The constitute the largest branch of the
Germanic family of
Language s and include languages such as
German ,
English and
Frisian , as well as
Dutch and
Afrikaans . The other branches of the Germanic languages are the
North and
East Germanic Languages .
The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups, West,
East and
North Germanic.
1 Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, and they remained mutually intelligible throughout the
Migration Period , so that some individual varieties are difficult to classify. The Western group presumably formed as a variety of
Proto-Germanic in the late
Jastorf Culture (ca.
1st Century BC ). The West Germanic group is characterized by a number of
Phonological and
Morphological innovations not found in North and East Germanic, such as:
2
- The loss of ''w'' after ''ng''
- Gemination of consonants (except ''r'') before ''j''
- Replacement of the 2nd person singular preterite ending ''-t'' with ''-i''
- Short forms of the verbs for "stand" and "go"
- The development of a Gerund
Nevertheless, many scholars doubt whether the West Germanic languages descend from a common ancestor later than Proto-Germanic, that is, they doubt whether a "Proto-West Germanic" ever existed. Rather, some have argued that after East Germanic broke off from the group, the remaining Germanic languages, the Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects:3 North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely
#North Sea Germanic (
Ingvaeonic , ancestral to
Anglo-Frisian and
Low Saxon )
#Elbe Germanic (
Irminonic , ancestral to
High German )
#Weser-Rhine Germanic (
Istvaeonic , ancestral to
Old Frankish )
Evidence for this view comes from a number of linguistic innovations found in both North Germanic and West Germanic, including:
- The retraction of Proto-Germanic to ''ā''
- The development of Umlaut
- The Rhotacism of ''z'' to ''r''
- The development of the Demonstrative pronoun ancestral to English ''this''
Under this view, the properties that the West Germanic languages have in common separate from the North Germanic languages are not inherited from a "Proto-West-Germanic" language, but rather spread by Language Contact among the Germanic languages spoken in central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia.
During the
Middle Ages , the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of
Middle English on one hand, and by the
Second Germanic Sound Shift on the continent on the other.
The linguistic contact of the
Viking settlers of the
Danelaw with the
Anglo-Saxons left traces in the English language, and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of the Old English inflexional system that marked the onset of the Middle English period
12th Century .
The
High German Consonant Shift distinguished the
High German Languages from the other West Germanic languages. By early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from
Highest Alemannic in the South (the
Walliser dialect being the southernmost surviving German dialect) to
Northern Low Saxon in the North. Although both extremes are considered
German , they are not mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties have completed the second sound shift, while the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift.
Of modern German varieties the north German
Low Saxon is the one that most resembles modern English. The district of '
Angeln ' (or Anglia), from which the name "English" derives, is in the extreme north of Germany between the Danish border and the Baltic coast.
Saxony lies further to the south. The
Anglo-Saxons , two
Germanic Tribes , were a combination of a number of peoples from northern
Germany and the
Jutland Peninsula.
