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East Germanic languages
Group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family
Group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | East Germanic |
| region | Varying depending on time (4th–18th centuries), currently all languages are extinct |
| Until late 4th century: | |
| Central and Eastern Europe (as far as Crimea) | |
| late 4th–early 10th centuries: | |
| Much of southern, western, southeastern, and eastern Europe (as far as Crimea) and North Africa | |
| early 10th–late 18th centuries — disputed (cp. Crimean Gothic): | |
| Isolated areas in Eastern Europe (as far as Crimea) | |
| familycolor | Indo-European |
| fam2 | Germanic |
| child1 | Gothic † |
| child2 | Vandalic † |
| child3 | ? Burgundian † |
| iso5 | gme |
| glotto | east2805 |
| glottorefname | East Germanic |
| child4 | ? Herulian † |
| child5 | ? Skirian † |
Until late 4th century: Central and Eastern Europe (as far as Crimea) late 4th–early 10th centuries: Much of southern, western, southeastern, and eastern Europe (as far as Crimea) and North Africa early 10th–late 18th centuries — disputed (cp. Crimean Gothic): Isolated areas in Eastern Europe (as far as Crimea)
The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Germanic languages that were spoken by East Germanic peoples. East Germanic is one of the primary branches of Germanic languages, along with North Germanic and West Germanic.
The only East Germanic language of which texts are known is Gothic, although a word list and some short sentences survive from the debatably-related Crimean Gothic. Other East Germanic languages include Vandalic and Burgundian, though the only remnants of these languages are in the form of isolated words and short phrases. Furthermore, the inclusion of Burgundian has been called into doubt. Crimean Gothic is believed to have survived until the 18th century in isolated areas of Crimea.
Origin
The consensus view is that, of the three main branches of Germanic, East Germanic was the first to branch off, likely originating on the Baltic Sea and moving southward. Earlier scholarship sometimes instead proposed that the North Germanic languages were closely related to the East Germanic languages.
Classification
- East Germanic †
- Gothic †
- Vandalic †
- Burgundian †
- Crimean Gothic † (disputed, alternatively considered to be West Germanic)
Whereas historians use ethnographic and historical sources to determine whether Germanic groups were "East Germanic peoples," this information is not relevant to linguists. Because only Gothic is well preserved, there are no clear linguistic criteria that characterize all of the languages classified as East Germanic. According to the late-antique historian Procopius of Caesarea, the Ostrogoths, Vandals, Visigoths, and the Gepids all spoke a single Gothic language; this in turn means that linguists often apply the innovations of Gothic to the whole East Germanic group.
Frederik Hartmann argues that East Germanic is not a valid genetic clade, as the three most attested languages conventionally identified as east Germanic (Burgundian, Vandalic, Gothic) do not share any common innovations with each other and all independently split from Proto-Germanic. Hartmann instead prefers the term Eastern rim languages to refer to these languages.
References
Sources
- Demougeot, E. La formation de l'Europe et les invasions barbares, Paris: Editions Montaigne, 1969–74.
- Kaliff, Anders. 2001. Gothic Connections. Contacts between eastern Scandinavia and the southern Baltic coast 1000 BCE – 500 CE.
- Musset, L. Les invasions: les vagues germanique, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1965.
- Nordgren, I. 2004. Well Spring of The Goths. About the Gothic Peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the Continent.
- “Gothic Language.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 20 July 1998, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gothic-language.
References
- Wolfram, Herwig. (1997). "The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples". [[University of California Press]].
- Heinz Mettke, ''Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik'', 8th ed., Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen, 2000, p. 16 (chart) and 17: „Hauptvertreter des Ostgermanischen ist das Gotische (Wulfilas Bibelübersetzung aus dem 4. Jh.), ferner gehören dazu das Burgundische, das Vandalische und das Rugische.“
- Peter Ernst, ''Deutsche Sprachgeschichte'', 3rd ed., 2021, p. 50: „Ostgermanisch (†): Gotisch, Vandalisch, Burgundisch, Rugisch, u.a. [= und andere]“
- Harald Haarmann, ''Die Indoeuropäer: Herkunft, Sprachen, Kulturen'', Verlag C.H.Beck, München, 2010, p. 71: „Ostgermanisch (ausgestorben): Gotisch, Gepidisch, Burgundisch, Vandalisch, Herulisch“
- Georg F. Meier, Barbara Meier, ''Handbuch der Linguistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft: Band 1: Sprache, Sprachentstehung, Sprachen'', Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1979, p. 73: „1.5.1.2. übrige ostgermanische Sprachen
Dazu gehören: ''Vandalisch, Herulisch, Rugisch, Gepidisch, Burgundisch, Bastarnisch'' und ''Skirisch''. Diese Sprachen sind meist nur durch kurze Inschriften bzw. aus historischen Quellen bekannt.“
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