innovation compared to the family's proto-language.

The following innovations are common to the Northwest Germanic languages (all but Gothic):

• The lowering of /u/ to /o/ in initial syllables before /a/ in the following syllable ("a-Umlaut", traditionally called Brechung)
• "Labial umlaut" in unstressed medial syllables (the conversion of /a/ to /u/ and /ō/ to /ū/ before /m/, or /u/ in the following syllable)
• The conversion of /ē₁/ into /ā/ (vs. Gothic /ē/) in stressed syllables. In unstressed syllables, West Germanic also has this change, but North Germanic has shortened the vowel to /e/, then raised it to /i/. This suggests it was an areal change.
• The raising of final /ō/ to /u/ (Gothic lowers it to /a/). It is kept distinct from the nasal /ǭ/, which is not raised.
• The monophthongisation of /ai/ and /au/ to /ē/ and /ō/ in non-initial syllables (however, evidence for the development of /au/ in medial syllables is lacking).
• The development of an intensified demonstrative ending in /s/ (reflected in English "this" compared to "the")
• Introduction of a distinct ablaut grade in Class VII strong verbs, while Gothic uses reduplication (e.g. Gothic haihait; ON, OE hēt, preterite of the Gmc verb *haitan "to be called") as part of a comprehensive reformation of the Gmc Class VII from a reduplicating to a new ablaut pattern, which presumably started in verbs beginning with vowel or /h/ (a development which continues the general trend of de-reduplication in Gmc); there are forms (such as OE dial. heht instead of hēt) which retain traces of reduplication even in West and North Germanic

The following innovations are also common to the Northwest Germanic languages but represent areal changes:

• Proto-Germanic /z/ > /r/ (e.g. Gothic dius; ON dȳr, OHG tior, OE dēor, "wild animal"); note that this is not present in Proto-Norse and must be ordered after West Germanic loss of final /z/
• Germanic umlaut

The following innovations are common to the West Germanic languages:

• Loss of final /z/. In single-syllable words, Old High German retains it (as /r/), while it disappears in the other West Germanic languages.
• Change of [ð] (fricative allophone of /d/) to stop [d] in all environments.
• Change of /lþ/ to stop /ld/ (except word-finally).
• West Germanic gemination of consonants, except r, before /j/. This only occurred in short-stemmed words due to Sievers' law. Gemination of /p/, /t/, /k/ and /h/ is also observed before liquids.
• Labiovelar consonants become plain velar when non-initial.
• A particular type of umlaut /e-u-i/ > /i-u-i/.
• The change of /b/ or /g/ to /w/ before nasal consonant.
• Changes to the 2nd person singular past-tense: Replacement of the past-singular stem vowel with the past-plural stem vowel, and substitution of the ending -t with -ī.
• Short forms (*stān, stēn, *gān, gēn) of the verbs for "stand" and "go"; but note that Crimean Gothic also has gēn.
• The development of a gerund.

The following innovations are common to the Ingvaeonic subgroup of the West Germanic languages, which includes English, Frisian, and in a few cases Dutch and Low German, but not High German:

• The so-called Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, with loss of /n/ before voiceless fricatives: e.g. *munþ, *gans > Old English mūþ, gōs > "mouth, goose", but German Mund, Gans.
• The loss of the Germanic reflexive pronoun.
• The reduction of the three Germanic verbal plural forms into one form ending in -þ.
• The development of Class III weak verbs into a relic class consisting of four verbs (*sagjan "to say", *hugjan "to think", *habjan "to have", *libjan "to live"; cf. the numerous Old High German verbs in -ēn).
• The split of the Class II weak verb ending *-ō- into *-ō-/-ōja- (cf. Old English -ian < -ōjan, but Old High German -ōn).
• Development of a plural ending *-ōs in a-stem nouns (note, Gothic also has -ōs, but this is an independent development, caused by terminal devoicing of *-ōz; Old Frisian has -ar, which is thought to be a late borrowing from Danish). Cf. modern English plural -(e)s, but German plural -e.
• Possibly, the monophthongization of Germanic *ai to ē/ā (this may represent independent changes in Old Saxon and Anglo-Frisian).

The following innovations are common to the Anglo-Frisian subgroup of the Ingvaeonic languages:

• Raising of nasalized a, ā into o, ō.
• Anglo-Frisian brightening: Fronting of non-nasal a, ā to æ,ǣ when not followed by n or m.
• Metathesis of CrV into CVr, where C represents any consonant and V any vowel.
• Monophthongization of ai into ā.

Common linguistic features

Main article: Proto-Germanic language

Phonology

The oldest Germanic languages all share a number of features, assumed to be inherited from Proto-Germanic. Phonologically, this includes the important sound changes known as Grimm's Law and Verner's Law, which introduced a large number of fricatives; late Proto-Indo-European (PIE) had only one, /s/.

The main vowel developments are the merging (in most circumstances) of long and short /a/ and /o/, producing short /a/ and long /ō/. This likewise affected the diphthongs, with PIE /ai/ and /oi/ merging into /ai/ and PIE /au/ and /ou/ merging into /au/. PIE /ei/ developed into long /ī/. PIE long /ē/ developed into a vowel denoted as /ē₁/ (often assumed to be phonetically [ǣ]), while a new, fairly uncommon long vowel /ē₂/ developed in varied and not completely understood circumstances. Proto-Germanic had no front rounded vowels, although all Germanic languages except for Gothic subsequently developed them through the process of i-umlaut.

Proto-Germanic developed a strong stress accent on the first syllable of the root (although remnants of the original free PIE accent are visible due to Verner's Law, which was sensitive to this accent). This caused a steady erosion of vowels in unstressed syllables. In Proto-Germanic this had progressed only to the point that absolutely final short vowels (other than /i/ and /u/) were lost and absolutely final long vowels were shortened, but all of the early literary languages show a more advanced state of vowel loss. This ultimately resulted in some languages (e.g., modern English) losing practically all vowels following the main stress and the consequent rise of a very large number of monosyllabic words.

Table of outcomes

The following table shows the main outcomes of Proto-Germanic vowels and consonants in the various older languages. For vowels, only the outcomes in stressed syllables are shown. Outcomes in unstressed syllables are quite different, vary from language to language, and depend on a number of other factors (e.g., whether the syllable was medial or final, whether the syllable was open or closed, and (in some cases) whether the preceding syllable was light or heavy).

Notes:

• C- means before a vowel (word-initially, or sometimes after a consonant).
• -C- means between vowels.
• -C means after a vowel (word-finally or before a consonant). Word-final outcomes generally occurred after deletion of final short vowels (which occurred shortly after Proto-Germanic, and is reflected in the history of all written languages except for Proto-Norse).
• The above three are given in the order C-, -C-, -C. If one is omitted, the previous one applies. For example, f, -[v]- means that [v] occurs after a vowel regardless of what follows.
• Something like a(…u) means "a if /u/ occurs in the next syllable".
• Something like a(n) means "a if /n/ immediately follows".
• Something like (n)a means "a if /n/ immediately precedes".

Development of Germanic sounds

Proto-Germanic	(Pre-)Gothic	Old Norse	Old English	Old High German
a	a	a, ɔ(…u)	æ, a(…a), a/o(n), æ̆ă(h,rC,lC)	a
a(…i)		e, ø(…u)	e, æ, ĭy̆(h,rC,lC)	e, a(hs,ht,Cw)
ãː	aː	aː	oː	aː
ãː(…i)		æː	eː	äː
æː	eː, ɛː(V)	aː	æː, æa(h)	aː
æː(…i)		æː	æː	äː
e	i, ɛ(h,hʷ,r)	ja, jø(…u), (w,r,l)e, (w,r,l)ø(…u)	e, ĕŏ(h,w,rC)	e, i(…u)
e(…i)		i, y(…w)	i	i
eː	eː, ɛː(V)	eː	eː	ie
i	i, ɛ(h,hʷ,r)	i, y(…w)	i, ĭŭ(h,w,rC)	i
iː	iː	iː	iː, iu(h)	iː
oː	oː, ɔː(V)	oː	oː	uo
oː(…i)		øː	eː	üö
u	u, ɔ(h,hʷ,r)	u, o(…a)	u, o(…a)	u, o(…a)
u(…i)		y	y	ü
uː	uː, ɔː(V)	uː	uː	uː
uː(…i)		yː	yː	üː
ai	ai	ei, ey(…w), aː(h,r)	aː	ei, eː(r,h,w,#)
ai(…i)		ei, æː(h,r)	æː
au	au	au, oː(h)	æa	ou, oː(h,T)
au(…i)		ey, øː(h)	iy	öü, öː(h,T)
eu	iu	juː, joː(T)	eo	io, iu(…i/u)
eu(…i)		yː	iy
p	p	p	p	pf-, -ff-, -f
t	t	t	t	ts-, -ss-, -s
k	k	k	k, tʃ(i,e,æ)-, -k-, -(i)tʃ-, -tʃ(i)-	k-, -xx-, -x
kʷ	kʷ	kv, -k	kw-, -k-, -(i)tʃ-, -tʃ(i)-	kw-, -xx-, -x
b-, -[β]-	b-, -[β]-, -f	b-, -[v]-	b-, -[v]-, -f	b
d-, -[ð]-	d-, -[ð]-, -þ	d-, -[ð]-	d	t
[ɣ]-, -[ɣ]-	g-, -[ɣ]-, -[x]	g-, -[ɣ]-	g-, j(æ,e,i)-, -[ɣ]-, -j(æ,e,i)-, -(æ,e,i)j-	g
f	f	f, -[v]-	f, -[v]-, -f	f
þ	þ	þ, -[ð]-	þ, -[ð]-, -þ	d
x	h	h, -∅-	h, -∅-, -h	h
xʷ	hʷ	xv, -∅-	hw, -∅-, -h	hw, -h-
s	s	s-, -[z]-	s-, -[z]-, -s	ṣ-, -[ẓ]-, -ṣ
z	-z-, -s	r	-r-, -∅	-r-, -∅
r	r	r	r	r
l	l	l	l	l
n	n	n-, -∅(s,p,t,k), -∅	n, -∅(f,s,þ)	n
m	m	m	m	m
j	j	∅-, -j-, -∅	j	j
w	w	∅-, v-(a,e,i), -v-, -∅	w	w

Morphology

The oldest Germanic languages have the typical complex inflected morphology of old Indo-European languages, with four or five noun cases; verbs marked for person, number, tense and mood; multiple noun and verb classes; few or no articles; and rather free word order. The old Germanic languages are famous for having only two tenses (present and past), with three PIE past-tense aspects (imperfect, aorist, and perfect/stative) merged into one and no new tenses (future, pluperfect, etc.) developing. There were three moods: indicative, subjunctive (developed from the PIE optative mood) and imperative. Gothic verbs had a number of archaic features inherited from PIE that were lost in the other Germanic languages with few traces, including dual endings, an inflected passive voice (derived from the PIE mediopassive voice), and a class of verbs with reduplication in the past tense (derived from the PIE perfect). The complex tense system of modern English (e.g. In three months, the house will still be being built or If you had not acted so stupidly, we would never have been caught) is almost entirely due to subsequent developments (although paralleled in many of the other Germanic languages).

Among the primary innovations in Proto-Germanic are the preterite present verbs, a special set of verbs whose present tense looks like the past tense of other verbs and which is the origin of most modal verbs in English; a past-tense ending (in the so-called "weak verbs", marked with -ed in English) that appears variously as /d/ or /t/, often assumed to be derived from the verb "to do"; and two separate sets of adjective endings, originally corresponding to a distinction between indefinite semantics ("a man", with a combination of PIE adjective and pronoun endings) and definite semantics ("the man", with endings derived from PIE n-stem nouns).

Note that most modern Germanic languages have lost most of the inherited inflectional morphology as a result of the steady attrition of unstressed endings triggered by the strong initial stress. (Contrast, for example, the Balto-Slavic languages, which have largely kept the Indo-European pitch accent and consequently preserved much of the inherited morphology.) Icelandic and modern German best preserve the Proto–Germanic inflectional system, with four noun cases, three genders, and well-marked verbs. English is at the other extreme, with almost no remaining inflectional morphology.

The following shows a typical masculine a-stem noun, Proto-Germanic *fiskaz ("fish"), and its development in the various old literary languages:

Declension of a-stem noun *fiskaz "fish" in various languages

		Proto-Germanic	Gothic	Old Norse	Old High German	Middle High German	Modern German	Old English	Old Saxon	Old Frisian
Singular	Nominative	*fisk-az	fisk-s	fisk-r	visk	visch	Fisch	fisc	fisc	fisk
	Vocative	*fisk	fisk
	Accusative	*fisk-ą	fisk	fisk
	Genitive	*fisk-as, -is	fisk-is	fisk-s	visk-es	visch-es	Fisch-es	fisc-es < fisc-æs	fisc-as, -es	fisk-is, -es
	Dative	*fisk-ai	fisk-a	fisk-i	visk-a	visch-e	Fisch-(e)	fisc-e < fisc-æ	fisc-a, -e	fisk-a, -i, -e
	Instrumental	*fisk-ō	fisk-a	—	visk-u	—	—	fisc-e < fisc-i	fisc-u	—
Plural	Nominative, Vocative	*fisk-ôs, -ôz	fisk-ōs	fisk-ar	visk-a	visch-e	Fisch-e	fisc-as	fisc-ōs, -ās	fisk-ar, -a
	Accusative	*fisk-anz	fisk-ans	fisk-a	visk-ā
	Genitive	*fisk-ǫ̂	fisk-ē	fisk-a	visk-ō			fisc-a	fisc-ō, -ā	fisk-a
	Dative	*fisk-amaz	fisk-am	fisk-um, -om	visk-um	visch-en	Fisch-en	fisc-um	fisc-un, -on	fisk-um, -on, -em
	Instrumental	*fisk-amiz	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—

Strong vs. weak nouns and adjectives

Originally, adjectives in Proto-Indo-European followed the same declensional classes as nouns. The most common class (the o/ā class) used a combination of o-stem endings for masculine and neuter genders and ā-stems ending for feminine genders, but other common classes (e.g. the i class and u class) used endings from a single vowel-stem declension for all genders, and various other classes existed that were based on other declensions. A quite different set of "pronominal" endings was used for pronouns, determiners, and words with related semantics (e.g., "all", "only").

An important innovation in Proto-Germanic was the development of two separate sets of adjective endings, originally corresponding to a distinction between indefinite semantics ("a man") and definite semantics ("the man"). The endings of indefinite adjectives were derived from a combination of pronominal endings with one of the common vowel-stem adjective declensions – usually the o/ā class (often termed the a/ō class in the specific context of the Germanic languages) but sometimes the i or u classes. Definite adjectives, however, had endings based on n-stem nouns. Originally both types of adjectives could be used by themselves, but already by Proto-Germanic times a pattern evolved whereby definite adjectives had to be accompanied by a determiner with definite semantics (e.g., a definite article, demonstrative pronoun, possessive pronoun, or the like), while indefinite adjectives were used in other circumstances (either accompanied by a word with indefinite semantics such as "a", "one", or "some" or unaccompanied).

In the 19th century, the two types of adjectives – indefinite and definite – were respectively termed "strong" and "weak", names which are still commonly used. These names were based on the appearance of the two sets of endings in modern German. In German, the distinctive case endings formerly present on nouns have largely disappeared, with the result that the load of distinguishing one case from another is almost entirely carried by determiners and adjectives. Furthermore, due to regular sound change, the various definite (n-stem) adjective endings coalesced to the point where only two endings (-e and -en) remain in modern German to express the sixteen possible inflectional categories of the language (masculine/feminine/neuter/plural crossed with nominative/accusative/dative/genitive – modern German merges all genders in the plural). The indefinite (a/ō-stem) adjective endings were less affected by sound change, with six endings remaining (-, -e, -es, -er, -em, -en), cleverly distributed in a way that is capable of expressing the various inflectional categories without too much ambiguity. As a result, the definite endings were thought of as too "weak" to carry inflectional meaning and in need of "strengthening" by the presence of an accompanying determiner, while the indefinite endings were viewed as "strong" enough to indicate the inflectional categories even when standing alone. (This view is enhanced by the fact that modern German largely uses weak-ending adjectives when accompanying an indefinite article, and hence the indefinite/definite distinction no longer clearly applies.) By analogy, the terms "strong" and "weak" were extended to the corresponding noun classes, with a-stem and ō-stem nouns termed "strong" and n-stem nouns termed "weak".

However, in Proto-Germanic – and still in Gothic, the most conservative Germanic language – the terms "strong" and "weak" are not clearly appropriate. For one thing, there were a large number of noun declensions. The a-stem, ō-stem, and n-stem declensions were the most common and represented targets into which the other declensions were eventually absorbed, but this process occurred only gradually. Originally the n-stem declension was not a single declension but a set of separate declensions (e.g., -an, -ōn, -īn) with related endings, and these endings were in no way any "weaker" than the endings of any other declensions. (For example, among the eight possible inflectional categories of a noun — singular/plural crossed with nominative/accusative/dative/genitive — masculine an-stem nouns in Gothic include seven endings, and feminine ōn-stem nouns include six endings, meaning there is very little ambiguity of "weakness" in these endings and in fact much less than in the German "strong" endings.) Although it is possible to group the various noun declensions into three basic categories — vowel-stem, n-stem, and other-consonant-stem (a.k.a. "minor declensions") — the vowel-stem nouns do not display any sort of unity in their endings that supports grouping them together with each other but separate from the n-stem endings.

It is only in later languages that the binary distinction between "strong" and "weak" nouns become more relevant. In Old English, the n-stem nouns form a single, clear class, but the masculine a-stem and feminine ō-stem nouns have little in common with each other, and neither has much similarity to the small class of u-stem nouns. Similarly, in Old Norse, the masculine a-stem and feminine ō-stem nouns have little in common with each other, and the continuations of the masculine an-stem and feminine ōn/īn-stem nouns are also quite distinct. It is only in Middle Dutch and modern German that the various vowel-stem nouns have merged to the point that a binary strong/weak distinction clearly applies.

As a result, newer grammatical descriptions of the Germanic languages often avoid the terms "strong" and "weak" except in conjunction with German itself, preferring instead to use the terms "indefinite" and "definite" for adjectives and to distinguish nouns by their actual stem class.

In English, both two sets of adjective endings were lost entirely in the late Middle English period.

Classification

Note that divisions between and among subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent varieties being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. Within the Germanic language family is East Germanic, West Germanic, and North Germanic. However, East Germanic languages became extinct several centuries ago. In some literature, the West Germanic grouping is also called "South Germanic" or is further divided between West (Dutch, English, Frisian) and South Germanic (Yiddish, German) as opposed to forming a single group.

Diachronic

The table below shows the succession of the significant historical stages of each language (horizontally) and their approximate groupings in subfamilies (vertically). Vertical sequence within each group does not imply a measure of greater or lesser similarity.

Contemporary

Main article: List of Germanic languages

Germanic languages and main dialect groups

The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:
North Germanic languages

  Icelandic

  Faroese

  Norwegian

  Swedish

  Danish

West Germanic languages

  Scots

  English

  Frisian

  Dutch

  Low German

  German

Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.

All living Germanic languages belong either to the West Germanic or to the North Germanic branch. The West Germanic group is the larger by far, further subdivided into Anglo-Frisian on one hand and Continental West Germanic on the other. Anglo-Frisian notably includes English and all its variants, while Continental West Germanic includes German (standard register and dialects), as well as Dutch (standard register and dialects).

• West Germanic languages
  • High German languages (includes Standard German and its dialects)
    • Upper German
      • Alemannic German
      • Austro-Bavarian German
        • Mòcheno language
        • Cimbrian language
        • Hutterite German
    • Yiddish
    • High Franconian (a transitional dialect between Upper and Central German)
    • Central German
      • East Central German
      • West Central German
        • Luxembourgish
        • Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania)
  • Low German
    • West Low German
    • East Low German
    • Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German)
  • Low Franconian
    • Dutch and its dialects
    • Afrikaans (a separate standard language)
    • Limburgish (an official minority language)
  • Anglo-Frisian
    • Frisian group
    • English group
      • English and its dialects
      • Scots in Scotland and Ulster
      • Yola (extinct)
      • Fingallian (extinct)
• North Germanic
  • West Scandinavian
    • Norwegian (of Western branch origin, but heavily influenced by the Eastern branch)
    • Icelandic
    • Faroese
    • Greenlandic Norse (extinct)
    • Norn (extinct)
  • East Scandinavian
    • Danish
    • Swedish
      • Dalecarlian dialects
  • Gutnish

Writing

The earliest evidence of Germanic languages comes from names recorded in the 1st century by Tacitus (especially from his work Germania), but the earliest Germanic writing occurs in a single instance in the 2nd century BC on the Negau helmet.

From roughly the 2nd century AD, certain speakers of early Germanic varieties developed the Elder Futhark, an early form of the runic alphabet. Early runic inscriptions also are largely limited to personal names and difficult to interpret. The Gothic language was written in the Gothic alphabet developed by Bishop Ulfilas for his translation of the Bible in the 4th century. Later, Christian priests and monks who spoke and read Latin in addition to their native Germanic varieties began writing the Germanic languages with slightly modified Latin letters. However, throughout the Viking Age, runic alphabets remained in common use in Scandinavia.

In addition to the standard Latin script, many Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks and extra letters, including the ß (Eszett), IJ, Ø, Æ, Å, Ä, Ü, Ö, Ð, Ȝ, and the Latinized runes Þ and Ƿ (with its Latin counterpart W). In print, German used to be prevalently set in blackletter typefaces (e.g., fraktur or schwabacher) until the 1940s, when Kurrent and, since the early 20th century, Sütterlin were used for German handwriting.

Yiddish is written using an adapted Hebrew alphabet.

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).

English	Scots	West Frisian	Afrikaans	Dutch	Limburgish	Low German	Middle German (Luxembourg)	German	Yiddish	Gothic	Icelandic	Faroese	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norwegian (Nynorsk)
apple	aiple	apel	appel	appel	appel	Appel	Apel	Apfel	עפּל (epl)	𐌰𐍀𐌻𐌿𐍃 (aplus)	epli	epli	äpple	æble	eple	eple
beech	beech	boeke	beuk	beuk	beuk	Böök	Bich	Buche	—	𐌱𐍉𐌺𐌰 (bōka), -𐌱𐌰𐌲𐌼𐍃 (-bagms)	beyki	bók (artræ)	bok	bøg	bok	bok, bøk
board	buird	board	bord	boord	bórdj	Boord	Briet	Brett	ברעט (bret)	𐌱𐌰𐌿𐍂𐌳 (baúrd)	borð	borð	bord	bord	bord	bord
book	beuk	boek	boek	boek	book	Book	Buch	Buch	בוך (bukh)	𐌱𐍉𐌺𐌰 (bōka)	bók	bók	bok	bog	bok	bok
breast	breest	boarst	bors	borst	boors	Bost	Broscht	Brust	ברוסט (brust)	𐌱𐍂𐌿𐍃𐍄𐍃 (brusts)	brjóst	bróst, bringa	bröst	bryst	bryst	bryst
brown	broun	brún	bruin	bruin	bruun	broen	brong	braun	ברוין (broyn)	𐌱𐍂𐌿𐌽𐍃 (bruns)	brúnn	brúnur	brun	brun	brun	brun
day	day	dei	dag	dag	daag	Dag	Dag	Tag	טאָג (tog)	𐌳𐌰𐌲𐍃 (dags)	dagur	dagur	dag	dag	dag	dag
dead	deid	dea	dood	dood	doed	doot	dout	tot	טויט (toyt)	𐌳𐌰𐌿𐌸𐍃 (dauþs)	dauður	deyður	död	død	død	daud
die, starve	dee	stjerre	sterf	sterven	stèrve	staarven	stierwen	sterben	שטאַרבן (shtarbn)	𐌳𐌹𐍅𐌰𐌽 (diwan)	deyja	doyggja	dö	dø	dø	døy, starva
enough	eneuch	genôch	genoeg	genoeg	genóg	noog	genuch, genug	genug	גענוג (genug)	𐌲𐌰𐌽𐍉𐌷𐍃 (ganōhs)	nóg	nóg, nógmikið	nog	nok	nok	nok
finger	finger	finger	vinger	vinger	veenger	Finger	Fanger	Finger	פֿינגער (finger)	𐍆𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍂𐍃 (figgrs)	fingur	fingur	finger	finger	finger	finger
give	gie	jaan	gee	geven	geve	geven	ginn	geben	געבן (gebn)	𐌲𐌹𐌱𐌰𐌽 (giban)	gefa	geva	ge, giva	give	gi	gje(va)
glass	gless	glês	glas	glas	glaas	Glas	Glas	Glas	גלאָז (gloz)	—	glas	glas	glas	glas	glass	glas
gold	gowd	goud	goud	goud	goud, góldj	Gold, Guld	Gold	Gold	גאָלד (gold)	𐌲𐌿𐌻𐌸 (gulþ)	gull	gull	guld, gull	guld	gull	gull
good	guid	goed	goed	goed	good	goot	gutt	gut	גוט (gut)	𐌲𐍉𐌸(𐌹𐍃) (gōþ(is))	góð(ur), gott	góð(ur), gott	god	god	god	god
English	Scots	West Frisian	Afrikaans	Dutch	Limburgish	Low German	Middle German (Luxembourg)	German	Yiddish	Gothic	Icelandic	Faroese	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norwegian (Nynorsk)
hand	haund	hân	hand	hand	hand	Hand	Hand	Hand	האַנט (hant)	𐌷𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌿𐍃 (handus)	hönd	hond	hand	hånd	hånd	hand
head	heid	holle	hoof, kop	hoofd, kop	kop	Hööft, Kopp	Kopp, Kapp	Haupt, Kopf	הויפט, קאָפּ (hoypt, kop)	𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌱𐌹𐌸 (háubiþ)	höfuð	høvd, høvur	huvud	hoved	hode	hovud
high	heich	heech	hoog	hoog	hoeg	hooch	héich	hoch	הויך (hoykh)	𐌷𐌰𐌿𐌷 (háuh)	hár	høg, ur	hög	høj	høy, høg	høg
home	hame	hiem	heim, tuis	heem, heim, thuis	thoes	Tohuus, Heem	Heem	Heim(at)	היים (heym)	𐌷𐌰𐌹𐌼𐍉𐌸 (háimōþ)	heim	heim	hem	hjem	hjem, heim	heim
hook, crook	heuk	hoek	haak	haak	haok	Haak	Krop, Kramp, Hoken	Haken	האַק (hak)	*𐌺𐍂𐌰𐌼𐍀𐌰 (*krampa)	haki, krókur	krókur, ongul	hake, krok	hage, krog	hake, krok	hake, krok
house	hoose	hûs	huis	huis	hoes	Huus	Häus	Haus	הויז (hoyz)	𐌷𐌿𐍃 (hūs)	hús	hús	hus	hus	hus	hus
many	mony	mannich, mennich	baie, menige	veel, menig	minnig	veel, männig	vill	manch, viel	מאַנכע (mankhe)	𐌼𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌲𐍃 (manags)	margir	mangir, nógvir	många	mange	mange	mange
moon	muin	moanne	maan	maan	maon	Maan	Mound	Mond	לבֿנה (levone)	𐌼𐌴𐌽𐌰 (mēna)	máni, tungl	máni	måne	måne	måne	måne
night	nicht	nacht	nag	nacht	nach	Nacht	Nuecht	Nacht	נאַכט (nakht)	𐌽𐌰𐌷𐍄𐍃 (nahts)	nótt	nátt	natt	nat	natt	natt
no, nay	nae	nee	nee	nee(n)	nei	nee	nee(n)	na, nee, nein, nö	ניין (neyn)	𐌽𐌴 (nē)	nei	nei	nej, nä	nej, næ	nei	nei
old (but elder, eldest)	auld	âld	oud	oud	aajt (old), gammel (decayed)	oolt (old), gammelig (decayed)	aal	alt	אַלט (alt)	𐍃𐌹𐌽𐌴𐌹𐌲𐍃 (sineigs)	gamall (but eldri, elstur), aldinn	gamal (but eldri, elstur)	gammal (but äldre, äldst)	gammel (but ældre, ældst)	gammel (but eldre, eldst)	gam(m)al (but eldre, eldst)
one	ane	ien	een	één	ein	een	eent	eins	איין (eyn)	𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (áins)	einn	ein	en	en	en	ein
ounce	unce	ûns	ons	ons	óns	Ons	Eng kéier, Eemol	Unze	—	𐌿𐌽𐌺𐌾𐌰 (unkja)	únsa	únsa	uns	unse	unse	unse, unsa
snow	snaw	snie	sneeu	sneeuw	sjnie	Snee	Schnéi	Schnee	שניי (shney)	𐍃𐌽𐌰𐌹𐍅𐍃 (snáiws)	snjór	kavi, snjógvur	snö	sne	snø	snø
English	Scots	West Frisian	Afrikaans	Dutch	Limburgish	Low German	Middle German (Luxembourg)	German	Yiddish	Gothic	Icelandic	Faroese	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norwegian (Nynorsk)
stone	stane	stien	steen	steen	stein	Steen	Steen	Stein	שטיין (shteyn)	𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (stáins)	steinn	steinur	sten	sten	stein	stein
that	that	dat	daardie, dit	dat, die	dat, tot	dat, dü	dat	das	דאָס (dos)	𐌸𐌰𐍄𐌰 (þata)	það	tað	det	det	det	det
two, twain	twa	twa	twee	twee	twie	twee	zoo, zwou, zwéin, zwee	zwei, zwo	צוויי (tsvey)	𐍄𐍅𐌰𐌹 (twái)	tveir, tvær, tvö	tveir, tvey, tvær, tvá	två, tu	to	to	to
who	wha	wa	wie	wie	wee	wokeen	wien, ween	wer	ווער (ver)	𐍈𐌰𐍃 (ƕas)	hver	hvør	vem	hvem	hvem	kven
worm	wirm	wjirm	wurm	worm	weurm	Worm	Wuerm, Mued	Wurm, Made	וואָרעם (vorem)	𐌼𐌰𐌸𐌰 (maþa)	maðkur, ormur	maðkur, ormur	mask, orm	orm	makk, mark, orm	makk, mark, orm
English	Scots	West Frisian	Afrikaans	Dutch	Limburgish	Low German	Middle German (Luxemburgish)	German	Yiddish	Gothic	Icelandic	Faroese	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norwegian (Nynorsk)

See also

• Category:Germanic countries and territories
• Language families and languages
• Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages
• List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents
• Germanisation and Anglicisation
• Germanic name
• Germanic verb and its various subordinated articles
• Germanic placename etymology
• German name
• German placename etymology
• Isogloss
• Germanic substrate hypothesis
• South Germanic languages

References

Germanic languages in general

• König, Ekkehard; van der Auwera, Johan (1994). The Germanic languages. London: Routledge.
• Helfenstein, James (1870). A comparative grammar of the Teutonic languages. London: MacMillan and Co.

Proto-Germanic

• Ringe, Don (2006). A linguistic history of English: From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Germanic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gothic

• Wright, Joseph C. (1919). Grammar of the Gothic language. London: Oxford University Press.
• Bennett, William H. (1980). An introduction to the Gothic language. New York: Modern Language Association of America.

Old Norse

• Gordon, E.V. (1927). An introduction to Old Norse. London: Oxford University Press.
• Zoëga, Geir T. (2004). A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Old English

• Campbell, A. (1959). Old English grammar. London: Oxford University Press.
• Wright, Joseph; Wright, Mary Elizabeth (1925). Old English grammar, 3rd edition. London: Oxford University Press.
• Lass, Roger (1994). Old English: A historical linguistic companion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Mitchell, Bruce; Robinson, Fred C. (1992). A guide to Old English, 5th edition. Cambridge: Blackwell.
• Hall, J.R. (1984). A concise Anglo–Saxon dictionary, 4th edition. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
• Diamond, Robert E. (1970). Old English grammar and reader. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
• Lass, Roger; Anderson, John M. (1975). Old English phonology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Robinson, Orrin (1992). Old English and its closest relatives. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Old High German

• Wright, Joseph (1906). An Old High German primer, 2nd edition. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• Waterman, John C. (1976). A history of the German language. Prospect Heights, Illinois: Waveland Press.

External links

• Germanic Lexicon Project
• 'Hover & Hear' pronunciations of the same Germanic words in dozens of Germanic languages and 'dialects', including English accents, and compare instantaneously side by side
• Bibliographie der Schreibsprachen: Bibliography of medieval written forms of High and Low German and Dutch
• Swadesh lists of Germanic basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
• Germanic languages fragments—YouTube (14:06)