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The Germanic languages include some 58 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects that originated in Europe; this language family is part of the Indo-European language family. Each subfamily in this list contains subgroups and individual languages. The standard division of Germanic is into three branches: East Germanic languages; North Germanic ...
- Overview
- Linguistic characteristics of the protolanguage
Germanic languages, branch of the Indo-European language family. Scholars often divide the Germanic languages into three groups: West Germanic, including English, German, and Netherlandic (Dutch); North Germanic, including Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Faroese; and East Germanic, now extinct, comprising only Gothic and the languages of the Vandals, Burgundians, and a few other tribes.
In numbers of native speakers, English, with 450 million, clearly ranks third among the languages of the world (after Mandarin and Spanish); German, with some 98 million, probably ranks 10th (after Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Portuguese, Russian, and Japanese). To these figures may be added those for persons with another native language who have learned one of the Germanic languages for commercial, scientific, literary, or other purposes. English is unquestionably the world’s most widely used second language.
The earliest historical evidence for Germanic is provided by isolated words and names recorded by Latin authors beginning in the 1st century bce. From approximately 200 ce there are inscriptions carved in the 24-letter runic alphabet. The earliest extensive Germanic text is the (incomplete) Gothic Bible, translated about 350 ce by the Visigothic bishop Ulfilas (Wulfila) and written in a 27-letter alphabet of the translator’s own design. Later versions of the runic alphabet were used sparingly in England and Germany but more widely in Scandinavia—in the latter area down to early modern times. All extensive later Germanic texts, however, use adaptations of the Latin alphabet.
See table for the names and approximate dates of the earliest recorded Germanic languages.
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The special characteristics of the Germanic languages that distinguish them from other Indo-European languages result from numerous phonological and grammatical changes.
All Germanic languages are derived from Proto-Germanic, spoken in Iron Age Scandinavia and Germany. The West Germanic languages include the three most widely spoken Germanic languages: English with around 360–400 million native speakers; German, with over 100 million native speakers; and Dutch, with 24
- 52- (phylozone)
- Proto-Germanic
- Indo-EuropeanGermanic
14 de dic. de 2021 · List of all Germanic languages. The Germanic languages are divided into three branches; East Germanic languages, West Germanic languages and North Germanic languages. Let’s take a look at the full list of Germanic languages, as well as how many native speakers there are in each group. East Germanic languages.
21 de feb. de 2020 · Which Languages Are Members Of The Germanic Family? Besides the obvious answer, German, there are at least 47 living Germanic languages around today. Most linguists talk about this language family in terms of three branches: the Northern, Eastern and Western Germanic
25 de nov. de 2022 · List of Germanic Languages. Source: Wikimedia. Now that we know a little more about the origins and different branches of Germanic languages, let’s take a look at all of them still spoken, their native country, and number of native speakers: How Similar are Germanic Languages? Source: Babbel.
30 de sept. de 2023 · By Oualid Cheddadi. Introduction. You’ve probably heard about language families, and today, we’re talking about the Germanic languages. Imagine, long, long ago, there was a language called Proto-Germanic, spoken around 500 BCE to the 5th century CE. Over time, it split into different branches, like how a family tree has many branches.
