Everything about the West Germanic Language totally explained
The
West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the
Germanic family of
languages and include languages such as
German,
Dutch,
English and the
Frisian languages, as well as
Yiddish and
Afrikaans. The other two of these three traditional branches of the Germanic languages are the
North and
East Germanic languages.
History
Origins and characteristics
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West,
East and
North Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the
Migration Period, so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. The Western group presumably formed as a variety of
Proto-Germanic in the late
Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC). The West Germanic group is characterized by a number of
phonological and
morphological innovations not found in North and East Germanic, such as:
- The loss of w after ng
- Gemination of consonants (except r) before j
- Replacement of the 2nd person singular preterite ending -t with -i
- Short forms of the verbs for "stand" and "go"
- The development of a gerund
Nevertheless, many scholars doubt whether the West Germanic languages descend from a common ancestor later than Proto-Germanic, that is, they doubt whether a "Proto-West Germanic" ever existed. North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely
- North Sea Germanic (Ingvaeonic, ancestral to Anglo-Frisian and Low German)
- Elbe Germanic (Irminonic, ancestral to High German)
- Weser-Rhine Germanic (Istvaeonic, ancestral to Old Frankish)
Evidence for this view comes from a number of linguistic innovations found in both North Germanic and West Germanic,
Middle Ages
During the
Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of
Middle English on one hand, and by the
second Germanic sound shift on the continent on the other.
The
High German consonant shift distinguished the
High German languages from the other West Germanic languages. By early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from
Highest Alemannic in the South (the
Walliser dialect being the southernmost surviving German dialect) to
Northern Low Saxon in the North. Although both extremes are considered
German, they're not mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties have completed the second sound shift, while the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift.
Modern variants
Of modern German varieties,
Low German is the one that most resembles modern English. The district of
Angeln (or Anglia), from which the name
English derives, is in the extreme northern part of Germany between the Danish border and the Baltic coast.
Saxony lies further to the south. The
Anglo-Saxons, two
Germanic tribes, were a combination of a number of peoples from northern
Germany and the
Jutland Peninsula.
Family tree
Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form
dialect continua, with adjacent
dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.
Anglo-Frisian
Low Franconian
Low German (sometimes called Low Saxon)
High German
Further Information
Get more info on 'West Germanic Language'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://west_germanic_languages.totallyexplained.com">West Germanic languages Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
