1. The Old Germanic Ls, their classification and principal features.

1. East Germanic Ls

The East Germanic tribes were known as the Goths. One of the most numerous and powerful Germanic tribes, returned form Scandinavia around 200 A.D. and settled in the east of Europe. two major branches: Visigotæ (lived on present-day France) –Celtic Dialects; Ostrogotæ (lived on present-day northern Italy) –the Gothic L (dead).

Other East Germanic tribes (Burgundians, Vandals, Langobards) also had their Ls.

The Gothic L was the most important of the old germanic Ls because: Oldest written records – 4^th – 6^th c. A.D. The Goths were the first Germans to become Christians. The Gothic, having the earliest written records among the Germanic Ls, is considered to be very close to the Proto-Germanic L and throws some light on the history of this common Proto-Germanic L.

2. North Germanic Ls

The North Germanic tribes settled on the southern coast of Scandinavia and in Northern Denmark (since the 4^th c. A.D.). They lived relatively isolated and showed little dialectal variation at that time.

One common L – Old Norse/Old Scandinavian:

It used the original Germanic Alphabet called the Runes/the Runic Alphabet. It appeared in the 3^rd – 4^th c. A.D. It has come down to us in runic inscriptions – separate words written/carved on objects made of wood, stone, metal. It was spoken by all North Germanic tribes.

In Scandinavia the linguistic division = the political division: there were 3 kingdoms (Sweden, Denmark and Norway) that were constantly fighting for dominance and they had 3 respective Ls (earliest records in these Ls date back to the 13^th c.): Old Danish – later it developed into Danish; Old Swedish - later it developed into Swedish; Old Norwegian – was the last to develop, later transformed into Norwegian

In the 8^th c. A.D. sea-rovers and merchants founded numerous colonies on the islands in the North Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean (the Shetland Islands, the Orkneys, the Faroe Islands) and reached even Iceland and Greenland. Thus two more North Germanic Ls appeared: Faroese (In the Faroe Islands the writing was done in Danish for centuries. The first written records in Faroese appeared only in the 18^th c.); Icelandic (9^th c. A.D.)

The Icelandic L was the most important of all north Germanic Ls because:

1. The isolation of Iceland caused the preservation of archaic vocabulary and grammatical system.

2. The preservation of archaic vocabulary and grammatical system makes this L very close to Old Norse and helps to reconstruct this ancient common Germanic L.

3. Icelandic has the largest body of written texts (12^th – 13^th c.), e.g.: “The Elder Edda” (12^th c.) – a collection of heroic songs; “The Younger Edda” (13^th c.) – a text-book for poets; Old Icelandic Sagas.

3. West Germanic Ls

The West Germanic tribes lived between the Oder and the Elbe and they never left the mainland.

• the Franconians (Low, Middle and High Franconians) – settled the lower basin of the Rhine and with time began to speak the L of the Romanised Celts,

• the Angles, the Saxons, the Jutes and the Frisians – settled the coastal territories of the Netherlands, Germany, the south of Denmark and the British Isles. The Ls they spoke were: OE – later developed into  English (national L – 16^th c.; first written records – 7^th c.); Old Saxon – later developed into a territorial dialect in Germany; Old Frisian – later developed into  Frisian

• High Germans – settled the southern mountainous areas of Germany and spoke Old High German that later developed into two distinctive Ls: German and Yiddish.

The Germanic Ls in the Modern world, their classification.

The Germanic Ls in the Modern world are as follows:

English – in GB, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and many other former British colonies and dominions: German – Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein; Netherlandish – in the Netherland, Belgium; Africaans – in the South African Republic; Danish – in Denmark; Swedish – in Sweden and Finland; Norwegian – in Norway; Icelandic – in Iceland; Frisian – in some regions of the Netherlands and Germany; Faroese – in the Faroe Islands; Yiddish – in different countries.

Until recently Dutch and Flemish were named as separate Ls.; Frisian and Faroese are often reffered to as dialects, since they are spoken over small, politically dependent areas; Br E and Am E are sometimes regarded as two independent Ls.

It is difficult to estimate the number of people speaking Germanic Ls, especially on account of English, which in many countries is one of two Ls on a bilingual community. The estimates for English range from 250 to 300 mln people who have it their mother tongue. The total number of people speaking Germanic Ls approaches 440 mln.

All the Germanic Ls are related through their common origin and joint development at the early steges of history.