The Germanic Languages

Both German and English are members of the Germanic family of languages. Other members of this

group include Gothic (now extinct), Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch, Flemish, and

Afrikaans (spoken in South Africa).

This language family constitutes one of the ten branches of a much larger family of languages called

Indo-European. The other nine branches include Albanian, Armenian, Balto-Slavic (includes Czech,

Polish, Russian, et al.), Hellenic (Greek), Hittite (now extinct), Indian, Iranian, and Italic (Latin).

The similarities of the various Germanic languages can be seen when one compares the following

translations of the same sentence into these languages. Latin is included because its forms come the

closest to the parent language, Indo-European.

LANGUAGES TEXTS / TRANSLATIONS

English The old woman went to the just king in order to get a good book on how to bake bread.

Latin Vetus mater ivit ad regem aequum ut librum bonum de pane coquendo acciperet.

Gothic So althjo modar iddja du thamma garaihtin thiudana gahaban godos bokos du waurkjan hlaif.

German Die alte Mutter ging zu dem gerechten König um sich ein gutes Buch über das Brotbacken zu

verschaffen.

Danish Den gamle Mor gik til den retfaerdige Konge for at faa en god Bog paa at bage Brød.

Swedish Den gamla modern gick till den rättvise kungen för at få en god bok om brödbakning.

Norwegian (Riksmål)

Den gamle mor gikk til den rettferdige konge for å få en god bok om hvorledes man baker brød.

Norwegian (Landsmål)

Den gamle mora gjekk til den rettvise kongen for å få ei god bok um korleis ein bakar brød.

Icelandic Gamla móðirin fór til hins réttláta konungs til thess að fá góða bók um brauð gerð.

Dutch De oude moeder ging naar den rechtvaardigen koning om een goede handleiding in het

broodbakken.

Flemish De oude moeder ging naar den rechtvaardig koning om een boek te krijgen hoe zy het brood

moet bakken.

Afrikaans De ou moeder het na die regvertige koning gegaan om ‘n goeie boek oor hoe on brood te maak,

te kry.