Germanic Language Definition:

Any language which may trace its lineage to a Proto-Germanic as evidenced by certain phonological markers shared by all Germanic Languages.

Northern Branch

• Remained in Scandinavia
• Wrote using the Elder and Younger Futhark
• Derived from Old Italic Script

Western Branch

• Expanded early into Central Europe
• Maintained prolonged contact with the Northern Branch
• Wrote using the Elder Futhark and the Anglo-Frisian Futhorc
• Derived from Old Italic Script

Eastern Branch

• First expanded into Gotland
• Expanded late into Eastern Europe
• Wrote using the Gothic Alphabet
• Derived from the Greek Alphabet
• Earliest Germanic texts were written in Gothic

• Proto-Language for the Germanic Family is

• Proto-Germanic

• Grimm’s Law

• PIE plosives shifted pronunciation as they developed into Proto-Germanic

• voiceless stops → voiceless fricatives

• voiced stops → voiceless stops

• aspirated, voiced stops → voiced stops

• Jakob Grimm 1822 (Germany)

• Verner’s Law

• PIE voiceless stops become voiced fricatives after an unstressed syllable

• PIE /s/ also followed this pattern

• Karl Verner 1877 (Netherlands)

Major Germanic Branches: (know all 3 branches and 1 language each)

• North Germanic

• Norwegian
• Icelandic
• Danish
• Swedish

• East Germanic

• Gothic

• West Germanic

• English
• German
• Dutch
• Frisian

• Bronze Age c. 2800 - 2300 BCE

• Battleaxe Culture developed from Corded Ware in southern Scandinavia

• Nordic Bronze Age c. 1700 - 500 BCE

Pre-Proto-Germanic developed from PIE

• Pre-Roman Iron Age c. 500 - 1 BCE

• Proto-Germanic spoken
• Jastorf Culture appears in Central Europe

• Roman Iron Age c. 1 - 400 CE

• Western Germanic group takes over Germania
• Tacitus, a Roman historian, studies the Germanic tribes

• Germanic Iron Age c. 300 - c. 10000 CE

• (Eastern Germanic) Goths toppled the Roman Empire
• They were pushed out of Eastern Europe by Atilla and the Huns
• Ostrogoths and Visigoths established kingdoms in Italy & Spain
• (West Germanic) Franks make the Carolingian Empire in Central Europe
• (West Germanic) Angles, Saxons, Frisians, and Jutes invade Britain
• They established the Heptarchy or Seven Kingdoms
• Spoke Anglo-Saxon/Old English
• (North Germanic) Norse expanded and raided England and much of Europe during the “viking age” 793-1066 CE
• Began with the sack of Lindisfarne Abbey 793 CE
• Established the Danelaw in England 865-954 CE