GERMANIC LANGUAGE

• The branch of Indo-European that English belongs to is called Germanic
• Germanic languages


  • German
  • Frisian
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Norwegian
  • Swedish
• All these languages are descended from one parent language, a dialect of Indo-European, which we can call Proto-Germanic (PG)
• Round about the beginning of the Christian era, the speakers of Proto-Germanic still formed a relatively homogeneous cultural and linguistic set of groups, living in the north of Europe
• The people who spoke these languages are called by Roman authors as Germani
• Tacitus in AD 98 described these people in a text called Germania
• The Germani were described as living in scattered settlements in the woody and marshy country of north-western Europe
• Surroundings of Early Germanic Society

  • No cities
  • Far apart wooden houses
  • Agriculture (i.e. flocks, grains crops)
  • No horticulture
  • Changing ploughlands yearly
  • Distribution of land to cultivators (rank system)
• Social Organization in Early Germanic Society

  • Greater relatives, greater influence
  • Kings are chosen for birth
  • Chiefs are chosen for valor
  • Major affairs are consulted in the community
  • Chiefs are attended by companions
  • Dislike for Peace (war=rewards)
• Social Life in Early Germanic Society

  • Warriors idle at home (eating, drinking, gambling)
  • House and fieldwork are left to women, weaklings and slaves
  • Hospitable to strangers and acquaintances
  • Love for drinking leads to quarrels
  • Monogamous; women are valued
• Appearances in Early Germanic Society

  • Blue eyes, reddish hair and huge bodies
  • Short cloak/animal skin
  • Linen undergarments for women
  • Few breastplates/helmets, since they have little iron
• Religion in Early Germanic Society


  • Worship of gods with human or animal sacrifices
  • Woden, Thunor and Tiw are glossed as Mercury, Hercules and Mars
  • Casting store by auspices and casting of lots
  • Ancient songs tell of the earth-born god Tuisto and his son Mannus, ancestor of the whole Germanic race
• Tacitus used the Germani as a means of attacking the corruptions of Rome in his own day
• Earlier the Germani had probably been confined to a small area of southern Scandinavia and northern Germany between the Elbe and the Oder
• By 300 BC, the Germani had begun to expand in all directions due to overpopulation and the poverty of their natural resources
• The territory south of Germani ruled by Rome was also expanding
• There was considerable cultural influence by the Romans on the Germani
• Branches of Germanic (North Germanic)


  • Modern Scandinavian languages belong to this branch: Norwegian, Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, Faroese, Gutnish
• Branches of Germanic


  • North Germanic
  • East Germanic
  • West Germanic
• Considerable cultural influence by the Romans on the Germani
• Modern Scandinavian languages belong to North Germanic
• The earliest recorded form of North Germanic (Old Norse) is found in runic inscriptions; this period shows very little trace of dialectal variations


  AD 300
• Viking Age. There are evidences of the North Germanic breaking up into dialects, which later developed into modern Scandinavian languages


  AD 800 onwards
• North Germanic differs from other Germanic languages

  • In phonology and grammar
• Gothic is the only East Germanic language with records
• The Goths migrated south-eastwards and settled in the plains north of the Black Sea


  AD 200
• The main record of Gothic is the fragmentary remains of a translation of the Bible made by Bishop Wulfila or Ulfilas


  AD 400
• Gothic kingdoms were short-lived, but a form of Gothic was being spoken in the Crimea as late as 1700
• No East Germanic language has survived
• Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq recorded a few words of Gothic
• Phonological characteristics of Wulfila’s text include Proto-Germanic short vowels /e/ and /o/ appearing as i and u
• West Germanic languages


  • High German dialects of southern Germany, Low German dialects of northern Germany, Dutch, Frisian, English
• Frisian is the language most closely related to English
• It has often been supposed that there was a prehistoric Anglo-Frisian dialect, out of which evolved Old English and Old Frisian
• Development of numerous diphthongs is found in West Germanic
• One lexical form found only in West Germanic is the word sheep
• hugga


  verb hēawan ‘to cut, hew’
• bryggja


  brygga
• Words for sheep in different Germanic languages

  • Dutch schaap
  • German Schaf
  • Old Frisian skēp
• Forms used in Gothic for sheep

  • awi-
  • lamb