Questions tagged [germanic-languages]
Branch of the Indo-European languages from Northern Europe, including English, German, Dutch, and the Scandinavian languages
139
questions
4
votes
1answer
117 views
Fewest number of vowels in a Germanic language?
Yiddish has an unusually small vowel inventory for a Germanic language, which are generally notorious for their large number of vowel phonemes. Probably under the influence of the surrounding gentile ...
1
vote
1answer
87 views
How long were Old Frankish dialects spoken in modern France?
How long were the Germanic dialects commonly subsumed under the term "Frankish" spoken by Frankish people in Northern Gaul, and how long did it take until they were completely supplanted by ...
1
vote
1answer
197 views
Why did 'r' disappear in English “speak” (compare German “sprechen”) and in German “Welt” (compare English “world”)?
I cannot help but notice some 'r'-s seem to have randomly disappeared in both German and English. What is going on there?
-1
votes
2answers
155 views
Estimate the genesis of the language
Is it possible to estimate the birthday of a language based on vocabulary size (German language has probably larger vocabulary size than English language)? For example, Germanic languages contain a ...
0
votes
1answer
82 views
What is the name of Germanic n > m near f / Greek ν > μ near π transformation?
What is the name of Germanic n > m near f / Greek ν > μ near π transformation?
0
votes
2answers
83 views
Reconstruction of PIE consonants
So, I have a question about the reconstruction of PIE consonants.
According to the Etymological Dictionaries, the words "rape" and "raven" have the same PIE root *ker- however how ...
2
votes
2answers
180 views
Are Germanic languages closer to Italo-Celtic languages or Balto-Slavic languages?
I ask because in some recent classifications, Italo-Celtic languages (like French, Spanish, Italian, Irish, and Breton), Balto-Slavic languages (like Lithuanian, Russian, Polish, and Serbo-Croat), and ...
2
votes
0answers
66 views
Can formal linguistics help language learning?
I am interested in the intersection between abstract, formal grammars/semantics of human language and the very concrete task of learning a new language. Are there any books whose presentation assumes ...
0
votes
2answers
128 views
Why is Proto-Germanic long i /iː/ reconstructed as “ī”?
I know that Gothic has "a large number of archaic features".
I know that Gothic writes Proto-Germanic (PGmc) "ī" /iː/ as "ei". wīną wein, swīną swein
I know that Gothic ...
0
votes
0answers
87 views
What is the mutual intelligibility between the Standard German and Hessisch?
If a native Standard German speaker from Leipzig listens to Hessisch spoken by an elderly person from Lich(a small town in Hessen), will he/she understand it?
0
votes
1answer
92 views
Cowgill's law in satem languages [closed]
I had discovered a new law.
I named it "Russian law".
You may rename it as is good in your eyes.
It says that a PIE laryngeal /h₃/, and possibly /h₂/, turns into /z/ in Satem languages. (...
2
votes
0answers
39 views
Which (of the Germanic) languages support resultative constructions?
my question regards resultative constructions. Which of the Germanic languages supports resultative constructions?
It would be awesome if you could suggest any literature regarding any language. ...
3
votes
0answers
78 views
Germanic loanwords in Czech? The case of “lék” [duplicate]
Recently I started studying Czech and I learned the word "lék", pill/medicine and "lékař", doctor/physician. In Polish there is a similar one. They bear a superficial resemblance ...
0
votes
1answer
62 views
Is there evidence for expletives (ie. dummy subjects) in Proto-Germanic? What can we say about the situation in IE?
I am aware that obligatory expletives did not exist in early ON and perhaps also not in early OHG, but my knowledge of the specifics is hazy. In OE at least, I believe expletives in conjunction with ...
8
votes
0answers
139 views
What kind of features support the claim that Slavic languages are closer to Germanic languages than to Indo-Iranian languages?
Inspired by this answer to a different question, I ask what kind of features justify a claim that Balto-Slavic languages are closer to Germanic languages than to Indo-Iranian languages.
The features ...
2
votes
1answer
94 views
Status of Nordwestblock / Ancient Belgian hypothesis
What is the status of the Nordwestblock or Ancient Belgian hypothesis right now?
This hypothesis was proposed independently by two authors in the 1960ies (Kuhn and Gysseling) and is about an ...
1
vote
6answers
2k views
Why are some Russian and Swedish words so strikingly similar? Два - två, по-шведски - på svenska, etc
Hur säger man ... på svenska?
This common Swedish phrase means: How do you say ... in Swedish? As a student learning Russian, I instantly saw a striking similarity with the Russian language. Russians ...
15
votes
3answers
5k views
Does the letter p in a word mean that the word is not Germanic?
In Germanic languages, the p sound in Proto-Indo-European became f. I have wondered if the p sound means that the word does not come from a Germanic source. This is because words that have p in them ...
0
votes
0answers
30 views
Partial root reduplication and onomatopoeia
I am aware that partial root reduplication is very rare in the Germanic languages; this, I believe, is mostly reserved for class VII verbs like in Gothic, for instance. But, I was recently trying to ...
2
votes
1answer
95 views
1
vote
0answers
88 views
Origin of “will” in Germanic, wouldn't it be subjunctive?
Small print: This is language specific about English, but tangential to Germanic to a certain degree that is likely out of ELU's scope. .
As a follow-up to this Q and several ones like it about the ...
0
votes
1answer
115 views
To what extent are North Germanic languages mutually intelligible with German?
Are they just as close as English and German? Has Swedish also suffered some phonological influences from German during the Hansatic league?
6
votes
2answers
288 views
“She” and “they” in West Germanic languages
In English, the third person singular feminine subject pronoun (she) and the third person plural subject pronoun (they) are phonetically different. However, they are phonetically the same in some West ...
5
votes
1answer
682 views
How did this alternation happen?
Wiktionary's entry for "seldom" contains the following etymology:
From late Middle English seldom, alteration of earlier
selden, from Old English seldan (“seldom”), from Proto-
Germanic *...
6
votes
0answers
433 views
Why is the word “wherefore” not “whatfore” and the word “therefore” not “thatfore” and related anomalies
There is a pronominal adverb in many germanic languages that is a conjunction of the descendants of the proto-germanic words *hwar (where) + *furi (for/fore) which means something very similar to "for ...
3
votes
1answer
206 views
When turned “to hear” into “to belong” in Germanic Languages?
In most Germanic languages the verbs for „to hear“ and „to belong [to]“ are the same or very closely related.
It seems a plausible explanation, that in practice belonging to someone (G. gehören) meant ...
4
votes
4answers
272 views
GVS similarity in cognate words other Germanic Languages
I am no professional Linguist (nor have I ever studied it) so there might be a straightforward explanation to this which I could't find searching in ordinary places.
I was analysing a few words from ...
6
votes
2answers
260 views
What was the original Germanic agent suffix before Proto-Germanic speakers borrowed -er from Latin speakers?
as you can see from the title I would like to know what was the original Germanic agent suffix before Proto-Germanic speakers borrowed -er from Latin speakers. All I know is -a in Old English and I ...
-2
votes
1answer
101 views
Help Identifying a rune, or binding [closed]
The german band Rammstein used this to portray the Letter "R" in their logo from 1993, but cannot find a matching rune or a mix of them what would produce this symbol, my guess it's a stylized Old ...
0
votes
2answers
170 views
Transcription of this computer-generated pronunciation of 1991 in Danish
I came across this Google Translate pronunciation of 1991 (which it appears to be interpreting as the year rather than the cardinal or ordinal); click the thumbnail for the video on YouTube:
I don’t ...
2
votes
1answer
111 views
Was there a Proto-Germannic root of “miskunn”
I was not able to find an etymology of ON "miskunn" within PrG.
Is the first syllable a prefix "mis-" indicating any "wrong kunn, lack of kunn" or a deformed "midi-" as in E "com-passion", G "Mit-leid"...
1
vote
1answer
209 views
Are there traces of Old Turkish in ancient Germanic languages?
The question is quite clear and understandable as in the title. Are there traces of Old Turkish in ancient Germanic languages? Or traces of Germanic in Old Turkish?
6
votes
2answers
343 views
Are English 'gay' and Norwegian 'gøy' cognates?
Norwegian gøy means "fun" in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. Does this word have anything to do with English gay?
Wiktionary says gay comes ultimately from Proto-Germanic ganhuz "sudden" via Old French gai ...
2
votes
0answers
105 views
Which Frisian language/dialect is the most similar to Modern English?
When person asks a question, "which language is the most similar to Modern English?", the most common answer is:
Frisian
But most people that answer this question as it is, are unaware, which ...
2
votes
2answers
113 views
Is English “<adjective> to <verb>” an idiomatic schema, or what do you call “easy to do”?
Is the question clear? Idiomatic scheme is not a term of art, I guess, but it's idiomatic and it follows a schema.
It's a weird one, for sure. Some thoughts:
The Adjective can't be removed
* The ...
2
votes
1answer
140 views
What's the reason behind the aternation of vowel in the Proto-Germanic suffix “-ungō”/“-ingō”?
I noticed that the form with the u vowel was kept only in High German. All other germanic languages use the form with i,such as Dutch and English. Why is that?Is this the result of some sort of sound ...
3
votes
3answers
806 views
Why are English and German West Germanic languages while Scandinavian Germanic languages are an own branch
The Germanic languages are according to Wikipedia subdivided into North Germanic languages and West Germanic languages (historically, there also existed East Germanic languages). The most important (...
34
votes
2answers
12k views
Why is “ß” not used in Swiss German?
What are some of the historical reasons why the orthographic symbol ß is not used in Swiss Standard German and “ss” is used instead?
1
vote
1answer
134 views
Why “were” for subjunctive?
Is the subjunctive (what I learned in school as "Konjunktiv 2") Ger. "wäre" ("Ich wäre gern ..." - I'd like to be ...) cognate to "were" even for singular person ("*als ob ich sicher wäre " - as if I ...
3
votes
1answer
179 views
Homophones in Proto-Germanic
Does anyone know reconstructed homophones in Proto-Germanic or where I could look them up? I am interested in clear homophones, not polysemes.
0
votes
1answer
430 views
Stark differences in French and German
Both the German and French languages, along with English, evolved from the same roots. This is reflected in some of their words and grammatical structures. So then why are the pronunciations of both ...
2
votes
1answer
446 views
What's the difference between V2 word order and OVS word order?
Is there any difference between the two? They seem the same to me, c.f.:
Fußball spielten die Kinder vor der Schule im Park.
Football played the kids before school in the park.
(...
2
votes
1answer
209 views
What is this “Freeze” language?
I remember having a side discussion with a professor in college and he told be about a nearly extinct language; the closest thing I can remember to its name is "Freeze". Apparently its spoken on some ...
5
votes
3answers
471 views
Have linguistics found any evidence that Semitic languages influenced Germanic languages or vice versa (in ancient times)?
Have linguistics found any evidence that Semitic languages influenced Germanic languages or vice versa (in ancient times)?
BACKGROUND: I suggested to a forum of linguists that a certain Semitic word (...
3
votes
2answers
226 views
Germanic Philology: “translate” a word from indoeuropean language to the germanic language
I'm having a philology test next week. One of the questions will be to "translate" an indoeuropean word into a germanic word, like: i.e. Agros -> germanic Akraz (i.e. "g" --> germ. "k" for Grimm's Law,...
3
votes
1answer
493 views
How intelligible are German and Dutch to each other?
I'm asking this because I stumbled upon what I believe is a Dutch copy of The Brothers Grimm at a used book store. I initially thought it was archaic German and looked over it to see if I could make ...
7
votes
3answers
851 views
Does the English “Garden” come from the French “Jardin” or the German “Garten”?
I always assumed that the English word "Garden" was similar to the German "Garten" due to the Germanic roots of English.
But according to Wikipedia, "Garden" in English is related to the French "...
1
vote
0answers
50 views
dictionary middle norwegian
I try to help somebody with research on the influence of Middle Low German on Middle Norwegian.
For that purpose, a number of documents from the Norwegian Corpus ([Diplomatarium Norvegicum]) are ...
2
votes
0answers
142 views
Is there any epenthesis in German by which “eins” sounds like “eints” and how frequent is the phenomenon?
The phenomenon works also on the cluster ls and thus it becomes [lts]. Both examples are alveolar sounds.
The epenthesis does not occur universally, but often works on "eins" anyway.
This does not ...
5
votes
1answer
236 views
Possible extrapolation of old German word “hansa” to protogermanic and possibly common root with Sanskrit “sangha”
I came across a discussion about if "Lufthansa" means air-Swan, inspired by the sanskrit word hansa swan. Which is of course wrong as it has its origins in the old german word hansa for group or ...
