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Languages can be classified according to different principles. The historical or genealogical

classification groups languages in accordance with their origin from a common linguistic

ancestor. Genetically, English belongs to the Germanic or Teutonic group of languages, which is

one of the twelve groups of the I-E linguistic family. Most of the area of Europe and large parts of 

other continents are occurred today by the IE languages, Germanic being one of their major groups.

Germanic languages, branch of the Indo-European language  family. cholars often divide the

Germanic languages into three groups! "est Germanic, including English, German, and #etherlandic $%utch&' #orth Germanic, including %anish, wedish, Icelandic,  #orwegian, and

(aroese' and East Germanic, now e)tinct, comprising only Gothic and the languages of the *andals,

+urgundians, and a few other tribes.

The most ancient monuments of the Germanic languages are preserved in the so-called runic

inscriptions, the earliest of which apparently dates to the third century. written language based on

atin script appeared after the spread of hristianity, beginning appro)imately in the eighth and

ninth centuries. t the beginning of the ommon Era the Germanic languages appeared as the

languages of many German tribal groups on the shores of the #orth and +altic seas, in /utland, and

at the southern tip of candinavia.

The Germanic languages in the modern world are as follows!

• English 0 in Great +ritain, Ireland, the 1, anada, ustralia, #ew 2ealand, the outh

frican 3epublic, and many other former +ritish colonies'

• German 0 in the Germany, ustria, u)emburg, part of wit4erland'

•  #etherlandish 0 in the #etherlands and +elgium $5nown also as %utch and (lemish

respectively&'

• fri5aans 0 in the outh frican 3epublic'

• %anish 0 in %enmar5'

• wedish 0 in weden and (inland'

•  #orwegian 0 in #orway'

• Icelandic 0 in Iceland'

• (risian 0 in some regions of the #etherlands and Germany'

• (aroese 0 in the (aroe Islands'

• 6iddish 0 in different countries.

ists of Germanic languages given in boo5s differ in some points, for the distinction between

separate languages and also between languages and dialects varies. 1ntil recently %utch and

(lemish were named as separate languages' (risian and (aroese are often referred to as dialects,since they are spo5en over small, politically dependent areas' the linguistic independence of 

 #orwegian is 7uestioned, for it has intermi)ed with %anish' +r E and m E are sometimes regarded

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as two independent languages. ll the Germanic languages are related through their common origin

and joint development at the early stages of history.

North Germanic

Languages

West Germanic Languages East Germanic

Languages

1. Swedish $spo5en in

weden and (inland by 8

mill. people&

1. English $spo5en by 9:: mill.

 people as a mother tongue ;

millions spea5 it as a second

language

1. Gothic $dead&

2. Norwegian $spo5en in

 #orway by < mill. people&

2. German $spo5en by =:: mill.

 people in Germany, ustria,

wit4erland and ichtenstein&

. !anish $spo5en in

%enmar5 by < mill. people&

. !utch"Netherlandish $spo5en by

>: mill. people in the #etherlands

and some parts of +elgium& 

#. $celandic $spo5en in

Iceland by ><: thou.

 people&

#. %risian $spo5en by ?:: thou.

 people in some parts of the

 #etherlands and Germany and

some islands in the #orth ea&

&. %aroese $spo5en in the

(aroe Islands $north-east

tlantic& by ?: thou.

 people&

&. Lu'emburgish $spo5en by 9<:

thou. people in u)emburg and

some parts of Germany and (rance& 

(. )iddish $spo5en by /ews in

different countries in Europe and

merica, is actually a mi)ture of the

outhern Germanic %ialects,

@ebrew and lavonic elements&

*. +friaans $spo5en by 9 mill.

 people in the outh frican

3epublic, combines English, %utch

and frican elements&

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-//N -0++-TE$ST$-S

trong evidence for the unity of all the modern Germanic languages can be found in the

 phenomenon 5nown as the first Germanic sound shift or consonant shift $also called GrimmAs law 

&, which set the Germanic subfamily apart from the other members of the Indo-European family.onsisting of a regular shifting of consonants in groups, the sound shift had already occurred by the

time ade7uate records of the various Germanic languages began to be made in the Bth to 8th cent.

ccording to GrimmAs law, certain consonant sounds found in the ancient Indo-European languages

$such as atin, Gree5, and ans5rit& underwent a change in the Germanic tongue. (or e)ample, the

sounds p, d, t, and k  in the former became f, t, th, and h respectively in the latter, as in atin pater,

English father; atin dent, English tooth; and atin cornu, English horn.

+efore the Cth cent. a second shift of consonants too5 place in some of the "est German dialects.

(or instance, under certain circumstances, d  became t, and t  became ss or  z, as in English bread,

%utch brood, but German Brot; English foot, %utch voet, but German Fuss; and English ten, %utch

tien, but German zehn. The dialects in which this second consonant shift too5 place were the @igh

German dialects, so called because they were spo5en in more mountainous areas. tandard modern

German arose from these dialects. The "est Germanic dialects not affected by the second shift were

the ow German dialects of the lowlands, from which %utch and English evolved.

lso peculiar to the Germanic languages is the recessive accent, whereby the stress usually falls on

the first or root syllable of a word, especially a word of Germanic origin. nother distinctive

characteristic shared by the Germanic languages is the umlaut, which is a type of vowel change in

the root of a word. It is demonstrated in the pairs  foot   $singular&,  feet   $plural& in English'  fot $singular&, fötter  $plural& in wedish' and Kampf  $singular&, Kämpfe $plural& in German.

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ll Germanic languages have strong and wea5 verbs' that is, they form the past tense and past

 participle either by changing the root vowel in the case of strong verbs $as in English lie, lay, lain or 

ring, rang, rung; German ringen, rang, gerungen& or by adding as an ending d  $or t & or ed  in the

case of wea5 verbs $as in English care, cared, cared  or look, looked, looked; German fragen, fragte,

 gefragt &. lso typically Germanic is the formation of the genitive singular by the addition of s or 

es. E)amples are English man, man!s;  wedish hund, hunds; German "ehrer, "ehrers  or  #ann,

 #annes.  Moreover, the comparison of adjectives in the Germanic languages follows a parallel

 pattern, as in English! rich, richer, richest; German reich, reicher, reichst; and wedish rik, rikare,

rikast. astly, vocabulary furnished evidence of a common origin for the Germanic languages in

that a number of the basic words in these languages are similar in form' however, while word

similarity may indicate the same original source for a group of languages, it can also be a sign of 

 borrowing.