German languages, what are they?
There are a number of Germanic languages, but which are they? This article answers the question about the Germanic languages.
Largest Germanic languages
One of the largest Germanic languages that exists is English. English is still the language used as a mother tongue by millions of people. German is also a Germanic language, spoken by a few hundred million people in Europe. You can call the English and German languages world languages. You can also call the Dutch language a Germanic language, which is spoken by more than 20 million people.
The Afrikaans language, which actually descends from the Dutch language, is also a Germanic language and is used mostly as a second or third language. To a lesser extent, you can also call the languages Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Faroese, and Frisian Germanic languages. At the moment you have more than 500 million people who speak the Germanic language as a first language. You also have many people who use the Germanic language as a second or third language. This is usually the English language because this is the world language.
In the past, many other countries were discovered by European countries. This is also the reason that you also have many countries outside Europe that also speak the Germanic language as their mother tongue. In these countries you will hear that they usually speak English, just think of the United States, Canada, Australia and Suriname where Dutch is spoken. A Germanic language is also spoken in South Africa. Here people speak a language that is a form of the Dutch language.
Origin of Germanic language
The Germanic language originated from a common Indo language and the Proto-Germanic language. If you go back to the second millennium BC, you know that Germanic was already spoken in Denmark and Schleswig-Holstein (which were the tribal lands of the Germans). In history you can also read that the Germanic language area already expanded from Denmark to Norway and Sweden in the first millennium. This expansion continued as far as northern Germany and Poland. In old books you can read that the Germanic language was only one language, but a language with several dialects. You also saw that the Germanic language was spoken in the north of the Netherlands.
Germanic languages Europe
If you look at Europe and you want to know which Germanic languages there are in Europe, Germany is the largest country. You can put England in second place, then the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and the Danes. You can also call the north and north-east of France partly Germanic culture area. There is also some Germanic influence in the north of Italy, especially in the south of Tyrol. Because of the trade you used to have on the Baltic Sea, the Germanic culture had a major influence on Finnish and Baltic culture. After the war, when the Germans were expelled, the Germanic language was spoken almost throughout Europe. In almost all of Eastern Europe you encountered large groups of Germans who lived there.
Characteristics of Germanic languages
There is an important feature of the Germanic languages that distinguishes them from other Indo-European languages. It's about the sound shift and it's also called Grimm's Law. This is part of a radical change process that led to early Germanic. Germanic languages also have distinctive strong and weak forms of the adjective, e.g. a new house, the new house .
Germanic languages
A list can be given of the major Germanic languages in Europe:
- German 95 million
- English 63 million
- Dutch 23 million
The other languages are the Scandinavian languages such as Swedish 10 million, Norwegian 5 million and Danish 5 million.
Germanic speakers
If you go to France and then to the north and east, Germanic people live there:
- Franco-Flemish (Franco-Flemish)
- Alsatians (Alsatian, local variety of German)
Classification languages
A classification can be made of the languages, with Indo-European at the top, Proto-Germanic below.
- Proto-Germanic is divided into East Germanic, North Germanic and West Germanic.
- East Germanic has a side branch and that is Gothic.
- North Germanic is subdivided into Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic.
- West Germanic is subdivided into Dutch, English, German and Frisian.
- A branch can be made from Dutch to Afrikaans.
Germanic sound shifts
Due to population movements of the Germans and the local influences, Germanic has split up into different branches. As described above, the north-east and west Germanic. After the year 500, West Germanic fell apart. The second customer shift took place between the 6th and 8th centuries . This can explain the differences between Dutch and German.
- The second sound shift has started in the south of the German language area.
- This shift has extended north to the Benrather Line.
- The most important change is the Germanic voiceless occlusives.
- Due to the High German sound shift, the West Germanic language area has been divided into two parts, the southern High German part and the northern Low German and Dutch part.
- High German is the German of the high-lying areas just below the Cologne-Berlin line.
- Low German is at the lower reaches of the major rivers, the Rhine, Elbe, Weser and Ems.