Germanic languages

1. Classification of germanic languages

English belongs to the Germanic branch of the IE family of languages.

The Germanic branch usually falls into three groups of languages: (1) East Germanic languages, (2) North Germanic languages, (3) West Germanic languages.

The East Germanic group contains only dead languages: Gothic, Burgundian and Vandalic. Gothic is of great importance because it is a valuable source of our knowledge of the early history of the Germanic languages owing to the translation of the Gospels from Greek into Gothic by bishop Ulfilas.

The North Germanic group comprises Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Faroese and Icelandic. Especially helpful is Icelandic, as it has preserved a very rich literature.

The West Germanic group includes English, German (both High German and Low German), Dutch, Frisian, Flemish, Yiddish and Afrikaans (spoken in South Africa). Of the languages most nearly related to English is Frisian. Many scholars speak even of a separate Anglo- Frisian group.

Ancient germanic tribes and their classification

The earliest knowledge of ancient Teutons refers to the IV century B.C. The Greek traveller Pytheas from Massilia (now Marseilles) was first to mention them. Next comes Julius Caesar, a Roman General, statesman and writer (100 –44 B.C.). About a century later, Pliny the Elder in his great work Natural History (Naturalis Historia) gave a classification of Germanic tribes.

According to Pliny, with some corrections made by Jacob Grimm, Germanic tribes in the 1st century A.D. consisted of five groups:

1. the Vindili (among them were the Goths and the Burgundians, who inhabited the eastern part of the Germanic territory );

2. the Ingvaeones (Ingaevones), who inhabited the north- western part of the Germanic territory – the shores of the Northern Sea, including what is now the Netherlands ;

3. the Iscaevones (or Istaevones), who inhabited the western part of the Germanic territory and the shores of the Rhine;

4. the Hermiones (or Herminones), who inhabited the southern part of the Germanic territory;

5. the Hilleviones, who inhabited Scandinavia.

At that time, old Germanic tribes were passing through the stage of barbarism. When speaking of that period it is possible to point out many features common to the speech of all Germanic tribes, as distinct from the Non-Germanic dialects or languages of the IE family.

At the same time, the speech of the West Germanic tribes had some peculiarities not shared by that of the East Germanic or North Germanic tribes. There were also some features common to the speech of the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians and not found in other West Germanic dialects, as well as features characterizing separate dialects. Such were the relations among the Germanic dialects before Angles, Saxons and Jutes left their continental homes and invaded the island of Britain in the 5th century.