List of Germanic languages
The Germanic languages include some 58 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects that originated in Europe; this language family is part of the Indo-European language family. Each subfamily in this list contains subgroups and individual languages.
The standard division of Germanic is into three branches:
- East Germanic languages
- North Germanic languages
- West Germanic languages
They all descend from Proto-Germanic, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.
South Germanic languages, an attempt to classify some of the West Germanic languages into a separate group, is rejected by the overwhelming majority of scholars.
† denotes extinct languages.
West Germanic
- Proto-West Germanic
- High German languages
- Old High German† & Middle High German†
- Upper German
- High Franconian
- Alemannic German
- Swabian German, including Stuttgart
- Low Alemannic German, including the area of Lake Constance and Basel German
- Central Alemannic
- Walser German
- High Alemannic German, including Zürich German and Bernese German
- Highest Alemannic German, including the Bernese Oberland dialects and Walliser German
- Bavarian
- Northern Bavarian (including Nuremberg)
- Central Bavarian (including Munich and Vienna)
- Southern Bavarian (including Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, and Bolzano, Italy)
- Mócheno
- Cimbrian
- Central German languages
- West Central German
- Amana German
- Ripuarian Franconian
- Moselle Franconian
- Rhine Franconian
- North Hessian
- Central Hessian
- East Hessian
- Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania
- East Central German
- West Central German
- Hutterite German aka "Tirolean"
- Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet)
- Halcnovian
- Wymysorys (with a significant influence from Low Saxon, Dutch, Polish, and Scots)
- Upper German
- Old High German† & Middle High German†
- Low Franconian languages
- Old Frankish†
- Old Low Franconian†
- Old East Low Franconian†
- Old West Low Franconian† / Old Dutch†
- Middle Dutch†
- Modern Dutch
- Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages)
- Middle Dutch†
- Old Low Franconian†
- Old Frankish†
- High German languages
- Low German languages
- Old Saxon† & Middle Low German†
- West Low German
- East Low German
- Brandenburgisch
- Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch
- Middle Pomeranian
- East Pomeranian
- Low Prussian
- Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German, used also in many other countries)
- Old Saxon† & Middle Low German†
- Low German languages
- Anglo-Frisian
- Old Frisian†
- Frisian
- West Frisian languages
- West Frisian language (spoken in the Netherlands)
- Clay Frisian (Klaaifrysk)
- Wood Frisian (Wâldfrysk)
- Noardhoeks
- South Frisian (Súdhoeks)
- Southwest Frisian (Súdwesthoeksk)
- Schiermonnikoogs
- Hindeloopers
- Aasters
- Westers
- West Frisian language (spoken in the Netherlands)
- East Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
- North Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
- Mainland Frisian
- Island Frisian
- West Frisian languages
- Frisian
- Anglic
- English language (dialects)
- Old English†
- Middle English† (significant influx of words from Old French)
- Early Modern English†
- Modern English
- British English (English English, including Northern English, East Midlands English, West Midlands English, Southern English, and others, Welsh English, Scottish English) and Irish English
- North American English (American English and Canadian English)
- Australian English and New Zealand English
- South African English
- Zimbabwean English
- South Asian English (Indian English)
- South-East Asian English (Philippine English, Singapore English, Malaysian English)
- West Indian English (Caribbean English)
- Modern English
- Early Modern English†
- Middle English† (significant influx of words from Old French)
- Old English†
- Lowland Scots
- Early Scots†[1]
- Middle Scots†
- Modern Scots
- Glasgow
- Northern Scots
- North Northern
- Mid Northern (North East Scots or the Doric)
- South Northern
- Central Scots
- North East Central
- South East Central
- West Central
- South West Central
- Southern Scots
- Insular Scots
- Ulster Scots
- Modern Scots
- Middle Scots†
- Early Scots†[1]
- Yola†
- Fingallian†
- English language (dialects)
- Old Frisian†
- Anglo-Frisian
North Germanic
- Ancestral classification
- Proto-Norse †
- Old Norse †
- West Scandinavian
- Old West Norse †
- Old Norwegian †
- Middle Norwegian †
- Modern Norwegian dialects
- Nordnorsk [no] (Northern Norway)
- Bodø dialect [no] (Bodø)
- Brønnøy dialect (Brønnøy)
- Helgeland dialect [no] (Helgeland)
- other dialects
- Trøndersk (Trøndelag)
- Fosen dialect [no] (Fosen)
- Härjedal dialect [sv] (Härjedalen)
- Jämtland dialects (Jämtland province) (wide linguistic similarity with the Trøndersk dialects in Norway)
- Meldal dialect (Meldal)
- Tydal dialect [no] (Tydal)
- other dialects
- Vestlandsk (Western and Southern Norway)
- West (Vestlandet)
- Bergen dialect (Bergen)
- Haugesund dialect [no] (Haugesund)
- Jærsk dialect [no] (Jæren district)
- Karmøy dialect [no] (Karmøy)
- Nordmøre dialects [no] (Nordmøre)
- Sunndalsøra dialect [no] (Sunndalsøra)
- Romsdal dialect [no] (Romsdal)
- Sandnes dialect (Sandnes)
- Sogn dialect (Sogn district)
- Sunnmøre dialect [no] (Sunnmøre)
- Stavanger dialect (Stavanger)
- Strilar dialect [no] (Midhordland district)
- South (Sørlandet)
- Arendal dialect (Arendal region)
- Valle-Setesdalsk dialect [no] (Upper Setesdal, Valle)
- other dialects
- West (Vestlandet)
- Østlandsk [no] (Eastern Norway)
- Flatbygd dialects [no] (Lowland districts)
- Vikværsk dialects (Viken district)
- Andebu dialect [no] (Andebu)
- Bohuslän dialect [sv] (Bohuslän province) (influenced by Swedish in retrospective)
- Grenland dialect [no] (Grenland district)
- Oslo dialect (Oslo)
- Midtøstland dialects [no] (Mid-east districts)
- Oppland dialect [no] (Opplandene district)
- Hadeland dialect [no] (Hadeland district)
- Østerdal dialect [no] (Viken district)
- Särna-Idre dialect (Särna and Idre)
- Vikværsk dialects (Viken district)
- Midland dialects [no] (Midland districts)
- Gudbrandsdal dialect (Gudbrandsdalen, Oppland and Upper Folldal, Hedmark)
- Hallingdal-Valdres dialects (Hallingdal, Valdres)
- Hallingdal dialect [no]
- Valdris dialect (Valdres district)
- Telemark-Numedal dialects (Telemark and Numedal)
- Bø dialect [no]
- other dialects
- Flatbygd dialects [no] (Lowland districts)
- Nordnorsk [no] (Northern Norway)
- Modern Norwegian dialects
- Old Faroese †
- Middle Faroese †
- Modern Faroese
- Middle Faroese †
- Norn †
- Caithness Norn †
- Orkney Norn †
- Shetland Norn †
- Middle Norwegian †
- Old Icelandic †
- Middle Icelandic †
- Modern Icelandic
- Middle Icelandic †
- Greenlandic Norse †
- Old Norwegian †
- Old West Norse †
- East Scandinavian
- Old East Norse †
- Old Danish †
- Middle Danish †
- Modern Danish
- Bornholmsk
- Island Danish
- Jutlandic/Jutish
- North Jutlandic
- East Jutlandic
- West Jutlandic
- South Jutlandic (Danish: Slesvig; German: Schleswig)
- Gøtudanskt (Faroese street Danish)
- Urban East Norwegian (generally considered a Norwegian dialect)
- Modern Danish
- Middle Danish †
- Old Swedish †
- Modern Swedish
- Norrland dialects
- Svealand Swedish
- Dalecarlian
- Elfdalian (considered a Swedish Sveamål dialect, but has official orthography and is, because of a lower degree of mutual intelligibility with Swedish, considered a separate language by many linguists, see p. 6 in this reference)
- Dalecarlian
- Götamål (Götaland)
- East Swedish
- Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia
- Other dialects of Finland Swedish
- Estonian Swedish
- South Swedish
- Gutnish
- Modern Swedish
- Old Danish †
- Old East Norse †
- West Scandinavian
- Old Norse †
- Alternate classification of contemporary North Germanic languages based on mutual intelligibility
East Germanic
See: East Germanic languages#Classification
External links
- Germanic language tree
References
- ^ From early Northern Middle English (Aitken, A. J. and McArthur, T. Eds. (1979) Languages of Scotland. Edinburgh,Chambers. p. 87). McClure (1991) gives Northumbrian Old English in The Cambridge History of the English Language Vol. 5. p. 23. In the Oxford Companion to the English Language (p. 894) the 'sources' of Scots are described as "the Old English of the Kingdom of Bernicia" and "the Scandinavian-influenced English of immigrants from Northern and Midland England in the 12-13c [...]." The historical stages 'Older—Middle—Modern Scots' are used, for example, in the "Concise Scots Dictionary" (Robinson M. (ed.) (1985) the "Concise Scots Dictionary, Chambers, Edinburgh. p. xiii) and "A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue" (Dareau M., Pike l. and Watson, H (eds) (2002) "A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue" Vol. XII, Oxford University Press. p. xxxiv Archived 2008-01-08 at the Wayback Machine).
- v
- t
- e
According to contemporary philology
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| |||||||||
- Italics indicate extinct languages
- Languages between parentheses are varieties of the language on their left.
