Editing Germanic languages (section)

==History==
{{Germanic tribes (750BC-1AD)}}
[[File:Old norse, ca 900.PNG|thumb|250px|The approximate extent of Germanic languages in the early 10th century:
{{legend|#ff0000|'''[[w:Old West Norse|Old West Norse]]'''}}
{{legend|#FF8040|'''[[w:Old East Norse|Old East Norse]]'''}}
{{legend|#ff00ff|'''[[w:Old Gutnish|Old Gutnish]]'''}}
{{legend|#ffff00|'''[[w:Old English|Old English]]''' ([[w:West Germanic languages|West Germanic]])}}
{{legend|#00ff00|Continental West Germanic languages ([[Old Frisian]], [[Old Saxon]], [[Old Dutch]], [[Old High German]]).}}
{{legend|#0000ff|'''[[w:Crimean Gothic|Crimean Gothic]]''' ([[w:East Germanic|East Germanic]])}}]]

All Germanic languages are thought to be descended from a hypothetical [[Proto-Germanic language|Proto-Germanic]], united by subjection to the sound shifts of [[Grimm's law]] and [[Verner's law]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Germanic languages {{!}} Definition, Language Tree, & List {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Germanic-languages |access-date=11 June 2024 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en |archive-date=29 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231229072734/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Germanic-languages |url-status=live }}</ref> These probably took place during the [[Pre-Roman Iron Age]] of Northern Europe from {{Circa|500 BC}}. Proto-Germanic itself was likely spoken after {{Circa|500 BC}},{{sfnp|Ringe|2006|p=67}} and [[Proto-Norse]] from the 2nd century AD and later is still quite close to reconstructed Proto-Germanic, but other common innovations separating Germanic from [[Proto-Indo-European]] suggest a common history of pre-Proto-Germanic speakers throughout the [[Nordic Bronze Age]].

From the time of their earliest attestation, the Germanic varieties are divided into three groups: [[West Germanic languages|West]], [[East Germanic languages|East]], and [[North Germanic languages|North]] Germanic. Their exact relation is difficult to determine from the sparse evidence of runic inscriptions.

The western group would have formed in the late [[Jastorf culture]], and the eastern group may be derived from the 1st-century [[Old Gutnish|variety]] of [[Gotland]], leaving southern Sweden as the original location of the northern group. The earliest period of [[Elder Futhark]] (2nd to 4th centuries) predates the division in regional script variants, and linguistically essentially still reflects the [[Common Germanic]] stage. The [[Vimose inscriptions]] include some of the oldest datable Germanic inscriptions, starting in {{Circa|160 AD}}.

The earliest coherent Germanic text preserved is the 4th-century [[Gothic language|Gothic]] translation of the [[New Testament]] by [[Ulfilas]]. Early testimonies of West Germanic are in [[Old Frankish]]/[[Old Dutch]] (the 5th-century [[Bergakker inscription]]), [[Old High German]] (scattered words and sentences 6th century and coherent texts 9th century), and [[Old English language|Old English]] (oldest texts 650, coherent texts 10th century). North Germanic is only attested in scattered runic inscriptions, as [[Proto-Norse language|Proto-Norse]], until it evolves into [[Old Norse]] by about 800.

Longer runic inscriptions survive from the 8th and 9th centuries ([[Eggjum stone]], [[Rök stone]]), longer texts in the Latin alphabet survive from the 12th century ({{Lang|is|[[Íslendingabók]]}}), and some [[skaldic poetry]] dates back to as early as the 9th century.

By about the 10th century, the varieties had diverged enough to make [[mutual intelligibility]] difficult. The linguistic contact of the [[Viking]] settlers of the [[Danelaw]] with the [[Anglo-Saxons]] left traces in the English language and is suspected to have facilitated the collapse of Old English grammar that, combined with the influx of [[Romance languages|Romance]] [[Old French]] vocabulary after the [[Norman Conquest]], resulted in [[Middle English]] from the 12th century.

The East Germanic languages were marginalized from the end of the Migration Period. The [[Burgundians]], [[Goths]], and [[Vandals]] became linguistically assimilated by their respective neighbors by about the 7th century, with only [[Crimean Gothic language|Crimean Gothic]] lingering on until the 18th century.

During the early Middle Ages, the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Middle English on one hand and by the [[High German consonant shift]] on the continent on the other, resulting in [[Upper German]] and [[Low German|Low Saxon]], with graded intermediate [[Central German]] varieties. By early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from [[Highest Alemannic German|Highest Alemannic]] in the South to [[Northern Low Saxon]] in the North, and, although both extremes are considered German, they are hardly mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties had completed the second sound shift, while the northern varieties remained unaffected by the consonant shift.

The North Germanic languages, on the other hand, remained unified until well past 1000 AD, and in fact the mainland Scandinavian languages still largely retain mutual intelligibility into modern times. The main split in these languages is between the mainland languages and the island languages to the west, especially [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], which has maintained the grammar of Old Norse virtually unchanged, while the mainland languages have diverged greatly.