English is included in a widespread and large group called Germanic languages. In this article we will consider it in detail. In turn, this branch is included in an even larger - Indo-European languages. These include, in addition to the German ones, and others - the Hittite, Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Greek, Celtic, Romanesque, Slavic and so on. Indo-European languages, therefore, are a broader association.
However, the family we are interested in has its own classification. Germanic languages are divided into the following 2 subgroups: northern (also called Scandinavian) and western. All of them have their own characteristics.
Romano-Germanic languages are sometimes distinguished. These include Germanic and Romanesque (dating back to Latin).
Languages of the West German Subgroup
The West Germanic include Dutch, Frisian, High German, English, Flemish, Boer, Yiddish.
For the majority of the population of Great Britain - Northern Ireland, Scotland, England - as well as the USA, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, their native language is English. In addition, it is distributed in Pakistan, India, South Africa as an official means of communication.
The Frisian is popular in the North Sea - it is spoken by people living in the Friesland Islands. Its literary variety is based on West Frisian dialects.
The native language for the inhabitants of Austria, Germany and Switzerland is High German. It is also used in the northern regions of Germany by the urban population as a literary one. Rural residents of these territories still speak "Platduche", or the Low German dialect, - a special dialect that was the language in the Middle Ages. It created folk fiction.
Dutch - native to the people of Holland.
Modern Germanic languages include the Boer, otherwise called "Afrikaans", which is common in South Africa, on its significant territory. Afrikaners, or Boers, are descendants of this Dutch language, descendants of the Dutch colonists who left their homeland in the 17th century.
Flemish is very close to him. It is spoken by the population of Belgium, its northern part, as well as the Netherlands (in some territory). Flemish, along with French, is the official means of communication in Belgium.
Yiddish is a 10-12 century language spoken by Jews in Eastern Europe. Its basis is the Middle High German dialects.
Languages of the North German Subgroup
The following Germanic languages belong to North German: Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish.
The latter is native to the population of the coast of Finland (where representatives of the ancient Swedish tribes moved in the distant past), as well as the Swedish people. Of the dialects that exist today, the Gutnical, on which the population of the island of Gotland speaks, stands out sharply with its features . Swedish today consists of German words spelled and arranged in accordance with English. Its active dictionary is not very large.
Danish - native to the Danish people, also for several centuries the literary and official language of Norway, which, as you know, was part of the Danish state from the late 14th century until 1814.
Danish and Swedish, close in the past, have now diverged significantly, they are sometimes united in a special subgroup of the so-called East Scandinavian dialects.
The Norwegian language, which is native to the people of Norway, is distributed in the territory of this country. Its development was strongly delayed under the influence of historical conditions, since the inhabitants of the state were forced to exist under the rule of the Danes for almost 400 years. Today in this country there is a formation of the Norwegian language, which is uniform for the whole nation, occupying a position that is intermediate between Danish and Swedish.
The population of Iceland speaks Icelandic. The ancestors of the inhabitants of this island country were Norwegians who settled on this territory in the 10th century. The Icelandic language, developing independently for almost a millennium, acquired a number of new features, and also retained many properties characteristic of ancient Norwegian. At the same time, the modern means of communication among the inhabitants of the country of the fjords has largely lost these features. All these processes have led to the fact that the difference between Icelandic (New Icelandic) languages and Norwegian is very significant at the present time.
The Faroe Islands today exist on the Faroe Islands, which are located north of the Shetland Islands. He preserved, like Icelandic and other groups of languages, many features of the dialect of his ancestors - Old Norwegian, from which he later split.
Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian are sometimes combined into one family on the basis of their origin. It is called West Scandinavian languages. But the facts today indicate that in the current state, Norwegian is much closer to Danish and Swedish than to Faroe and Icelandic.
Early Germanic Tribes
The history of Germanic languages today is studied in sufficient detail. The first mention of the Germans dates back to the 4th century BC. The traveler who provided information about them is the astronomer and geographer Pythaeus (or Piteas), Greek, resident of the city of Massilia (which today is called Marseilles). He committed about 325 BC. e. a long trip to the Amber Coast, located, apparently, at the mouth of the Elbe, as well as off the southern coast of the North and Baltic Seas. In his message, Piteas mentions the Gutton and Teuton tribes. Their names clearly indicate that these peoples are ancient Germanic.
Messages of Plutarch and Julius Caesar
The next mention of the Germans is the message of Plutarch, a Greek historian who lived in the 1-2 century of our era. He wrote about the bastars that appeared on the Lower Danube around 180 BC. e. But this information is very fragmentary, therefore they do not give us an idea of the language and lifestyle of the Germanic tribes. They, according to Plutarch, do not know either cattle breeding or farming. War is the only thing for these tribes.
Julius Caesar was the first Roman author to describe the Germans during the first years of AD. e. He says that their whole life lies in military pursuits and hunting. They do little farming.
Details of Pliny the Elder
But the information of Pliny the Elder, a natural scientist (years of life - 23-79 AD), as well as Tacitus, a historian (years of life - 58-117 AD) are especially valuable. In his works “Annals” and “Germany”, the latter provides important information not only about the existing classification of tribes, but also about their way of life, culture, and social structure. Tacitus distinguishes 3 groups: Istevone, Hermione and Ingevona. Pliny the Elder also mentioned the same groups, but attributed them to the Ingevons of the Teutons and Cimbrians. This classification, apparently, quite accurately reflects the division in the 1st century BC. e. Germanic tribes.
Ancient Germanic languages: classification
The study of written monuments makes it possible to combine German into three subgroups during the early Middle Ages: Gothic (East German), Scandinavian (North German) and West European.
East German includes Gothic, Vandal and Burgundy.
Burgundy language
Burgundy is the language of people from Burgundarchholm (Bornholm), an island located in the Baltic Sea. The Burgundians settled in southeastern France in the 5th century, in an area of the same name. This ancient Germanic language today has left us a small number of words, mainly proper names.
Vandal language
Vandal is the name of the Vandals who subsequently migrated through Spain to North Africa, where they left the name Andalusia (today it is a province). This language, like Burgundy, is represented mainly by proper names. Subsequently, the word "vandal" acquired the meaning of a destroyer of cultural monuments, a barbarian, since in 455 these tribes plundered and captured Rome.
Gothic language
The Gothic language is represented today by several monuments. The largest surviving is the “Silver Scroll” - the translation of the Gospels into Gothic. 187 of 330 sheets of this manuscript have been preserved.
Ancient West Germanic languages
The West Germanic group of languages is represented by Anglo-Saxon, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Frankish, Old High German. Each of them has its own characteristics.
The last of this family includes a number of dialects. Its most important monuments include the following texts of the 8th century:
1. Glosses - small dictionaries for texts written in Latin, or translations of individual words into German, recorded in the fields.
2. Translations of works of religious and classical literature, created by Notker, who led the monastery school in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.
3. The poem "Muspilli" (2 half of the 9th century).
4. "Song of Ludwig."
5. "Merseburg spells."
6. "Song of Hildebrand."
Frank also has several dialects. In the course of history, they all became part of the German, except for the Nizhne-Frankish, which is the ancestor of modern Dutch, Flemish and Boer.
The North Germanic group of languages includes Old Icelandic, Old Norwegian, Old Danish and Old Northern dialects. All of them have their own specific features.
The last of this group of languages is sometimes called the language of runic inscriptions, since it is represented by many of them (about 150 in total), which belong to the period of 2-9 centuries AD. e.
Ancient Danish is also preserved in runic monuments of epigraphy dating back to the 9th century. In total, about 400 are known.
The first monuments of the ancient Swedish language also belong to the 9th century AD. They are located in the province of Westerjetland and are inscribed on stones. The total number of runic inscriptions created in this language reaches 2500.