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Germanic languages
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Germanic languages

Branch of the Indo-European language family, divided into East Germanic (Gothic, now extinct), North Germanic (Danish, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish), and West Germanic (Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Flemish, Frisian, German, Yiddish).

The Germanic languages differ from the other Indo-European languages most prominently in the consonant shift known as Grimm's law: the sounds p, t, k became either (as in English) f, th, h or (as in Old High German) f, d, h. Thus, the typical Indo-European of the Latin pater is father in English and Fater in Old High German. In addition, the Indo-European b, d, g moved to become p, t, k (in English) or (in Old High German) f, ts, kh; compare Latin duo, English two, and German zwei (pronounced tsvai).



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? Mentioned in ? References in periodicals archive
 
Denton (2003) examines the various effects of /r/ in early Germanic dialects and concludes that, whereas Proto-Germanic *r may have begun as an apical trill at least in onset positions, it was definitely weakened in postvocalic positions in North and West Germanic, developing approximant allophones.
A Shibboleth upon their tongues: early English /r/ revisited by Gasiorowski, Piotr / Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies
Given the evidence provided by the other Germanic dialects (cf.
Grammatical change in Old English strong verbs: early traces of ... by Adamczyk, Elzbieta / Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies
It is followed by a synthesis of possible classifications of Germanic dialects, including the three alternative models for the grouping, namely the Gotho-Nordic hypothesis, the North-West Germanic theory and the theory of simultaneous three-fold subdivision.
The continental backgrounds of English and its insular development ... by Mickiewicz, Adam / Studia Anglica Posnaniensia: international review of English Studies
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