List of Germanic languages

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

Main article: West Germanic languages

Further information: German language, Dutch language, German dialects, and Dutch dialects

• 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†^[1]
          • 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

Main article: North Germanic languages

Ancestral classification

• Proto-Norse ^†
  • Old Norse ^†
    • West Scandinavian
      • Old West Norse ^†
        • Old Norwegian ^†
          • Middle Norwegian ^†
            • Modern Norwegian dialects
              • Nordnorsk [no] (Northern Norway)
                • Bodø dialect [no] (Bodø)
                • Brønnøy dialect (Brønnøy)
                • Helgeland dialect [no] (Helgeland)
                • other dialects
              • Trøndersk (Trøndelag)
                • Fosen dialect [no] (Fosen)
                • Härjedal dialect [sv] (Härjedalen)
                • Jämtland dialects (Jämtland province) (wide linguistic similarity with the Trøndersk dialects in Norway)
                • Meldal dialect (Meldal)
                • Tydal dialect [no] (Tydal)
                • other dialects
              • Vestlandsk (Western and Southern Norway)
                • West (Vestlandet)
                  • Bergen dialect (Bergen)
                  • Haugesund dialect [no] (Haugesund)
                  • Jærsk dialect [no] (Jæren district)
                  • Karmøy dialect [no] (Karmøy)
                  • Nordmøre dialects [no] (Nordmøre)
                    • Sunndalsøra dialect [no] (Sunndalsøra)
                  • Romsdal dialect [no] (Romsdal)
                  • Sandnes dialect (Sandnes)
                  • Sogn dialect (Sogn district)
                  • Sunnmøre dialect [no] (Sunnmøre)
                  • Stavanger dialect (Stavanger)
                  • Strilar dialect [no] (Midhordland district)
                • South (Sørlandet)
                  • Arendal dialect (Arendal region)
                  • Valle-Setesdalsk dialect [no] (Upper Setesdal, Valle)
                • other dialects
              • Østlandsk [no] (Eastern Norway)
                • Flatbygd dialects [no] (Lowland districts)
                  • Vikværsk dialects (Viken district)
                    • Andebu dialect [no] (Andebu)
                    • Bohuslän dialect [sv] (Bohuslän province) (influenced by Swedish in retrospective)
                    • Grenland dialect [no] (Grenland district)
                    • Oslo dialect (Oslo)
                  • Midtøstland dialects [no] (Mid-east districts)
                    • Ringerike dialects [no] (Ringerike district)
                      • Hønefoss dialect [no] (Hønefoss)
                      • Ådal dialect [no] (Ådal)
                  • Oppland dialect [no] (Opplandene district)
                    • Hedmark dialects (Hedmark)
                      • Solung dialect [no] (Solør)
                  • Hadeland dialect [no] (Hadeland district)
                  • Østerdal dialect [no] (Viken district)
                    • Särna-Idre dialect (Särna and Idre)
                • Midland dialects [no] (Midland districts)
                  • Gudbrandsdal dialect (Gudbrandsdalen, Oppland and Upper Folldal, Hedmark)
                  • Hallingdal-Valdres dialects (Hallingdal, Valdres)
                    • Hallingdal dialect [no]
                    • Valdris dialect (Valdres district)
                  • Telemark-Numedal dialects (Telemark and Numedal)
                    • Bø dialect [no]
                • 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 (Danish: Slesvig; German: Schleswig)
            • 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 Archived 2013-12-02 at the Wayback Machine