Table of Contents
Where did the German and English language come from?
English has its roots in the Germanic languages, from which German and Dutch also developed, as well as having many influences from romance languages such as French. (Romance languages are so called because they are derived from Latin which was the language spoken in ancient Rome.)
Was English and German the same language?
English is a Germanic language Indeed, both the German and English languages are considered to be members of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, meaning they are still closely related today. Furthermore, the modern languages have both loaned words from Latin, Greek and French.
When did Germanic languages come to England?
English is a West Germanic language that originated from Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain in the mid 5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands.
When did German become a language?
The first written Germanic language was created in the 4th Century, by Bishop Ulfilas, who used Latin and Greek orthography to create a version of the Bible in Gothic.
How similar are Old English and Old German?
Modern German is also a Germanic language. They are both descended from a common ancestral language. Old English was also strongly influenced by Old Norse and Old Danish both of which are also (North) Germanic languages. All of them are clearly related and share many words ( with variations).
What family does the Germanic language belong to?
German, English, Swedish, and the other Germanic languages belong to the Indo-European family, but they’re odd members. They and Proto-Germanic, their common grandparent, have a lot of vocabulary and grammar utterly unlike other Indo-European languages.
What is the earliest evidence of the Germanic languages?
The earliest evidence of Germanic languages comes from names recorded in the 1st century by Tacitus (especially from his work Germania), but the earliest Germanic writing occurs in a single instance in the 2nd century BC on the Negau helmet.
How similar is Proto-Germanic vocabulary to other Indo-European languages?
Fully one-third of Proto-Germanic vocabulary has no relation to other Indo-European words. But it does often resemble Semitic vocabulary. The Proto-Germanic word for maiden, for instance, is something like magath. The early Semitic version was makhat.
Are the West Germanic languages mutually intelligible?
On paper, the West Germanic languages can look extremely similar (especially if you’re comparing Dutch and Afrikaans, but we’ll get to that in a minute). However, just because the words look alike, it doesn’t mean they’re mutually intelligible. For one, German maintains a complicated grammatical case system that most of the others got rid of.