The New International Encyclopædia/Teutonic Languages

TEUTONIC LANGUAGES (Lat. Teutonicus, from Teuloni, Teutones, a people of ancient Germany, connected with Goth. þiuda, AS. þēod, OHG. diot, Ir. tūath, Lith. tautà, Oscan, touto, country, people), or Germanic Languages. The group of languages of the Indo-Germanic family (see Indo-Germanic Languages) spoken by the Teutonic or Germanic stock. (See Teutonic Race.) It is divided into three main groups: East Teutonic, North Teutonic, and West Teutonic, or perhaps, more familiarly, East Germanic, North Germanic, and West Germanic. It has been the custom, for very slight grammatical reasons, to group East and North Germanic together as East Germanic, but the threefold division is now definitely established.
East Germanic. This division seems to be entitled to the collective name Vandal. The more prominent East German peoples were the Goths (q.v.), the Vandals (q.v.) (in the narrower sense), and the Burgindians. (See Burgundy.) Of the last-named only scanty linguistic remnants have survived, which are discussed by R. Kögel, in Haupt's Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum, vol. xxxvii. (Berlin). Of the language of the Vandals likewise little remains. The remnants of their dialect are treated by Wrede, Ueber die Sprache der Vandalen (Strassburg, 1886). The most important of the East Germanic peoples were the Goths. (See Gothic Language.) The Gothic language perished with their empires, except that a last remnant of Goths found an oasis in the Crimean peninsula. Busbecq, a Flemish traveler, in the middle of the sixteenth century, still heard the Gothic language spoken there, and selected eighty-six words as specimens of the language (Krim or Crimean Gothic). Our knowledge of Gothic depends almost entirely upon the language of the Visigoths in the Roman province of Mœsia, as written down by Ulfilas (q.v.). Here the Teutonic dialects emerge for the first time from semi-barbarism into literary form.
North Germanic. The four dialects of this group, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Icelandic, show but slight traces of dialectic difference before the eleventh century, as is proved by the evidence of the Norse runes (q.v.). The Scandinavian languages after the eleventh century, however, are divided into East and West Scandinavian, or East and West Norse. The eastern division consists of Swedish (including the dialect of the island of Gotland) and Danish; the western division of Norwegian and Icelandic.
West Germanic. Linguistically West Germanic is best divided into Anglo-Saxon or English, Frisian, Low German (Old Saxon), Franconian, and High German.
Anglo-Saxon or English—The history of the English language may he divided into four periods: (1) Anglo-Saxon with its four slightly differentiated dialects. Northumbrian and Mercian, forming the Anglian branch, and West Saxon and Kentish (Jutes), forming the Southern branch. Anglo-Saxon records begin with the eighth century; the language lasted till the middle of the thirteenth century, when it assumed the character of (2) Old English (1250–1350), followed by (3) Middle English (1350-1550), to which succeeded (4) Modern English. See Anglo-Saxon Language and Literature; English Language.
Frisian.—Frisian is still spoken in Holland, but in general Low German has taken its place. A branch of this language, called North Frisian, is still spoken in the southern part of the west coast of Schleswig and in the adjacent islands, Sylt, Föhr, and Amrum, as well as Helgoland. Old Frisian and the Anglian dialect of Anglo-Saxon are closely related in grammar and vocabulary. See Frisian Language.
Low German (Old Saxon).—Low German speech differs markedly from Anglo-Saxon. The name Saxon has spread so far from its original home that we may safely suppose that the Saxons in the course of their conquests in North Germany spread their name politically, but at the same time blended their speech with that of the conquered tribes. In its modern continuation Old Saxon is Plattdeutsch. See German Language; Plattdeutsch.
Franconian.—The Franconian dialects of the present day in Middle Germany (Middle Franconian, Rhenish Franconian, and East Franconian) differ but little from High German. (See German Language.) The Lower Franconians (Franks) settled in the Netherlands during the early centuries of the Christian Era. The Franconian dialect spoken there down to the sixteenth century is called Old Low Franconian. It is continued to the present day in the Dutch of Holland, and in the Flemish of Flanders in Belgium. See Dutch Language; Flemish Language.
High German.—For the character of High German speech, for its extent and distribution in modern times, and for the development of literary Modern High German, see German Language.
General Characteristics. The Teutonic languages have, perhaps, more than any other Indo-Germanic languages, developed striking special characteristics which differentiate them from the remaining languages of the family. These concern vocalism, consonantism, declension, and conjugation. As regards vocalization the Teutonic treatment of ablaut (q.v.) is peculiar. In the common Indo-Germanic period ablaut was a purely phonetic phenomenon, but in the Teutonic languages, owing to the prevailing loss of the reduplication (q.v.) in the perfect of the verb, and the reduction or loss of endings, ablaut has been adapted to a quasi-grammatical property. Thus the changes of the root vowel in Greek δέρκομαι, δέδορκα, ἕδρακον, are identical with those in German werde, ward, geworden, but in the Greek the vocalic changes are not associated consciously with the changes of tense. On the other hand, in the German ward the vowel a carries the preterite sense of the verb. Even more clearly the vowels have become grammatical in English sing, sang, sung, and many similar sets. The prominence of the ablaut has also contributed to analogical spread, and a considerable degree of generalization which has resulted in the six so-called ablaut-series which comprise the majority of the so-called strong