Germanic languages. Classification of Germanic languages and dialects

English is included in a widespread and large group called Germanic languages. In this article, we will take a closer look at it. In turn, this branch is included in even larger - Indo-European languages. These include, besides Germanic, and others - Hittite, Indian, Iranian, Armenian, Greek, Celtic, Romance, Slavic and so on. Indo-European languages, therefore, are a broader union.

However, in the family of interest we have our own classification. Germanic languages are divided into the following 2 subgroups: northern (in another name called Scandinavian) and western. They all have their own characteristics.

Sometimes singled out romano-Germanic languages. These include Germanic and Romanic (ascending to Latin).

The languages of the West German subgroup

In West German include Dutch, Frisian, High German, English, Flemish, Boer, Yiddish.

For the majority of the population of Great Britain - Northern Ireland, Scotland, England - as well as the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, English is native. In addition, it is distributed in Pakistan, India, South Africa as an official means of communication.

Friesian is popular in the North Sea - it is spoken by people inhabiting the Friesland Islands. Literary variety of it is based on the West Friesian dialects.

The first language for residents of Austria, Germany and Switzerland is the High German. It is also used in the northern regions of Germany by the urban population as a literary one. The villagers of these territories still speak "plajdoyche," or Lower German dialect, a special dialect, which in the Middle Ages was a language. Folk art literature was created on it.

Dutch - native to the people of Holland.

Modern Germanic languages include the Boer, otherwise known as "Afrikaans", which is distributed in South Africa, on a significant territory. This close to the Dutch language is spoken by Afrikaners, or Boers, - descendants of Dutch colonists who left their homeland in the 17th century.

Flemish is very close to him. It speaks the population of Belgium, its northern part, as well as the Netherlands (in some territory). Flemish along with French is the official means of communication in Belgium.

Yiddish is the language that was formed in the 10th and 12th centuries, where the Jews of Eastern Europe speak. Its basis is Middle High German dialects.

Languages of the North German subgroup

The following Germanic languages refer to the North Germanic languages: Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish.

The latter is native to the people of the coast of Finland (where representatives of the tribes of the Ancient Studies migrated in the distant past), as well as the Swedish people. Of the dialects existing today, the guttural, on which the population of the island of Gotland speaks, is sharply distinguished by its peculiarities. Swedish today consists of recorded and arranged according to English German words. Its active vocabulary is not very large.

Danish - native to the Danish people, also for several centuries the literary and state language of Norway, which, as is known, was part of the Danish state from the end of the 14th century until 1814.

Danish and Swedish, close in the past, are now widely separated, they are sometimes combined into a special sub-group of the so-called East-Norwegian dialects.

The Norwegian language, which is native to the people of Norway, is distributed in the territory of this country. Its development was greatly delayed under the influence of historical conditions, since the inhabitants of the state were forced to exist under the rule of the Danes for almost 400 years. Today, the formation of the Norwegian language, one for the whole nation, takes place in this country, occupying a position intermediate between Danish and Swedish in its peculiarities.

The population of Iceland speaks Icelandic. The ancestors of the inhabitants of this island country were the Norwegians, who settled in this territory in the 10th century. The Icelandic language, developing independently for almost a millennium, acquired a whole series of new features, and also preserved many of the features characteristic of the Old Norse language. At the same time, the modern means of communication among the inhabitants of the Country of the fjords has largely lost these features. All these processes have led to the fact that the difference between Icelandic (New Icelandic) languages and Norwegian is very significant at the present time.

Faroese today exists on the Faroe Islands, which are located north of the Shetland Islands. He preserved, as well as the Icelandic and other groups of languages, many features of the dialect of his ancestors - the Old Norse, from which he subsequently split.

Faroese, Icelandic and Norwegian are sometimes combined into one family on the basis of their origin. It is called West-Scandinavian languages. But the facts today indicate that in the current state the Norwegian is much closer to the Danish and Swedish than to the Faroese and Icelandic.

Early information about the Germanic tribes

The history of Germanic languages has been studied in considerable detail today. The first mention of the Germans dates back to the 4th century BC. The traveler who provided information about them is the astronomer and geographer Pifeius (or Piteas), a Greek, a resident of the city of Massilia (now called Marseille). He committed about 325 BC. E. A great trip to the Amber Bank, located, apparently, at the mouth of the Elbe, as well as on the southern coast of the North and Baltic seas. In his message, Piteas mentions the tribes of guttons and Teutons. Their names clearly indicate that these peoples are ancient Germanic.

Communications of Plutarch and Julius Caesar

The next mention of the Germans is the message of Plutarch, a Greek historian, who lived in the 1-2th century AD. He wrote about the bastards that appeared on the lower Danube about 180 BC. E. But the information is very fragmentary, so do not give us an idea of the language and way of life of the Germanic tribes. They, according to Plutarch, do not know either pastoralism or farming. The war for these tribes is the only occupation.

Julius Caesar was the first Roman author to describe the Germans of the early years of AD. E. He says that their whole life consists in military pursuits and hunting. They do not do much farming.

Information Pliny the Elder

But especially valuable are the information of Pliny the Elder, naturalist (years of life - 23-79 AD), as well as Tacitus, a historian (years of life - 58-117 AD). In his works "Annals" and "Germany" the latter gives important information not only about the existing classification of tribes, but also about their way of life, culture, social order. Tacitus distinguishes three groups: the stevon, the germion and the inguven. Pliny the Elder also mentioned these same groups, but attributed the Teutons and Cimbri to the Ingevons. This classification, in all likelihood, fairly accurately reflects the division in the 1st century AD. E. Germanic tribes.

Old Germanic languages: classification

The study of written monuments makes it possible to combine Germanic languages into three subgroups during the early Middle Ages: Gothic (East Germanic), Scandinavian (North German) and West European.

To the East German are Gothic, Vandal and Burgundy.

The Burgundian language

Burgundy - the language of people from Burgundarholm (Bornholm) - an island located in the Baltic Sea. The Burgundians settled in south-eastern France in the 5th century, in an area that received the same name. This ancient German language today left us a small number of words, mostly names of our own.

Vandalian language

Vandal - the dialect of vandals who later migrated through Spain to North Africa, where they left behind the name Andalusia (today it is a province). This language, as well as the Burgundian language, is represented mainly by proper names. Subsequently, the word "vandal" acquired the significance of the destroyer of cultural monuments, the barbarian, since in 455 these tribes looted and captured Rome.

Gothic

The Gothic language is represented today by several monuments. The largest of the surviving ones is the "Silver Scroll" - the translation of the Gospels into Gothic. There are 187 of 330 sheets of this manuscript preserved.

Ancient West Germanic Languages

The West Germanic group of languages is represented by Anglo-Saxon, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Frankish, Old High German. Each of them has its own characteristics.

The last of this family includes a number of dialects. Among his most important monuments are the following texts of the 8th century:

1. Glosses - small dictionaries for texts written in Latin, or translations of individual words into German, recorded in the margins.

2. Translations of works of religious and classical literature, created by Notker, in the late 10th - early 11th century supervised the monastic school.

3. The poem "Muspilly" (2 half of the 9th century).

4. "Song of Ludwig."

5. "Merseburger spells."

6. "The Song of Hildebrand".

The Frankish language also has several dialects. In the course of history, they all became part of the German, except for the Lower French, which is the ancestor of modern Dutch, Flemish and Boer.

The North Germanic group of languages includes Old Icelandic, Old Norse, Old Danish and ancient North Adverbs. All of them have their own specific features.

The last of this group of languages is sometimes called the language of runic inscriptions, since it is represented by a multitude of them (altogether about 150), belonging to the period of 2-9 centuries AD. E.

Ancient Danish also survived in the 9th-century runic monuments of epigraphy. About 400 of them are known.

The first monuments of the ancient language of the language also belong to the 9th century of our era. They are in the province of Westeratland and represent the inscriptions on the stones. The total number of runic inscriptions created in this language reaches 2500.