1№ 1. Germanic languages: their history & classification

(the common ancestor, old Germanic languages & their classification, Germanic languages in the modern world).

On the whole languages can be classified according to different principles but as far as we deal with the history of the language we’ll consider genealogical or historical classification. This classification points out that all the languages can be classified according to their origin from a common linguistic ancestor. Genetically English belongs to the Germanic group of languages & the history of this group begins with the appearance of what is known as the Proto-Germanic (PG) language. PG is the linguistic ancestor or the parent-language of the Germanic group. It’s supposed to have split from related IE tongues sometime between the 15^th & 10^th c. B. C. PG is an entirely pre-historical language: it was never recorded in written form. It was reconstructed by methods of comparative linguistics from written evidence in descendant languages. It’s believed that PG was fundamentally one language, though dialectally colored. Then dialectal differences grew so that towards the beginning of our era Germanic appears divided into dialectal groups & tribal dialects. Further these dialectal differentiations increased.

The Germanic languages can be described under three headings: East Germanic, North Germanic & West Germanic.

1. East Germanic. This subgroup was formed by the tribes who returned from Scandinavia at the beginning of our era. The most numerous & powerful of them were the Goths. The Gothic language, now dead, has been preserved in written records of the 4^th – 6^th c. In the 4^th c. Ulfilas, a West Gothic bishop, made a translation of the Gospels from Greek into Gothic. Parts of Ulfilas’ Gospels (made in the 5^th or 6^th c) have been preserved & are kept now in Sweden. The other East Germanic languages (Vandalic, Burgundian), all of which are now dead, have left no written records.

2. North Germanic. Until the 9^th c. A. D. the speech of the North Germanic tribes showed little dialectal variations & there was a sort of common language called Old Norse or Old Scandinavian. It has come down to us in runic inscriptions dated from the 3^rd to the 9^th c. which were carved on objects made of hard material. On the one hand it’s very valuable (because of its age), but these inscriptions are not texts but isolated words. After the 9^th c. Old Norse divided into 4 languages: Old Swedish, Old Norwegian, Old Danish, Old Icelandic. The most interesting & valuable for historians is Old Icelandic which presents a large body of texts which date back to 12^th – 13^th c. It has retained a more archaic vocabulary & grammatical system. The most important records are: the ELDER EDDA (a collection of historic songs of the 12^th c.), the YOUNGER EDDA (prose) & the Old Icelandic sagas.

3. West Germanic. This group consists of 5 members. Old English, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Low Franconian (= Old Dutch), Old High German (OHG). Here the oldest written records are to be found in Old English (the 7^th c.) & in Old High German (the 8^th c.).

• Old English → English;

• Old Frisian → survived in local dialects in Friesland (in the Netherlands);

• Old Saxon → also in local dialects to be found in Germany;

• Old Low Franconian → Netherlandish → Afrikaans;

• Old High German → German → Yiddish.