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Map: Germanic, Romance & Slavic language-groups (mapsource)
Published, edited, images added and comments/annotations (in red) by Kenneth S. Doig)
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article from:

Introduction
Germanic
languages are spoken by close to 470-million people in many parts of the world,
but mainly in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
All modern-Germanic (Gmc) languages
derive from a common-ancestor traditionally referred to
as *Proto-Germanic, (PGmc) believed to have broken off from
other *Proto-Indo-European (PIE) languages some time before 500 B.C.
Although no
written documents in PGmc have survived, the language has been
substantially reconstructed by using the oldest existing records.

Compared
to *PIE, **PGmc had a relatively simpler nominal
morphology. For instance, it dropped the dual-number, and reduced the number of
cases from eight to four.
On the other hand, the verbal morphology of
*PI survived relatively intact in all modern Gmc
languages, although there are fewer strong (irregular) verbs today.
http://aboutworldlanguages.com/germanic-branch
Some
50 modern Gmc languages are spoken today (Ethnologue) .
They
are usually divided into two groups.
West-Germanic "WGmc" |
|
#
of speakers |
Spoken
primarily in |
Afrikaans |
6.2 million 1st, 10 million 2nd language speakers |
South Africa |
Dutch (including
Flemish) |
21
million |
Netherlands,
Belgium |
Zeeuws |
220,000 |
Netherlands |
Low
Saxon (10 varieties) |
995,000 |
Netherlands,
Germany, Canada |
English |
341
million 1st, over 1 billion 2nd language speakers |
British
Commonwealth countries, U.S. |
Frisian
Western Frisian Eastern Frisian Northern |
700,000 11,000 10,000 |
Netherlands Germany Germany |
German |
95
million 1st, 28 million 2nd language speakers |
Germany |
Lower
Silesian |
no
estimate available |
Poland |
Upper
Saxon |
2
million |
Germany |
Luxembourgeois |
390,000 |
Luxembourg |
Mainfränkisch |
no
estimate available |
Germany |
Pennsylvania |
85,000 |
USA |
Pfälzisch |
no
estimate available |
Germany |
Limburgisch |
1.5
million |
Netherlands |
Kölsch |
250,000 |
Germany |
Scots |
200,000 |
United
Kingdom |
Yiddish |
under
2 million |
Israel,
U.S. |
North-Germanic "NGmc" (Norse, Scandinavian) |
|
#
of speakers |
Spoken
primarily in |
Danish |
6
million |
Denmark |
Faroese |
45,000 |
Faroe
Islands (Denmark) |
Icelandic |
230,000 |
Iceland |
Norwegian |
5
million |
Norway |
Swedish |
8.8
million |
Sweden |
East Germanic |
|
#
of speakers |
Spoken
primarily in |
Gothic |
extinct |
Ukraine,
Bulgaria |
Norse is
another name for the North-Germanic, NGmc, or Scandinavian group of languages. These
languages all stem from an earlier, now extinct, language known as Old-Norse that was spoken by the Gmc tribes living in Scandinavia before 1000
A.D.
Today, the differences among the dialects within Norway, Sweden, and
Denmark are often greater than the differences across their borders, but the
political independence of these countries leads them to be classified as
separate languages.
Status
The
following Germanic languages have official status. An official language is one
that is given a privileged legal status in a state, or other legally-defined
political entity.
Some countries have only one official language, e.g., Norway,
while others may have several, e.g., the Netherlands. Some countries, e.g., the U.S.A, have no official language.
Afrikaans
|
South Africa (along with 11 other languages) |
Danish
|
Denmark,
Faeroe Islands, Greenland |
Dutch
|
Netherlands
(with Frisian), Belgium (with French and German), Suriname, Netherlands Antilles,
Aruba |
English
|
UK
and British Commonwealth Countries, US and its territories, other countries on
all continents (total 53 countries) |
Frisian
|
Netherlands
(with Dutch) |
German
|
Austria,
Belgium (with Dutch and French), Germany, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (with French
and Luxembourgish), South Tyrol (with Italian), Switzerland (with French,
Italian, and Rhaeto-Romansch) |
Norwegian
|
Norway |
Swedish
|
Sweden,
Finland (with Finnish) |
In
addition, German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union and
one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along
with English and French.
http://aboutworldlanguages.com/germanic-branch
Structure
Sound-system
All Gmc languages have undergone some common sound-changes:
- First
Germanic sound-shift "FGSS" (Grimm’s law) "GL"
You probably know of Jacob
Grimm as the author of fairy tales. But he was also one of the great linguists
of the 19th century. He found evidence for the unity of all the modern Gmc languages in the phenomenon known as the FGSS or Grimm’s law, which set the Gmc branch apart from the other branches of
the Indo-European "IE" family.
- This soundshift, (putatively) occurred before the 7th century BC. (There are no written records of any Gmc tongue before c. 200 AD) According to Grimm’s law, the shift occurred when
/p, t, k/ in the classical Indo-European languages (Latin, Gaulish, Persian, Greek, Sanskrit, etc.)
became/ f, t, h/ in Germanic languages.
- For example, Latin pater
> English father, Latin cornu
> English horn.
- Second
Gmc consonant-shift (High-German consonant-shift)
The Second consonant-shift took place
probably beginning between the 3rd-5th centuries AD, and was almost complete
before the earliest written records in the High German language were made in the
9th century.
- It occurred in High German (spoken in mountainous areas) which gave
rise to today’s Standard German. Low German dialects were not affected by the
Second Consonant Shift.
- Here are some examples: classical IE /k, t, p/
became /h, th, f/ in English and /h, d, f/ in
German. For example, Latin frater >
English brother and
German Bruder.classical
IE /g,
d, b/ became /k,
t, p/ in
English and /kh,
ts, f/ in
German. For example, Latin decem >
English ten and
German zehn.
Vowels
Most
modern Gmc languages have a large phonemic vowel-inventories consisting
of 14-16 vowels. Vowel-length typically distinguishes word-meaning, and there is
a contrast between rounded and unrounded front vowels in many of the Germanic
languages.
Consonants
Modern
Germanic languages have fairly similar consonant systems consisting of 20-22
phonemes.
Stress
http://aboutworldlanguages.com/germanic-branc
All
Germanic languages are characterized by a shift of stress to the root and later
to the first syllable of the word. Though English has an irregular stress
pattern, native words always have a fixed stress, regardless of what is added to
them. In addition, some Germanic languages have a pitch accent,
e.g.,Norwegian and Swedish).
Grammar
All
Germanic languages are synthetic, i.e., they add suffixes to roots and stems to
express grammatical relations. However, they differ from each other in how
conservative or how progressive each language is with respect to preserving the
inflectional system of *Proto-Germanic.
For
instance, German, Dutch and Icelandic, have preserved much of the complex
inflectional morphology of inherited from *Proto-Germanic. Others,
like English, Swedish, Yiddish, and Afrikaans have lost most of the
inflections.
Nouns
Some
of the general features of Germanic nouns are listed below.
- All
Germanic languages have two numbers: singular and plural.
- Majority
of Germanic languages have two genders: masculine and feminine. German, Dutch,
and Icelandic have preserved the neuter gender.Dutch has two two genders –
common (masculine and feminine) and neuter.
- Case
inflections have all but disappeared in most Germanic languages, with the
exception of German, and Icelandic that have retained four cases: nominative, accusative, dative and genitive.
- All
Germanic languages have strong (irregular) and weak (regular) nouns. Strong
nouns have a change in the root vowel, e.g., English foot(singular)
and feet (plural).
- All
Germanic languages have a definite and indefinite article. The definite article
may precede the noun or be suffixed to the noun, e.g., in Icelandic.
- Many
Germanic languages form the possessive by the addition of -s or
-es, for
example, English man,
man’s; German Mann,
Mannes.
- In
most Gmc languages, articles and adjectives agree with nouns in gender and
case in the singular; there is no gender distinction in the plural.
- In
some (most) Gmc languages adjectives have strong and weak endings.
- Personal
pronouns have retained some case distinctions even if these were lost in the
nouns, e.g., English.
Verbs
Below
are some general features of Gmc verbs.
- All
Gmc languages have strong and weak verbs. Strong verbs form the past tense
and past participle by changing the rootvowel, for example, English ring,
rang, rung; German ringen,
rang, gerungen.
- Weak verbs add an ending -d/-ed/-t, for
example English talk,
talked, talked;German fragen,
fragte, gefragt.
- Verbs
are conjugated based on person (lst, 2nd, 3rd) and number (singular and
plural).
- Verbs
have simple and numerous compound tenses formed with auxiliary verbs such as have in English and haben in German.
- There
are three moods: indicative, subjunctive/conditional, and imperative.
- There
are two voices: active and passive.
Word-order
Word order is best described in terms of the position of the
verb in Gmc clauses. It occupies final position in subordinate clauses, and
first or second position in main clauses.
The position of all other sentence
constituents is relatively free. This feature is shared by all Gmc languages, except English, which has a Subject-Verb-Object word-order.
Vocabulary
Most
words in Gmc languages are derived from *PGmc. Gmc languages
have also borrowed from neighboring languages, and especially from Latin and
Greek, as well as from each other. Much of its scientific terminology has Greek
and Latin roots.
The latest source of loanwords is English. Words are frequently
formed by compounding, suffixation and prefixation, e.g., German Weihnachtsmann (literally
”Holy-Night-Man,’ i.e., ‘Santa Claus’), English antiestablishmentarianism.
Below are some common expressions in various Germanic languages,
showing the similarities and differences among them.
English |
hello |
good
bye |
please |
thank
you |
yes/no |
Afrikaans |
hallo |
totsiens |
asseblief |
dankie |
ja/nee |
Dutch |
hallo |
tot
ziens |
alstublieft |
dankjewe |
ja/nee |
Danish |
hej |
farvel |
behage |
tak |
ja/nej |
German |
hallo |
auf
Wiedersehen |
bitte |
danke |
ja/nein |
Icelandic |
góðan
dag |
bless |
gjörðu
svo vel |
takk
fyrir |
/nei |
Norwegian |
hallo |
farvel |
vær
så snill |
takk |
ja/nei |
Swedish |
hej |
hej
då |
behaga |
tack |
ja/nej |
Yiddish |
gut-morgn |
a
gutn tog |
zay
azoy gut |
A
dank |
ye/neyn |
Below are the numerals 1-10 in major Gmc languages.
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
English |
one |
two |
three |
four |
five |
six |
seven |
eight |
nine |
ten |
Afrikaans |
een |
twee |
drie |
vier |
vyf |
ses |
sewe |
agt |
nege |
tien |
Dutch |
een |
twee |
drie |
vier |
vijf |
zes |
zeven |
acht |
negen |
tien |
Danish |
en |
to |
tre |
fire |
fem |
seks |
syv |
otte |
ni |
ti |
German |
eins |
zwei |
drei |
vier |
fünf |
sechs |
sieben |
acht |
neun |
zehn |
Icelandic |
einn |
tveir |
þrir |
fjórir |
fimm |
sex |
sjo |
ötta |
níu |
tíu |
Norwegian |
en,
ein |
to |
tre |
fire |
fem |
seks |
sy |
åtte |
ni |
ti |
Swedish |
ett |
två |
tre |
fyra |
fem |
sex |
sju |
åtta |
nio |
tio |
Yiddish |
eyns |
tswei |
dray |
fier |
finfef |
zeks |
zibn |
ahet |
nayn |
tsen |
Writing
The
earliest evidence of Germanic writing comes from names recorded in the 1st
century by Tacitus. From roughly the 2nd century AD, certain speakers of early
Germanic dialects developed the Elder-Futhark, an early form of the runic
alphabet, some examples of which go back to the 3rd century AD.
http://aboutworldlanguages.com/germanic-branch
It is thought
that the runes were based on an Etruscan-related alphabet, adapted to represent
the sounds of Germanic languages and styled to allow carving on wood, stone, and
metal.
Each rune not only represents a sound but also has a special meaning
frequently connected with Norse mythology.
For instance, the image on the left,
called Ansuz,
was most often associated with Odin, the chief god of Norse mythology, the
Viking equivalent of Zeus, the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology.
Early
runic inscriptions were largely limited to personal names, and difficult to
interpret.
Later, Christian priests and monks who spoke and read Latin in
addition to their native Gmc dialects began writing the Gmc languages
with slightly modified Latin letters.
However, throughout the Viking-Age, runic
alphabets remained in common use in Scandinavia.
Today, Gmc languages use the standard 26-letter Latin alphabet expanded to include
extra letters to represent vowel sounds.
Below
is Article 1 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in several major Gmc languages.
Engilsh Universal
Declaration of Human Rights Article 1 All human beings are born
free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and
conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of
brotherhood. |
Afrikaans Universele
Verklaring van Menseregte Artikel 1 Alle menslike wesens word
vry, met gelyke waardigheid en regte, gebore. Hulle het rede en gewete en
behoort in die gees van broederskap teenoor mekaar op te tree. |
Dutch Universele
verklaring van de rechten van de mens Artikel 1 Alle mensen
worden vrij en gelijk in waardigheid en rechten geboren. Zij zijn begiftigd met
verstand en geweten, en behoren zich jegens elkander in een geest van
broederschap te gedragen. |
Icelandic Mannréttindayfirslýsing
Sameinuðo Þjóðanna 1. grein. Hver maður er borrinn frjáls og jafn
öðrum að virðing og réttindum. Menn eru gæddir vitsmunum og samvizku, og ber
þeim að breyta bróðurlega hverjum við annan. |
Danish Verdebserklaeringen
om MenneskrrettighederneArtikel 1. Alle mennesker er tødt frie
og lige i værdghed og rettigheder. De er udstyret men tornuft og samyttighed, og
de bør handle mod hverandre i en broderskabets ånd. |
German Die
Allgemeine Erklärung der Menschenrechte Artikel 1 Alle Menschen
sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und
Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Brüderlichkeit
begegnen. |
Norwegian
Bokmål Verdemserkæringen
om mennesker ettighetene Artikkel 1. Alle mennesker er fød frie
og med samme menneskeverd og menneskerettigheter. De er utstyrt med fornuft og
samvittighet og bør handle mot hverandre i brorskapets ånd. |
Norwegian
Nynorsk Den
internasjonale frasegna om mennesker ettane Artikkel 1. Alle
menneske er fødde til fridom og med same menneskeverd og menneskerettar. Dei har
fåt fornuft og samvit og skal leve med kvarandre som brør. |
Swedish Allmän
Förklaring om de Mänskliga Rättigheterna Artikel 1. Alla
människor är födda fria och lika i värde och rättigheter. De är utrustade med
förnuft och samvete och bör handla gentemot varandra i en anda av
broderskap. |
Difficulty
Language-difficulty
How difficult is it to learn Germanic Languages?
Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch,Norwegian and Swedish are considered to be Category I languages in terms of difficulty for English speakers (24 weeks of full-time instruction to reach ILR S-3). German is somewhat more difficult (30 weeks). Icelandic is considered to be Category III language (44 weeks).
http://aboutworldlanguages.com/germanic-branch