East Germanic languages
The East Germanic languages (also Vandilian , Illevionic or Oder-Weichsel-Germanic languages ) form an extinct branch of the Germanic languages . None of the languages classified in this branch is still practiced as a mother tongue today. The only East Germanic language that has been adequately handed down on the basis of surviving texts is Gothic .
Other languages such as Vandalic, Burgundian and Crimean Gothic are believed to be among the East Germanic languages. The last language is believed to have been used well into the 18th century.
Term "East Germanic"
The term "East Germanic" is, like North and West Germanic , a neologism from the 19th century. The prefix "Ost-" refers to their oldest known home east of the Oder. For the first time, the philologists Karl Müllenhoff and Wilhelm Scherer divided the Germanic peoples into West and East Germans. They used the term "East Germanic" as an umbrella term for the Scandinavian (today: North Germanic) and Gothic (today: East Germanic) group. Ferdinand Wrede wrote in 1886: "We are used to using the expression 'Gothic' in general for the language of the Wandilian tribe, which is in any case imprecise". With this he took up the term "Wandilisch" used by Pliny . In the following years, this definition of the term prevailed. Due to the increasingly preferred three-way division of Germanic, the term “East Germanic” replaced the term “Wandilian” at the beginning of the 20th century. For the North and East Germanic group, the terms “Gotonordisch” ( Richard Loewe , 1922; Ernst Schwarz , 1951) or “Northeast Germanic” were used later . The divisions of Germanic commonly used today are largely based on the five-part division of Friedrich Maurer (1942), who referred to this group as "Oder-Weichsel-Germanic" or "Illevionen".
Classification and differences
Several attempts have been made to connect East Germanic with the other Germanic branches of the language. The problem was that the language groups had different things in common.
Similarities between the language branches
Similarities between North and East Germanic
One of the most important things in common between Gothic and Old Norse is the declension in the nominative by adding an -s or -r, e.g. B. got. Dags, old north. dagr "the day". The North and East Germans also received the sound combination -ggw- from the urgerm . * -ww- and the urgerm. * -jj developed in the old north. to -ggj- and in Gothic to -ddj- . There are also other morphological similarities, such as B. 1. Sg.Opt. Got. -Au, -jau = old north. -a, -yes .
Similarities between North and West Germanic
The reason why there is a tendency towards northwest Germanic today is that the Gothic has retained several archaisms and has not taken recent developments with it. This is supported by so-called Rhotazism , cf. got. weis, old north. ver, nhd. we, or the task of reduplication , cf. ahd. he opposite got. haihait “he was called”.
Similarities between East and West Germanic
The similarities between Gothic and West Germanic are too few compared to Old Norse to be able to speak of a "West-East Germanic" transitional language. Only the classification of Langobard , Burgundian or Suebian led to the adoption of a common linguistic union .
Relationship to the other branches of language
In the 19th century, due to the similarities, it was believed that the North Germanic and the East Germanic were more closely related. In addition, Jordanes implicitly handed down that the Goths had their origin in Scandinavia (see also Gotland ), whereby the origin via the sea is a popular topos in origin legends. The similarities between North and West Germanic were viewed as a secondary development: "However, these similarities do not establish a closer relationship between the dialects, but are to be understood as a more recent common Germanic development, from which the Gothic has remained unaffected because of its isolation brought about by migration." In the 20th century, the theory of the trisection of the Germanic prevailed, which Friedrich Maurer tried to refute with his theory of the five Germanic tribes from 1942. The hypothesis of a so-called Gothic-Norse transitional language was proclaimed again by Ernst Schwarz in 1951 and was subsequently increasingly accepted, for example by Hans Krahe in 1956 and Lehmann in 1966. In 1975 Elmer Antonsen published his theory of a north-west Germanic transitional language, which is still supported by many today. Today it is believed that the Germanic language groups influenced each other for a long time and that the classification is more about geographical focus than historical proto-languages. An East Germanic original language is therefore no longer accepted.
languages
They are traced back to tribes for which the term Oder-Weichsel-Germanen is used in addition to East Germans .
Individual evidence
- ^ "About the language of the vandals" (1st part; 1886) Ferdinand Wrede , p. 6
- ^ Wilhelm Braune: Gothic grammar. With some reading pieces and word index. Halle 1895, p. 91: "We summarize the Gothic or Wandilian peoples with the Scandinavian peoples as East Germans, while the other Germans face them as West Germans."
- ^ Ferdinand Dieter: Phonology and Forms of the Old Germanic Dialects. Leipzig 1900, p. 11
- ^ Ferdinand Wrede: About the language of the vandals, 1st part. Elwert, Marburg 1886, p. 6
- ↑ See sources in the section "Terminus Ostgermanisch"
- ^ Ferdinand Dieter: Phonology and Forms of the Old Germanic Dialects. Leipzig 1900, p. 12
- ^ Edith Marold : Northwest Germanic . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde, supplementary volume 13. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1995; ISBN 978-3-11-014818-3
- ↑ Michael Meier-Brügger: Indo-European Linguistics. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2002 8 ; ISBN 3-11-017243-7 ; P. 36