From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Germanic languages include some 58 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects that originated in Europe; this language family is a 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

The all descend from Proto-Germanic, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.

† denotes extinct languages.

West Germanic

Continental West Germanic

• High German languages
  • Old High German †
    • Central German
      • East Central German
      • West Central German
        • Luxembourgish
        • Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania)
    • Upper German
      • Alemannic German
        • Swabian German, including Stuttgart
        • Low Alemannic German, including the area of Lake Constance and Basel German
          • Alsatian
        • High Alemannic German, including Zürich German and Bernese German
        • Highest Alemannic German, including the Bernese Oberland dialects and Walliser German
      • Austro-Bavarian German
        • Old Austro-Bavarian†
          • Middle Austro-Bavarian†
            • Modern Austro-Bavarian
              • Northern Austro-Bavarian (including Nuremberg)
              • Central Austro-Bavarian (including Munich and Vienna)
              • Southern Austro-Bavarian (including Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, and Bolzano, Italy)
                • Mócheno
                • Cimbrian
    • Hutterite German aka "Tirolean"
    • Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet)
    • Wymysorys (with a significant influence from Low Saxon, Dutch, Polish, and Scots)
• Low German
  • Old Saxon†
    • West Low German
      • Northern Low Saxon
        • East Frisian Low Saxon and Groningan Low Saxon
      • Westphalian language
      • Eastphalian language
    • East Low German
      • Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low Saxon)
• Low Franconian
  • Old Frankish†
    • Old Dutch†
      • Middle Dutch†
        • Modern Dutch
          • Brabantic
          • Zealandic
          • West Flemish
          • East Flemish
          • Hollandic
          • Limburgish
          • Zuid-Gelders-Low Rhenish
          • Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages)

North-Sea Germanic

• Anglo-Frisian
  • Old Frisian†
    • Frisian
      • Stadsfries language
      • 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
  • English group
    • English language
      • Old English†
        • Middle English† (significant influx of words from Old French)
          • Early Modern English†
            • Modern English
              • British English (English English, including Northern English, 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
              • 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
            • Northern
              • North Northern
              • Mid Northern (North East)
              • South Northern
            • Central Scots
              • North East
              • South East Central
              • West Central
              • South West Central
            • Southern Scots
            • Insular Scots
              • Orcadian
              • Shetlandic
            • Ulster Scots
    • Yola†

North Germanic

• Proto-Norse†
  • Old Norse†
    • West Scandinavian
      • Norwegian (generally Western branch, but heavy influence from Eastern branch)
        • Bokmål (official written standard)
        • Høgnorsk (unofficial written standard)
        • Landsmål (unofficial written standard)
        • Nynorsk (official written standard)
        • Riksmål (unofficial written standard)
        • Vestlandsk
          • Sørlandsk
          • South-West Norwegian
          • Bergen Norwegian/Bergensk
          • North-West Norwegian
        • Nord-Norsk
          • Helgeland Norwegian
          • Nordland Norwegian
          • Troms Norwegian
          • Finnmark Norwegian
        • East Norwegian
          • Vikvær Norwegian
          • Middle East Norwegian
          • Oppland Norwegian
          • Østerdal Norwegian
        • Midland Norwegian
          • Gudbrandsdal Norwegian
          • Valdres and Hallingdal
          • Western Telemark Norwegian
          • Eastern Telemark Norwegian
        • Trøndelag Norwegian
          • Outer Trøndelag Norwegian
          • Inner Trøndelag Norwegian
          • Namdal Norwegian
          • South-eastern Trøndersk
          • Jamtlandic (significant influx of words from Swedish)
          • Herdalian (significant influx of words from Swedish)
      • Icelandic
        • Old Icelandic^†
          • Middle Icelandic^†
            • Modern Icelandic
      • Gøtudanskt (Faroese Street Danish)
      • Faroese
        • Old Faroese^†
          • Middle Faroese^†
            • Modern Faroese
      • Norn†
        • Caithness Norn†
        • Orkney Norn†
        • Shetland Norn†
    • East Scandinavian
      • Danish
        • Old Danish
          • Middle Danish
            • Modern Danish
              • • Bornholmsk
                • Island Danish
                • Jutlandic/Jutish
                  • North Jutlandic
                  • East Jutlandic
                  • West Jutlandic
                    • South Jutlandic (Danish: Slesvig; German: Schleswig)
      • Swedish
        • Old Swedish
          • Modern Swedish
            • 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)
            • Norrlandic
            • Götish
            • East Swedish/Finland Swedish
            • South Swedish
              • Scanian
            • Gutnish
              • Old Gutnish†
              • Modern Gutnish

Alternate classification of contemporary North Germanic languages

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

East Germanic

• • East Germanic^†
    • Burgundian^†
    • Crimean Gothic^†
    • Gothic^†
    • Vandalic^†

External links

• Germanic language tree

References