Germanic Languages Overview

A common ancestor language from which all Germanic languages are believed to have originated.

The earliest known written form of a Germanic language, used by the Goths.

A family of languages within the Germanic branch, including English, German, Dutch, Frisian, and Afrikaans.

A family of languages within the West Germanic branch, encompassing Standard German and its dialects.

A family of languages within the West Germanic branch, including English and Frisian.

A family of languages within the Germanic branch, comprising languages spoken in Scandinavia, like Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.

A family of languages within the Germanic branch, including Gothic, Burgundian, and Vandalic.

The study of the sounds of language.

The study of how sounds are organized and used in a language.

A language that no longer has native speakers.

A language that is spoken across different countries and has official status in these countries.

Variations in pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar within a single language.

The process where a language undergoes changes over time.

The influence of one language on another.

The study of the history of languages.

A system of writing that reflects the sounds of a language.

The vowel sound that emphasizes the first part of the sound.

The vowel sound that emphasizes the second part of the sound.

The emphasis placed on a syllable in a word.

The rising and falling pitch of a voice during speech.

The first stage of High German, beginning in the mid-8th century with the second sound shift. Old High German texts included religious and secular works.

The second stage of High German, following Old High German, characterized by minnesong, chivalric epics, and verse narratives.

The third stage of High German, beginning around 1350, marked by Luther's influence on the development of the standard language.

The final stage of High German, beginning around 1650, encompassing the language of today.

A group of dialects that shared the second sound shift and formed the basis of the standard German language.

A variety of German spoken in the north, distinct from High German, known for historical importance in the Hanseatic League.

The process of gradually developing a standard language from various dialects, influenced by grammarians and language teachers.

A key linguistic change that occurred in the development of German, affecting the pronunciation of consonants.

A type of intonation used in declarative statements and word questions in German. The final stressed syllable is higher than preceding ones, and subsequent syllables descend below the sentence level.

A type of intonation used during pauses in German, often between main and subordinate clauses. It doesn't follow a specific direction.

A type of intonation typically used in yes-or-no questions (decision questions) in German. The final stressed syllable is lower than preceding ones, and subsequent syllables rise above the sentence level.

German is a language with extensive inflectional morphology. Nouns, pronouns, and adjectives have four cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative), three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and two numbers (singular and plural).

German verbs are categorized into strong or weak based on their conjugation pattern, reflecting their inflection.

The grammatical gender associated with a German noun, which can be feminine, masculine, or neuter.

The process of changing the form of a noun based on its grammatical function in a sentence.

The four categories that nouns are classified into based on their function within a sentence: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative.

The use of "der" to mark the genitive case in the singular and the dative case in the plural.

The genitive case is losing ground to constructions using prepositions and the dative case.

A word formed from an adjective or verb, adopting the neuter gender.

Suffixes such as '-keit' and '-heit' are typically feminine, indicating an abstract noun.

The present tense in German can be used in place of the preterite or perfect tense to describe past events, especially in storytelling or historical contexts. It's called the "historical present."

In colloquial German, the present tense is often used to express future events, especially when it's combined with adverbs of time or place.

The preterite tense is the most common way to tell stories in German, especially in northern Germany.

The perfect tense is more common than the preterite in southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, except when used with auxiliary or modal verbs.

German word order is a mix of subject-verb-object (SVO) and subject-object-verb (SOV) structures. It also uses subordinate clauses, often introduced by conjunctions.

German sentence structure often involves a "sentence bracket" formed by the inflected and uninflected forms of the verb.

The majority of German vocabulary comes from the ancient Germanic language family, with some influence from Latin, Greek, French, and English.

The Germanic branch of the Indo-European family is a large group of related languages including English, German, Dutch, Swedish, and many others.