Is English a Germanic language? Have you ever wondered this? If yes, then you will get your answer here shortly.
Stick to the article and know more about this thought. You’ll surely get some interesting facts.
The English Language
The start of English as a language can be traced back to the 5th and 7th centuries. English is a West Germanic language. It was also first spoken by the people of early medieval England.
English is also called after the Angles, which are some ancient Germanic people from Anglia. That is a Baltic Sea peninsula to the territory of Great Britain.
The Scots are English’s closest living relatives. Low Saxon and Frisian languages also trail it.
Thus, English is West Germanic in origin. It has a lexicon heavily impacted by Old Norman French and Latin.
Development In English – Is English A Germanic Language?
Modern period English was in use in England from the beginning of the Tudor period. It was during the Interim period, that developed into Modern English.
The writings of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible are Modern English. More precisely, it is Elizabethan English or Early Modern English.
The British Emperor’s territories and geopolitical dominance had aided the development. It helped the development of Modern English by the late eighteenth era.
English became the first worldwide language. That is due to commerce, science and technology, diplomacy, art, and formal learning.
The Pronouns:
Pronouns have the following characteristics when it comes to the English language:
– In support of one or the other, there is a loss of differentiation between “whom” and “who.”
– Singulars elevated to formal levels.
– Periodic adverbs should be in use before modal verbs.
The Verbs:
The features of Verbs in the English language are:
– Regularization of irregular verbs in English
– The present (“mandative”) English subjunctive is being revived.
– The word “shall” is no longer used to indicate the future tense in the first person.
– Support for the verb “have” has increased, as has the use of multi-word verbs.
– The auxiliary verbs “going to,” “want to,” and “gotta” are being developed.
– The use of specific present perfect and past perfect forms of English advance verbs.
What Are Germanic Languages?
The Germanic language is a branch of the Indo-European language group. It is also spoken by roughly 515 million persons around the world.
It is primarily in Europe, Oceania, North America, and Southern Africa. English is spoken extensively by Germans. Proto-Germanic was also expressed in Iron Age Scandinavia.
Alphabets In the English Language:
The continental printing practices had a significant impact. It is on growth in the alphabet and spelling. The letter thorn (þ), was supplanted by the symbol th. It is since Middle English was ultimately phased out.
Thorn was in Early Modern English printing by the Latin y. That looked close to thorn in black letter typeface (y). The letter’s remaining traces might be found in ligatures such as:
– The word Yt (that)
– Yu (thou)
– The word Ye (thee)
That could still be seen in the King James Bible of 1611. It is also in Shakespeare’s Folios.
It’s All About Grammar And Syntax:
The simple explanation is that English and German grammar are quite similar. The same case with the syntax. In a sentence, adjectives and adverbs come before nouns.
The Romance languages are the polar opposite. For example, in English, “the red car” is in use, but in Spanish, “el auto rojo” (or “the red car”) is in use.
For the same expression, Germans speak “rotes auto.” The structure of English sentences follows a simple linguistic structure. Subject-verb-object is the most fundamental structure.
For example, “The boy dashes to the house.” (The subject is ‘boy‘, the verb is ‘run‘, and the object is a ‘house.’) “Der junge rennt zum Haus” is a German expression.
The three most frequently spoken Germanic languages are German, English, and Dutch. English has roughly 360–400 million native speakers.
With over 100 million native speakers, Dutch and German are widely spoken. Other West Germanic languages include:
– Afrikaans, a Dutch offshoot with over 7.1 million speakers.
– Low German, a collection of unstandardized dialects.
– It has roughly 4.35-7.15 million native speakers.
– Probably 6.7–10 million people who can understand it.
History Of Germanic Languages
All Germanic languages came from a hypothetical Proto-Germanic. It connected through sound alterations.
These are also governed by Grimm’s and Verner’s laws. Such events occurred in Northern Europe during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.
It was around 500 BC. Proto-Germanic was most probably spoken after 500 BC. Later, until now, is very close to the reconstructed Proto-Germanic.
Germanic and Proto-Indo-European are separate in terms of common innovations. It has a similar history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers. It is throughout the Nordic Bronze Age.
Phonology:
The ancient Germanic languages share a number of characteristics. These are also thought to have come from Proto-Germanic.
The critical sound modifications are Verner’s Law and Grimm’s Law. That introduced a large number of fricatives that are phonetic.
Is English A Germanic Language?
Variations in the pronunciation of Germanic words also happened. These were before and during the Middle Ages.
These adjustments occurred in two major waves known as “acoustic shifts.” The changes in pronunciation began in the Germanic language areas’.
These were the southernmost region. It is modern-day Bavaria and Austria. Thus, it subsequently extended north and west. However, there became an advancement in these altered noises. It was Lautverschiebungen in German.
Gradually it died out in modern-day northern Germany. Also, the modifications never made it to England.
Germanic words were brought to England by groups like the Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. These show much older language forms. It was than that of their contemporary German counterparts.
That is also why many words in North German dialects are so similar to English. Between modern English and modern German, sound changes occurred.
Phonetic Factors:
These offer identifiable phonetic factors such as:
– A starting p, as well as p at the end of a word, became pf.
– The alteration never reached England. The German words Apfel and Pfund have replaced the English words. These are apple and pound.
– Between two vowels, the p sound becomes a f sound. It also occurs at the conclusion of a word.
– As a result, the Germans have Pfeffer and Schiff. On the other hand, the English have pepper and ship.
– The d tone changed to t. The shift never entered England. The Germans have triumphed. The English have perished.
– The last or first th changed to d. Dorn and Herd are German terms. Thorn and hearth are English words.
– The v sound altered to i sound. However, this had little effect on English.
– As a result, the German word eben is use instead of even in English.
– The y was also changed to g.
– These days, the German verb sagen is in use. On the other hand, the English equivalent is speak.
– The first or terminal z has altered to t. This clarifies many differences. The difference between German zu and Herz. Same is the case with English to and heart.
Conclusion:
Thus have you found the answer? Is English a Germanic language? The German language is one of the easiest languages to learn for native English speakers. That is due to the both languages are actual grammatical sisters.
These have descended from the same mother language. In reality, 80 of English’s top a 100 terms are of Germanic origin.
The Germanic family has subgroups. English, with Dutch and German belongs to the West Germanic family. Thus English purely a Germanic language in regard of:
– Grammar
– Stress
– Vocabulary
– Cognates
Learning English would be easy for you. By having familiarity with the Germanic languages.
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