Germanic languages

Germanic languages, subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages, spoken by about 470 million people in many parts of the world, but chiefly in Europe and the Western Hemisphere. All the modern Germanic languages are closely related; moreover, they become progressively closer grammatically and lexically when traced back to the earliest records. This suggests that they all derive from a still earlier common ancestor, which is traditionally referred to as Proto-Germanic and which is believed to have broken from the other Indo-European languages before 500 B.C. Although no writing in Proto-Germanic has survived, the language has been substantially reconstructed by using the oldest records that exist of the Germanic tongue.

Linguistic Groups

The Germanic languages today are conventionally divided into three linguistic groups: East Germanic, North Germanic, and West Germanic. This division had begun by the 4th cent. A.D. The East Germanic group, to which such dead languages as Burgundian, Gothic, and Vandalic belong, is now extinct. However, the oldest surviving literary text of any Germanic language is in Gothic (see Gothic language).

The North Germanic languages, also called Scandinavian languages or Norse, include Danish, Faeroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish. They are spoken by about 20 million people, chiefly in Denmark, the Faeroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. These modern North Germanic languages are all descendants of Old Norse (see Norse) and have several distinctive grammatical features in common. One is the adding of the definite article to the noun as a suffix. Thus "the book" in English is expressed in Swedish as boken, "book-the" (bok meaning "book" and -en meaning "the"). Also distinctive is a method of forming the passive voice by adding -s to the end of the verb or, in the case of the present tense, by changing the active ending -r to -s (-st in Icelandic). This is illustrated by the Swedish jag kaller, "I call"; jag kallas, "I am called"; jag kallade, "I called"; jag kallades, "I was called."

The West Germanic languages are English, Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans, German, and Yiddish. They are spoken as a primary language by about 450 million people throughout the world. Among the dead West Germanic languages are Old Franconian, Old High German, and Old English (or Anglo-Saxon) from which Dutch, German, and English respectively developed.

Common Characteristics

Strong evidence for the unity of all the modern Germanic languages can be found in the phenomenon known as the first Germanic sound shift or consonant shift (also called Grimm's law), which set the Germanic subfamily apart from the other members of the Indo-European family. Consisting of a regular shifting of consonants in groups, the sound shift had already occurred by the time adequate records of the various Germanic languages began to be made in the 7th to 9th cent. According to Grimm's law, certain consonant sounds found in the ancient Indo-European languages (such as Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit) underwent a change in the Germanic tongue. For example, the sounds p, d, t, and k in the former became f, t, th, and h respectively in the latter, as in Latin pater, English father; Latin dent, English tooth; and Latin cornu, English horn.

Before the 8th cent. a second shift of consonants took place in some of the West German dialects. For instance, under certain circumstances, d became t, and t became ss or z, as in English bread, Dutch brood, but German Brot; English foot, Dutch voet, but German Fuss; and English ten, Dutch tien, but German zehn. The dialects in which this second consonant shift took place were the High German dialects, so called because they were spoken in more mountainous areas. Standard modern German arose from these dialects. The West Germanic dialects not affected by the second shift were the Low German dialects of the lowlands, from which Dutch and English evolved.

Also peculiar to the Germanic languages is the recessive accent, whereby the stress usually falls on the first or root syllable of a word, especially a word of Germanic origin. Another distinctive characteristic shared by the Germanic languages is the umlaut, which is a type of vowel change in the root of a word. It is demonstrated in the pairs foot (singular), feet (plural) in English; fot (singular), fötter (plural) in Swedish; and Kampf (singular), Kämpfe (plural) in German.

All Germanic languages have strong and weak verbs; that is, they form the past tense and past participle either by changing the root vowel in the case of strong verbs (as in English lie, lay, lain or ring, rang, rung; German ringen, rang, gerungen) or by adding as an ending -d (or -t) or -ed in the case of weak verbs (as in English care, cared, cared or look, looked, looked; German fragen, fragte, gefragt). Also typically Germanic is the formation of the genitive singular by the addition of -s or -es. Examples are English man, man's; Swedish hund, hunds; German Lehrer, Lehrers or Mann, Mannes. Moreover, the comparison of adjectives in the Germanic languages follows a parallel pattern, as in English: rich, richer, richest; German reich, reicher, reichst; and Swedish rik, rikare, rikast. Lastly, vocabulary furnished evidence of a common origin for the Germanic languages in that a number of the basic words in these languages are similar in form; however, while word similarity may indicate the same original source for a group of languages, it can also be a sign of borrowing.

See articles on the individual languages mentioned and on Indo-European.

Branch of the Indo-European language family, comprising languages descended from Proto-Germanic. These are divided into West Germanic, including English, German, Frisian, Dutch, Afrikaans, and Yiddish; North Germanic, including Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Faeroese (the language of the Faroe Islands); and East Germanic, now extinct, comprising Gothic and the languages of the Vandals, Burgundians, and a few other tribes. The Gothic Bible of AD 350 is the earliest extensive Germanic text. The West Germanic languages developed around the North Sea and in overseas areas colonized by their speakers. The North Germanic, or Scandinavian, languages, were carried as far west as Greenland and as far east as Russia in the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages. The continental Scandinavian languages were strongly influenced by Low German in the late Middle Ages, but Icelandic and Faeroese have preserved many characteristics of Old Scandinavian grammar.

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The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. 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. 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 peoples settled in northern Europe along the borders of the Roman Empire in the second century.

The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English and German, with approximately 400 million and 100 million native speakers respectively. The group includes other major languages, such as Dutch with 23 million and Afrikaans with over 16 million speakers; and the North Germanic languages including Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic, and Faroese with a combined total of about 20 million speakers. In Netherland Frisian is being spoken by the majority of the inhabitants of the province Friesland/Fryslân. The SIL 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 and aspect into 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. The use of so-called strong and weak adjectives: different sets of inflectional endings for adjectives depending on the definiteness 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, where adjectives were inflected differently depending on the type of determiner they were preceded by)
4. The consonant shift known as Grimm's Law (the consonants in High German have shifted farther yet by the High German consonant shift)
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
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 such as the Romance or Slavic languages. 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 and Icelandic have preserved much of the complex inflectional morphology inherited from the Proto-Indo-European language. Others, such as English, Swedish, and Afrikaans have moved toward a largely analytic type.

Another characteristic of Germanic languages is the verb second or V2 word order, which is quite uncommon cross-linguistically. This feature is shared by all modern Germanic languages except modern English (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 (especially from his work Germania), but the earliest Germanic writing occurs in a single instance in the second century BC on the Negau helmet. From roughly the second 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 fourth 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 alphabet, many Germanic languages use a variety of accent marks and extra letters, including umlauts, the ß (Eszett), IJ, Ø, Æ, Å, Ä, Ö, Ð, Ȝ, and the runes Þ and Ƿ. Historical printed German is frequently set in blackletter typefaces (e.g. fraktur or schwabacher).

History

All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by their having been subjected to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law. These probably took place during the Pre-Roman Iron Age of Northern Europe from ca. 500 BC, but other common innovations separating Germanic from Proto-Indo European suggest a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the Nordic Bronze Age.

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, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the Migration period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify.

The sixth century Lombardic language, for instance, may constitute an originally, either North or East, Germanic variety that became assimilated to West Germanic as the Lombards settled at the Elbe. The Western group would have formed in the late Jastorf culture, the Eastern group may be derived from the first century variety of Gotland (see Old Gutnish), leaving southern Sweden as the original location of the Northern group. The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the fourth century Gothic translation of the New Testament by Ulfilas. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old High German (scattered words and sentences sixth century, coherent texts ninth century), Old English (coherent texts tenth 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 eighth and ninth centuries (Eggjum stone, Rök stone), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the twelfth century (Íslendingabók), 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 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 twelfth century.

The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period. The Burgundians, Goths, and Vandals became linguistically assimilated to their respective neighbors by about the 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 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 have 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 rarely are precisely defined; most form continuous clines, with adjacent varieties being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.

Diachronic

General Note: The table 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

Mentioned here are all the principal and some secondary contemporary varieties; individual articles linked to below, may contain larger family trees. For example, many Low Saxon varieties are discussed on Low Saxon besides just Northern Low Saxon and Plautdietsch.

• Proto-Germanic
• West Germanic languages
• High German languages
• standard German
• Central German
• East Central German
• West Central German
• Luxembourgish
• Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania)
• Upper German
• Alemannic German
• Swabian German, including Stuttgart
• Low Alemannic German, including the area of Lake Constance and Basel German
• Alsatian
• High Alemannic German, including Zürich German and Bernese German
• Highest Alemannic German, including the Bernese Oberland dialects and Walliser German
• Austro-Bavarian German
• North Bavarian (including Nuremberg)
• Middle Bavarian (including Munich and Vienna)
• South Bavarian (including Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, and Bolzano, Italy)
• Hutterite German (aka "Tirolean")
• Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet)
• Wymysorys (with a significant influence from Low Saxon, Dutch, Polish, and Scots)
• Low Franconian
• Standard Dutch
• Old Dutch
• Middle Dutch
• Modern Dutch
• Brabantic
• Zealandic
• West Flemish
• East Flemish
• Hollandic
• Limburgish
• Zuid-Gelders
• Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages)
• Low German
• West Low German
• Northern Low Saxon
• East Frisian Low Saxon
• Westphalian language
• Eastphalian language
• East Low German
• Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low Saxon)
• Anglo-Frisian
• Old Frisian
• Frisian
• Stadsfries language
• West Frisian language (spoken in the Netherlands)
• Clay Frisian (Klaaifrysk)
• Wood Frisian (Wâldfrysk)
• Noardhoeks
• South Frisian (Súdhoeks)
• Southwest Frisian (Súdwesthoeksk)
• Schiermonnikoogs
• Hindeloopers
• Aasters
• Westers
• East Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
• Saterland Frisian language
• Several extinct Frisian variants
• North Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
• Mainland Frisian
• Mooring
• Goesharde Frisian
• Wiedingharde Frisian
• Halligen Frisian
• Karrharde Frisian
• Island Frisian
• Söl'ring
• Fering
• Öömrang
• Heligolandic
• Anglic
• Old English
• Middle English (significant influx of words from Old French)
• Early Modern English
• Modern English
• British English (English English, including Northern English, Midlands English, Southern English, Welsh English, Scottish English, and others) and Irish English
• North American English (American English and Canadian English)
• Australian English and New Zealand English
• South African English
• South Asian English (Indian English)
• South East Asian English (Philippine English, Singapore English, and Malaysian English)
• West Indian English (Caribbean English)
• Early Scots (from early Northern Middle English.)
• Middle Scots
• Modern Scots
• Northern Scots
• North Northern (Scandinavian influence via Norn)
• Mid Northern (North East Scots or Doric)
• South Northern
• Central Scots
• North East Central
• South East Central
• West Central
• South West Central Scots
• Ulster Scots
• Southern Scots
• Insular Scots (Scandinavian influence via Norn)
• Yola
• North Germanic
• Proto-Norse
• Old Norse
• West Scandinavian
• Norwegian (genealogically Western branch, but heavy influence from Eastern branch)
• Bokmål (official written standard)
• Høgnorsk (unofficial written standard)
• Landsmål (unofficial written standard)
• Nynorsk (official written standard)
• Riksmål (unofficial written standard)
• Vestlandsk
• Sørlandsk
• South-West Norwegian
• Bergen Norwegian/Bergensk
• North-West Norwegian
• Nord-Norsk
• Helgeland Norwegian
• Nordland Norwegian
• Troms Norwegian
• Finnmark Norwegian
• East Norwegian
• Vikvær Norwegian
• Middle East Norwegian
• Oppland Norwegian
• Østerdal Norwegian
• Midland Norwegian
• Gudbrandsdal Norwegian
• Valdres and Hallingdal
• Western Telemark Norwegian
• Eastern Telemark Norwegian
• Trøndelag Norwegian
• Outer Trøndelag Norwegian
• Inner Trøndelag Norwegian
• Namdal Norwegian
• South-eastern Trøndersk
• Jamtlandic (also considered Norrlandic)
• Härdalic (also considered Norrlandic)
• Icelandic
• Old Icelandic
• Modern Icelandic
• Gøtudanskt(Faroese Street Danish)
• Faroese
• Norn (extinct)
• Shetland Norn (extinct)
• Orkney Norn (extinct)
• East Scandinavian
• Danish
• Rigsdansk/Rigsmål
• Eastern Danish (Amager, Bornholm, Skåne, Halland, Blekinge)
• Bornholmsk
• Scanian
• Island Danish
• Jutlandic/Jutish
• North Jutlandic
• East Jutlandic
• West Jutlandic
• Sønderjysk (Danish Slesvig, German Schleswig)
• Swedish
• Dalecarlian
• Elfdalian (considered a Swedish Sveamål dialect, but has official orthography and is, because of a lower degree of mutual intelligibility with Swedish, considered a separate language by many linguists, see p. 6 in this reference)
• Old Swedish
• Modern Swedish
• Svealand Swedish
• Norrlandic
• Götish
• East Swedish/Finland Swedish
• South Swedish
• Götalandic
• Old Gutnish
• Modern Gutnish

Alternate classification of contemporary North Germanic languages

• Insular Scandinavian
• Icelandic
• Faroese
• Continental Scandinavian
• Danish
• Norwegian
• Swedish

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	Low Saxon	Groningan	German	Gothic	Icelandic	Faroese	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norwegian (Nynorsk)	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	Bōka/-bagms	Bók	Bók	Bok	Bøg	Bøk	Bok/Bøk	Beuk
Book	Beuk	Boek	Boek	Boek	Book	Bouk	Buch	Bōka	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	Ganōhs	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	-	Gut	Gōþ(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	Háimōþ	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	Hūs	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	Mēna	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	Nē	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	Ƕas/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	Scots	West Frisian	Afrikaans	Dutch	Low Saxon	Groningan	German	Gothic	Icelandic	Faroese	Swedish	Danish	Norwegian (Bokmål)	Norwegian (Nynorsk)	Limburgish

See also

• Germanic verb and its various subordinated articles
• Language families and languages
• Non-Indo-European roots of Germanic languages
• List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents
• Germanization and Anglicization
• Germanic name
• Germanic placenames
• German name
• German placename etymology

Notes

External links

• Germanic Lexicon Project
• Bibliographie der Schreibsprachen: Bibliography of medieval written forms of High and Low German and Dutch
• Ethnologue Report for Germanic