West Germanic languages

[[Image:Europe germanic languages.PNG|240px|thumb|right|The Germanic languages in Europe are divided into North (blue) and West Germanic (green and orange) Languages

]]

The West Germanic languages constitute the largest branch of the Germanic family of languages and includes languages such as German, English and Dutch. The other branches of the Germanic languages are the North and East Germanic languages.

History

From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups, West, East and North Germanic. 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 would have formed as a variety of Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture (ca. 1st century BC).

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 distinguishes the Low Saxon-Low Franconian languages and the High German 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 were a combination of a number of peoples from northern Germany and the Jutland Peninsula.

Family tree

Note that divisions between subfamilies of Germanic are rarely precisely defined; most form dialect continua, with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not.
* Anglo-Frisian
** Old English
*** Middle English (with a significant influx of words from Old French)
**** Early Modern English
***** Modern English
*** Northern Middle English aka Early ScotsSuch chronological terminology is widely used, for example, by Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. (Formally SNDA), Dr. Anne King of The University of Edinburgh and by The University of Glasgow. It is also used in The Oxford Companion to the English Language and The Cambridge History of English and American Literature. (with a significant influx of words from Anglo-Norman and Norse inherited from the Danelaw)
**** Middle Scots
***** Modern Scots varieties
** Frisian (descending from Old Frisian)
***West Frisian - Friesland, Netherlands
***East or Saterland Frisian - Germany
***North Frisian - Germany
*Low Saxon-Low Franconian
**Low Franconian
*** Dutch
**** Hollandic (in the Netherlands)
**** West Flemish (in West Flanders and nearby areas of Belgium, Zeeland in the Netherlands, and France)
**** East Flemish
**** Brabantic in Belgium and the Netherlands
**** Zuid-Gelders (in Germany and the Netherlands)
*** Limburgish (in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium) including Limburgs
*** Afrikaans (in South Africa and Namibia)
** Low Saxon
*** West Low Saxon
**** Westphalian (in Westphalia, in Germany)
**** Northern Low Saxon (in East Frisia / Eastern Friesland and other parts of Germany)
**** Eastphalian language
**** Dutch Low Saxon
*** East Low Saxon
**** Mecklenburgisch-Pommersch (in Mecklenburg)
**** East Pomeranian (in Brazil)
**** Brandenburgisch (in Brandenburg)
**** Low Prussian
* High German languages
**Standard German
** Central German
*** East Central German
**** Lower Silesian
**** Upper Saxon
*** West Central German
**** Luxembourgeois
**** West Central German
**** Pennsylvania German
** Upper German
*** Alemannic German
**** Swabian German
**** Low Alemannic German
***** Alemán Coloneiro
***** Alsatian language
***** Basel German
**** High Alemannic German
***** Bernese German
***** Zürich German
**** Highest Alemannic German
***** Walliser German
****** Walser German
*** Austro-Bavarian
**** Bavarian
**** Cimbrian (with a heavy influx of words from Italian)
**** Mocheno
**** Hutterite German (spoken by Hutterites)
** Yiddish (with a significant influx of words from Hebrew and Slavic languages and written in the Hebrew alphabet)
** Wymysojer

Notes

See also

* List of West Germanic languages
* List of Germanic and Latinate equivalents