...The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE) language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe. Proto-Germanic, along with all of its descendants, is characterized by a number of unique linguistic features, most famously the consonant change known as Grimm's law. Early varieties of Germanic enter history with the Germanic peoples moving down from northern Europe in the second century BC, to settle in northern central Europe, along the boundary of Celtic civilisation, in the northerly lands of the future Roman Empire. Read full entry
This entry is from Wikipedia,the leading user-contributed encyclopedia.It may not have been reviewed by professional editors(See full disclaimer)
- 1.Germanic languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Indo-European languages (list) Albanian · Armenian · Baltic. Celtic · Germanic · Greek ... The most widely spoken Germanic languages are English and German, with ...
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G
ermanic_language
- 2.Germanic Languages
- This page presents a tree of Germanic Languages and capsule descriptions of them. ... It is said that the East Germanic languages were probably all very similar. ...
- http://softrat.home.mindspring
.com/germanic.html
 |
Germanic languages?
How hard would it be for
someone who already knows
English to learn German,
Danish, Sweidsh, Dutch, or
Norwegian. They're all
germanic languages, I know
they have differences, but how
far doy ou think you'd get
after studying one of these
languages for a year, how long
does it typically take to pick
up the accent?
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
It will depend mainly on three things - your innate ability to learn languages, the quality of your instructor / instructions, and the intensity of your training in the language. As an example: Denmark has had two princesses coming from English-speaking backgrounds and both spoke Danish more or less perfectly well within a year, though of course still with an accent. But they did have highly qualified teachers and very intense training. Still, if you lived in one of these countries and also took classes (and applied yourself and weren't afraid to make lots of mistakes :-) ), you could probably learn to speak it really well even in such a relatively short time as a year. For English speakers the most difficult thing is probably some parts of the pronunciation. There seem to be certain sounds that are just very difficult for English-speakers to pronounce, f.ex. the Danish, German (at least the north of Germany) and Dutch r-sounds. Although they are all Germanic languages, the individual sounds and intonations vary quite a lot, so although you will find similarities (especially between Danish, Norwegian and Swedish) in writing and basic structure, which might make it easier for you to learn the language at all, the spoken language (reproducing the correct sounds I mean) still presents no less an obstacle than if you were trying to learn a Roman language for example. And if by picking up the accent you mean that you won't have a foreign accent, then I would say that unless you have an extraordinary gift for languages that will never happen, but you can get close. |
|
|
|
|
|
College that has germanic I take german now, but I would
love to learn the culture and
languages from the
Netherlands, Sweden, Norway,
Finland, and even Iceland.
Anything Nordic or Germanic
would be great to study. I am
looking for colleges that have
great classes on these
subjects. Anyone who knows of
any or has any personal
experience with these subjects
would be great.
|
|
|
|
|
|
UCLA - has all that you're looking for. |
|
|
|
|
|
How much of modern english has Old english was basically
German, Since then English has
got alot of French, Spanish,
Latin and other languages
combined into.
What percentage of Modern
English words have historic
ties to German or Germanic
languages.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Please keep in mind the difference between "German," the language (Deutsch) spoken in Germany, and "Germanic," the ancestral language (sometimes called Proto-Germanic) of the Germanic languages, like German, Dutch, English, etc. They are not the same thing. According to the Wikipedia article on the English Language that quotes several surveys, 25% of Modern English words are taken directly from Old English (the Germanic source). Here's what it says about a survey of 80,000 words: * Langue d'oïl, including French and Old Norman: 28.3% * Latin, including modern scientific and technical Latin: 28.24% * Other Germanic languages (including words directly inherited from Old English): 25% * Greek: 5.32% * No etymology given: 4.03% * Derived from proper names: 3.28% * All other languages contributed less than 1% Calling German and Germanic the same thing would be something like considering Italian and Latin the same languages, respectively, which is incorrect. |
|
|
|
|
* Indicates a required fieldAdd your knowledge or ask a question:
