Germanic

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Germanic Summary

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Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics

Germanic

Member of the Indo-European language family which differs from the other Indo-European branches due to Grimm’s law, the fixation of word accent in the first root syllable, reduction of the original variety of cases (from eight to four) and the three number categories to two (loss of the dual), simplification of the verbal morphology (loss of the middle voice, syncre-

tism of subjunctive and optative), differentiation between strong vs weak verb formation, as well as the development of strong and weak adjective endings. Vocabulary, inflection, and syntax have developed differently in the various Germanic languages. There have been several suggestions on the grouping of the Germanic languages, most of which do not overtly conflict with each other. Usually they are divided into three groups based on historical and geographical concerns (cf. van Coetsem and Kufner 1972; Hawkins 1987): (a) East Germanic: Gothic and Burgundian; (b) North Germanic: Faroese, Icelandic, and the Scandinavian languages Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish; (c) West Germanic: German (including Yiddish), English (including several related creole languages), Frisian, and Dutch (including Afrikaans). Based on the linguistic correspondences between all the individual Germanic languages, a common proto-language is assumed. The earliest attestations are Scandinavian runic inscriptions (third century) ( rune) and Wulfila’s Bible translation (Gothic, fourth century).

References

Abraham, W., W.Kosmeijer, and E.Reuland (eds) 1990. Issues in Germanic syntax. Berlin and New York.

Bammesberger, A. 1986. Der Aufbau des germanischen Verbalsystems. Heidelberg.

——1990. Die Morphologie des urgermanischen Nomens. Heidelberg.

Brogyányi, B. and T.Krömmelbein (eds) 1986. Germanic dialects: linguistic and philological investigations. Amsterdam.

Fullerton, G.L. 1977. Historical Germanic verb morphology. The Hague and Berlin.

Haugen, E. 1976. The Scandinavian languages: an introduction to their history. London.

——1982. Scandinavian language structures: a comparative historical survey. Tübingen.

Hawkins, J.A. 1987. Germanic languages. In B. Comrie (ed.), The world’s major languages. London. 68–76.

Hutterer, C.J. 1975. Die germanischen Sprachen: ihre Geschichte in Grundzügen. Budapest.

(3rd rev. edn 1990.)

König, E. and J.van der Auwera. 1994. The Germanic languages. London.

Lehmann, W.P. 1966. The grouping of the Germanic languages. In H.Birnbaum and J.Puhvel (eds), Ancient Indo-European dialects. Berkeley, CA. 13–27.

Rauch, I., G.F.Carr, and R.Keyes (eds) 1992. On Germanic linguistics: issues and methods. Berlin and New York.

Swan, T., E.Morck, and O.J.Westvik (eds) 1994. Language change and language structure: older Germanic languages in a comparative perspective. Berlin and New York.

Grammars

Krahe, H. and W.Meid. 1967–9. Germanische Sprachwissenschaft, 7th edn. Berlin.

Prokosch, E. 1939. A comparative Germanic grammar. Philadelphia, PA.

Streitberg, W. 1954. Urgermanische Grammatik, 4th edn. Heidelberg.

Voyles, J.B. 1992. Early Germanic grammar: pre-, proto-, and post-Germanic languages. San Diego, CA.

Dialectology

Markey, T.L. 1976. Germanic dialect grouping and the position of Ingvaeonic. Innsbruck.

Bibliography

Germanistik. Internationales Referatenorgan mit bibliographischen Hinweisen. Tübingen.

Markey, T.L., R.L.Keyes, and P.T.Roberge. 1978. Germanic and its dialects: a grammar of Proto-Germanic, vol. 3: Bibliography and indices. Amsterdam.