The Germanic languages are a group of related languages constituting a branch of the Indo-European (lE) language family. All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic, united by their having been subjected to the sound shifts of Grimm's law and Verner's law.
From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups, West, East and North Germanic:
a) Early testimonies of West Germanic are in Old Dutch (scattered words and sentences 6th century, coherent texts 9th century), Old High German (scattered words and sentences 6th century, coherent texts 9th century), Old English (coherent texts 10th century).
b) North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as Proto-Norse, until it evolves into Old Norse by about 800.
By about the 10th century, the varieties had diverged enough to make intercomprehensibility difficult.
c) The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration period The Burgundians, Goths and Vandals became linguistically assimilated to their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only Crimean Gothic lingering on until the 18th century.
During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low Saxon, with graded intermediate Central German varieties. The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained more unified, with the larger languages largely retaining mutual intelligibility into modern times.The largest Germanic languages are English and German, with approximately 400 and 100 million native speakers respectively. The group consists of other major languages, such as Dutch and the North Germanic languages including Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic,and Faroese with a combined total of about 20 million speakers.
During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand, and by the High German consonant shift on the continent on the other, resulting in Upper German and Low Saxon, with graded intermediate Central German varieties. The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained more unified, with the larger languages largely retaining mutual intelligibility into modern times.The largest Germanic languages are English and German, with approximately 400 and 100 million native speakers respectively. The group consists of other major languages, such as Dutch and the North Germanic languages including Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic,and Faroese with a combined total of about 20 million speakers.
Extinct Germanic Languages are Gothic, Lombardic, Scirian or Vandalic.
