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†
    - Modern German
      - Upper German
        High Franconian
        East Franconian
        
        South Franconian
        
        Alemannic
        Swabian, including Stuttgart
        
        Low Alemannic, including the area of Lake Constance and Basel German
        Alsatian
        
        Colonia Tovar German
        
        Central Alemannic
        Argentinien-schwyzertütsch
        
        Italian Walser
        
        High Alemannic, including Zürich German and Bernese German
        
        Highest Alemannic, 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)
        Hutterite German aka "Tirolean"
        
        Mócheno
        
        Cimbrian
      - Central German
        West Central German
        Amana German
        
        Central Franconian
        Ripuarian Franconian
        
        Moselle Franconian
        Hunsrik
        
        Luxembourgish
        
        Transylvanian Saxon
        
        Rhine Franconian
        Hessian
        
        Palatine
        Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania
        
        Lorraine Franconian
        
        East Central German
        Thuringian
        
        Upper Saxon
        
        North Upper Saxon–South Markish
        
        Silesian
        Halcnovian
        
        Wymysorys (with a significant influence from Low Saxon, Dutch, Polish, and Scots)
        
        High Prussian
      - Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet)
        Eastern Yiddish
        
        Western Yiddish
- Low Franconian languages
  - Old Frankish†
    - Old Low Franconian†
      - Old East Low Franconian† / Old Limburgian†
        Middle Limburgian†
        Limburgian
      - Old West Low Franconian† / Old Dutch†
        Middle Dutch†
        Modern Dutch
        West Flemish
        
        East Flemish
        
        Zeelandic
        
        Central Dutch
        Hollandic
        
        Kleverlandish
        
        Brabantine
        Brusselian
        
        Stadsfries dialects
        
        Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages)
- Low German languages
  - Old Saxon† & Middle Low German†
    - Modern Low German
      - West Low German
        Northern Low Saxon
        
        East Frisian Low Saxon
        
        Westphalian
        
        Eastphalian
      - East Low German
        Brandenburgisch
        
        Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch
        
        Middle Pomeranian
        
        East Pomeranian
        
        Low Prussian
        
        Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German, used also in many other countries)
- Anglo-Frisian languages
  - 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
      - East Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
        Saterland Frisian
        
        Wangerooge Frisian†
        
        Wursten Frisian†
      - North Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
        Mainland Frisian
        Mooring
        
        Goesharde Frisian
        
        Wiedingharde Frisian
        
        Halligen Frisian
        
        Karrharde Frisian
        
        Island Frisian
        Söl'ring
        
        Fering
        
        Öömrang
        
        Heligolandic
  - 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)
    - Lowland Scots
      - Early Scots†^[1]
        Middle Scots†
        Modern Scots
        Glasgow
        
        Northern Scots
        North Northern
        Black Isle and Easter Ross
        Cromarty†
        
        Mid Northern (North East Scots or the Doric)
        
        South Northern
        
        Central Scots
        
        Southern Scots
        
        Insular Scots
        Orcadian
        
        Shetland dialect
        
        Ulster Scots
    - Yola†
    - Fingallian†

North Germanic

Ancestral classification

Proto-Norse ^†
- Old Norse ^†
  - West Scandinavian
    - Old West Norse ^†
      - Old Norwegian ^†
        Middle Norwegian ^†
        Modern Norwegian dialects
        Nordnorsk (Northern Norway)
        Bodø dialect (Bodø)
        
        Brønnøy dialect (Brønnøy)
        
        Helgeland dialect (Helgeland)
        
        other dialects
        
        Trøndersk (Trøndelag)
        Fosen dialect (Fosen)
        
        Härjedal dialect (Härjedalen)
        
        Jämtland dialects (Jämtland province) (wide linguistic similarity with the Trøndersk dialects in Norway)
        
        Meldal dialect (Meldal)
        
        Tydal dialect (Tydal)
        
        other dialects
        
        Vestlandsk (Western and Southern Norway)
        West (Vestlandet)
        Bergen dialect (Bergen)
        
        Haugesund dialect (Haugesund)
        
        Jærsk dialect (Jæren district)
        
        Karmøy dialect (Karmøy)
        
        Nordmøre dialects (Nordmøre)
        Sunndalsøra dialect (Sunndalsøra)
        
        Romsdal dialect (Romsdal)
        
        Sandnes dialect (Sandnes)
        
        Sogn dialect (Sogn district)
        
        Sunnmøre dialect (Sunnmøre)
        
        Stavanger dialect (Stavanger)
        
        Strilar dialect (Midhordland district)
        
        South (Sørlandet)
        Arendal dialect (Arendal region)
        
        Valle-Setesdalsk dialect (Upper Setesdal, Valle)
        
        other dialects
        
        Østlandsk (Eastern Norway)
        Flatbygd dialects (Lowland districts)
        Vikværsk dialects (Viken district)
        Andebu dialect (Andebu)
        
        Bohuslän dialect (Bohuslän province) (influenced by Swedish in retrospective)
        
        Grenland dialect (Grenland district)
        
        Oslo dialect (Oslo)
        
        Midtøstland dialects (Mid-east districts)
        Ringerike dialects (Ringerike district)
        Hønefoss dialect (Hønefoss)
        
        Ådal dialect (Ådal)
        
        Oppland dialect (Opplandene district)
        Hedmark dialects (Hedmark)
        Solung dialect (Solør)
        
        Hadeland dialect (Hadeland district)
        
        Østerdal dialect (Viken district)
        Särna-Idre dialect (Särna and Idre)
        
        Midland dialects (Midland districts)
        Gudbrandsdal dialect (Gudbrandsdalen, Oppland and Upper Folldal, Hedmark)
        
        Hallingdal-Valdres dialects (Hallingdal, Valdres)
        Hallingdal dialect
        
        Valdris dialect (Valdres district)
        
        Telemark-Numedal dialects (Telemark and Numedal)
        Bø dialect
        
        other dialects
        
        Old Faroese ^†
        Middle Faroese ^†
        Modern Faroese
        
        Norn †
        Caithness Norn †
        
        Orkney Norn †
        
        Shetland Norn †
      - Old Icelandic ^†
        Middle Icelandic ^†
        Modern Icelandic
      - Greenlandic 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)
      - 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)
        
        Götamål (Götaland)
        
        East Swedish
        Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia
        
        Other dialects of Finland Swedish
        
        Estonian Swedish
        
        South Swedish
        
        Gutnish
        Old Gutnish ^†
        Modern Gutnish

Alternate classification of contemporary North Germanic languages based on mutual intelligibility

Insular Scandinavian
- Icelandic
- Faroese
Continental Scandinavian
- Danish
- Norwegian
- Swedish

East Germanic

See: East Germanic languages#Classification

External links

Germanic language tree Archived 2013-12-02 at the Wayback Machine

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).

[1] 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).

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