GERMANIC LANGUAGES. A group of related languages including ENGLISH, DUTCH, FRISIAN, GERMAN, the SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES (DANISH, Faroese, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish), and a number of derived languages (YIDDISH from German, AFRIKAANS from Dutch) as well as the extinct Burgundian, GOTHIC, NORN, and Vandal. In spite of a scholarly tradition going back at least to Jacob Grimm in the early 19c, some basic questions regarding these languages still await convincing answers: At what point in history and in what ways did a common Proto-Germanic break away from Indo-European? Do the various Germanic languages form a DIALECT continuum? How can they best be classified into regional and typological groups? On these issues, linguistic speculation needs the support of more cultural and historical data. What is certain, however, is the common heritage of, and mutual contact between, the Germanic languages, as shown in the table.

Germanic languages Group of languages, a sub-division of the Indo-European family. One branch (West Germanic) includes English, German, Yiddish, Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, and Afrikaans; another (North Germanic) includes Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.