35. Periodization of Old Germanic languages. Old North Germanic languages: general characteristics.

As a result of the expansion of the Germanic-speaking peoples, differences of dialect within Proto-Germanic became more marked, and we can distinguish three main branches or groups of dialects, namely North Germanic, East Germanic, and West Germanic

To North Germanic belong the modern Scandinavian languages – Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Faroese and Gutnish (the language of the island of Gotland). The earliest recorded form of North Germanic (Old Norse) is found in runic inscriptions from about AD 300;

It took approximately 5 centuries for the Old Germ. lang-es (dialects) to form the features of individuality to be definitely distinguished from one another, with the East Germ. lang-es having died away by the time the North Germ. lang-es manifested features of differentiation.

North Germ.
Old Norwegian	8-16th c
Old Faroese	9th c
Old Icelandic	9-16th c
Old Swedish	8-16th c
Old Danish	916th c

36. Periodization of Old Germanic languages. Old West Germanic languages: general characteristics. (p. 19,32)

Old Germ. lang-es (400 A.D./ 900 A.D.)

As a result of the expansion of the Germanic-speaking peoples, differences of dialect within Proto-Germanic became more marked, and we can distinguish three main branches or groups of dialects, namely North Germanic, East Germanic, and West Germanic

It took approximately 5 centuries for the Old Germ. lang-es (dialects) to form the features of individuality to be definitely distinguished from one another, with the East Germ. lang-es having died away by the time the North Germ. lang-es manifested features of differentiation.

West Germ.
OE	5th c
Old Frisian	5th c
Old Low Franconian	7th c
OHG	8th c
Old Saxon	9th c

The language most closely related to English is Frisian, which was once spoken along the coast of North sea, from Northern Holland to central Denmark, but which is now heard only in a few coastal regions and on some of the Dutch islands. Before the migration of the Anglo-Saxons to England, they must have been near neighbours of the Frisians. Here is a family tree for the West Germanic languages:

37. The West Germanic tree-diagram of languages.

It took approximately 5 centuries for the Old Germ. lang-es (dialects) to form the features of individuality to be definitely distinguished from one another, with the East Germ. lang-es having died away by the time the North Germ. lang-es manifested features of differentiation.

The comparative method was developed over the 19th century. Key contributions were made by the Danish scholars Rasmus Rask, Rasmus Rask and the German scholar Jacob Grimm. The first linguist to offer reconstructed forms from a proto-language was August Schleicher, in 1861. They established, with the help of their main method: the comparison, the definition of The language family: this is the language which is represented by a parent language and its daughters ( the divergent continuations of parent languages).

The PG is a dialect of PIE , a linguistic ancestor of Germanic group

p.10