List of Germanic languages

Template:Short description Template:Multiple The Germanic languages include some 58 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects that originated in Europe; this language family is part of the Indo-European language family. Each subfamily in this list contains subgroups and individual languages.

The standard division of Germanic is into three branches:

• East Germanic languages
• North Germanic languages
• West Germanic languages

They all descend from Proto-Germanic, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European.

South Germanic languages, an attempt to classify some of the West Germanic languages into a separate group, is rejected by the overwhelming majority of scholars.

† denotes extinct languages.

West Germanic

• Proto-West Germanic
  • High German languages
    • Old High German† & Middle High German†
      • Modern German
        • Upper German
          • High Franconian
            • East Franconian
            • South Franconian
          • Alemannic
            • Swabian, including Stuttgart
            • Low Alemannic, including the area of Lake Constance and Basel German
              • Alsatian
              • Colonia Tovar German
            • Central Alemannic
              • Argentinien-schwyzertütsch
            • Italian Walser
            • High Alemannic, including Zürich German and Bernese German
            • Highest Alemannic, including the Bernese Oberland dialects and Walliser German
          • Bavarian
            • Northern Bavarian (including Nuremberg)
            • Central Bavarian (including Munich and Vienna)
            • Southern Bavarian (including Innsbruck, Klagenfurt, and Bolzano, Italy)
              • Hutterite German aka "Tirolean"
            • Mócheno
            • Cimbrian
        • Central German
          • West Central German
            • Amana German
            • Central Franconian
              • Ripuarian Franconian
              • Moselle Franconian
                • Hunsrik
                • Luxembourgish
                • Transylvanian Saxon
            • Rhine Franconian
              • Hessian
              • Palatine
                • Pennsylvania German (spoken by the Amish and other groups in southeastern Pennsylvania
              • Lorraine Franconian
          • East Central German
            • Thuringian
            • Upper Saxon
            • North Upper Saxon–South Markish
            • Silesian
              • Halcnovian
              • Wymysorys (with a significant influence from Low Saxon, Dutch, Polish, and Scots)
            • High Prussian
        • Yiddish (with a significant influx of vocabulary from Hebrew and other languages, and traditionally written in the Hebrew alphabet)
          • Eastern Yiddish
          • Western Yiddish
  • Low Franconian languages
    • Old Frankish†
      • Old Low Franconian†
        • Old East Low Franconian† / Old Limburgian†
          • Middle Limburgian†
            • Limburgian
        • Old West Low Franconian† / Old Dutch†
          • Middle Dutch†
            • Modern Dutch
              • West Flemish
              • East Flemish
              • Zeelandic
              • Central Dutch
                • Hollandic
                • Kleverlandish
              • Brabantine
                • Brusselian
              • Stadsfries dialects
            • Afrikaans (with a significant influx of vocabulary from other languages)
  • Low German languages
    • Old Saxon† & Middle Low German†
      • Modern Low German
        • West Low German
          • Northern Low Saxon
          • East Frisian Low Saxon
          • Westphalian
          • Eastphalian
        • East Low German
          • Brandenburgisch
          • Mecklenburgisch-Vorpommersch
          • Middle Pomeranian
          • East Pomeranian
          • Low Prussian
          • Plautdietsch (Mennonite Low German, used also in many other countries)
  • Anglo-Frisian languages
    • Old Frisian†
      • Frisian
        • West Frisian languages
          • West Frisian language (spoken in the Netherlands)
            • Clay Frisian (Klaaifrysk)
            • Wood Frisian (Wâldfrysk)
              • Noardhoeks
            • South Frisian (Súdhoeks)
            • Southwest Frisian (Súdwesthoeksk)
            • Schiermonnikoogs
            • Hindeloopers
            • Aasters
            • Westers
        • East Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
          • Saterland Frisian
          • Wangerooge Frisian†
          • Wursten Frisian†
        • North Frisian language (spoken in Germany)
          • Mainland Frisian
            • Mooring
            • Goesharde Frisian
            • Wiedingharde Frisian
            • Halligen Frisian
            • Karrharde Frisian
          • Island Frisian
            • Söl'ring
            • Fering
            • Öömrang
            • Heligolandic
    • Anglic
      • English language (dialects)
        • Old English†
          • Middle English† (significant influx of words from Old French)
            • Early Modern English†
              • Modern English
                • British English (English English, including Northern English, East Midlands English, West Midlands English, Southern English, and others, Welsh English, Scottish English) and Irish English
                • North American English (American English and Canadian English)
                • Australian English and New Zealand English
                • South African English
                • Zimbabwean English
                • South Asian English (Indian English)
                • South East Asian English (Philippine English, Singapore English, Malaysian English)
                • West Indian English (Caribbean English)
      • Lowland Scots
        • Early Scots†<ref>From early Northern Middle English (Aitken, A. J. and McArthur, T. Eds. (1979) Languages of Scotland. Edinburgh,Chambers. p. 87). McClure (1991) gives Northumbrian Old English in The Cambridge History of the English Language Vol. 5. p. 23. In the Oxford Companion to the English Language (p. 894) the 'sources' of Scots are described as "the Old English of the Kingdom of Bernicia" and "the Scandinavian-influenced English of immigrants from Northern and Midland England in the 12-13c [...]." The historical stages 'Older—Middle—Modern Scots' are used, for example, in the "Concise Scots Dictionary" (Robinson M. (ed.) (1985) the "Concise Scots Dictionary, Chambers, Edinburgh. p. xiii) and "A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue" (Dareau M., Pike l. and Watson, H (eds) (2002) "A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue" Vol. XII, Oxford University Press. p. xxxiv Template:Webarchive).</ref>
          • Middle Scots†
            • Modern Scots
              • Glasgow
              • Northern Scots
                • North Northern
                  • Black Isle and Easter Ross
                    • Cromarty†
                • Mid Northern (North East Scots or the Doric)
                • South Northern
              • Central Scots
              • Southern Scots
              • Insular Scots
                • Orcadian
                • Shetland dialect
              • Ulster Scots
      • Yola†
      • Fingallian†

North Germanic

Ancestral classification

• Proto-Norse ^†
  • Old Norse ^†
    • West Scandinavian
      • Old West Norse ^†
        • Old Norwegian ^†
          • Middle Norwegian ^†
            • Modern Norwegian dialects
              • Template:Ill (Northern Norway)
                • Template:Ill (Bodø)
                • Brønnøy dialect (Brønnøy)
                • Template:Ill (Helgeland)
                • other dialects
              • Trøndersk (Trøndelag)
                • Template:Ill (Fosen)
                • Template:Ill (Härjedalen)
                • Jämtland dialects (Jämtland province) (wide linguistic similarity with the Trøndersk dialects in Norway)
                • Meldal dialect (Meldal)
                • Template:Ill (Tydal)
                • other dialects
              • Vestlandsk (Western and Southern Norway)
                • West (Vestlandet)
                  • Bergen dialect (Bergen)
                  • Template:Ill (Haugesund)
                  • Template:Ill (Jæren district)
                  • Template:Ill (Karmøy)
                  • Template:Ill (Nordmøre)
                    • Template:Ill (Sunndalsøra)
                  • Template:Ill (Romsdal)
                  • Sandnes dialect (Sandnes)
                  • Sogn dialect (Sogn district)
                  • Template:Ill (Sunnmøre)
                  • Stavanger dialect (Stavanger)
                  • Template:Ill (Midhordland district)
                • South (Sørlandet)
                  • Arendal dialect (Arendal region)
                  • Template:Ill (Upper Setesdal, Valle)
                • other dialects
              • Template:Ill (Eastern Norway)
                • Template:Ill (Lowland districts)
                  • Vikværsk dialects (Viken district)
                    • Template:Ill (Andebu)
                    • Template:Ill (Bohuslän province) (influenced by Swedish in retrospective)
                    • Template:Ill (Grenland district)
                    • Oslo dialect (Oslo)
                  • Template:Ill (Mid-east districts)
                    • Template:Ill (Ringerike district)
                      • Template:Ill (Hønefoss)
                      • Template:Ill (Ådal)
                  • Template:Ill (Opplandene district)
                    • Hedmark dialects (Hedmark)
                      • Template:Ill (Solør)
                  • Template:Ill (Hadeland district)
                  • Template:Ill (Viken district)
                    • Särna-Idre dialect (Särna and Idre)
                • Template:Ill (Midland districts)
                  • Gudbrandsdal dialect (Gudbrandsdalen, Oppland and Upper Folldal, Hedmark)
                  • Hallingdal-Valdres dialects (Hallingdal, Valdres)
                    • Template:Ill
                    • Valdris dialect (Valdres district)
                  • Telemark-Numedal dialects (Telemark and Numedal)
                    • Template:Ill
                • other dialects
          • Old Faroese ^†
            • Middle Faroese ^†
              • Modern Faroese
          • Norn †
            • Caithness Norn †
            • Orkney Norn †
            • Shetland Norn †
        • Old Icelandic ^†
          • Middle Icelandic ^†
            • Modern Icelandic
        • Greenlandic Norse †
    • East Scandinavian
      • Old East Norse ^†
        • Old Danish ^†
          • Middle Danish ^†
            • Modern Danish
              • Bornholmsk
              • Island Danish
              • Jutlandic/Jutish
                • North Jutlandic
                • East Jutlandic
                • West Jutlandic
                • South Jutlandic (Template:Langx; Template:Langx)
            • Gøtudanskt (Faroese street Danish)
            • Urban East Norwegian (generally considered a Norwegian dialect)
        • Old Swedish ^†
          • Modern Swedish
            • Norrland dialects
            • Svealand Swedish
              • Dalecarlian
                • Elfdalian (considered a Swedish Sveamål dialect, but has official orthography and is, because of a lower degree of mutual intelligibility with Swedish, considered a separate language by many linguists, see p. 6 in this reference)
            • Götamål (Götaland)
            • East Swedish
              • Swedish dialects in Ostrobothnia
              • Other dialects of Finland Swedish
              • Estonian Swedish
            • South Swedish
            • Gutnish
              • Old Gutnish ^†
                • Modern Gutnish

Alternate classification of contemporary North Germanic languages based on mutual intelligibility

• Insular Scandinavian
  • Icelandic
  • Faroese
• Continental Scandinavian
  • Danish
  • Norwegian
  • Swedish

East Germanic

See: East Germanic languages#Classification

External links

• Germanic language tree Template:Webarchive