History of the Germanic languages

[Token]

[Token]

A good one too.

[PhillipDine]

Thanks, with the map it's a very clear overview!

[Token]

Thanks, with the map it's a very clear overview!

The map is indeed fantastic but i see one problem with it in the prehistoric period and i feel like pointing it out. The guy dates the split of North, West and East Germanic to the 180BC, which is quite absurd given the present epigraphic evidence. Most Germanic linguists can now assert confidently that the language of the runic inscriptions written in Germany and Scandinavia between the 2nd and 4th century AD was one and the same. This language is generally called Northwest Germanic. In fact some of the earliest runic inscriptions from the 2nd century look like full-blown Proto-Germanic which might suggest that the Goths preserved contact and shared innovations with the rest of the Germanic sphere until their eventual migration to the Black Sea - that is probably when we can begin talking about a separate East Germanic branch. We can only talk about a distinguishable North Germanic dialect after 350AD or so, and the split was only complete with the Volk migrations after the fall of the Roman Empire (even then mutual intelligibility was preserved up to the Viking Age - Old English was considered a weirdly spoken version of Norse by late Viking Age Icelanders for example). Other than that the video is astoundingly accurate for the historic period. If anyone wants to read in more detail about the Northwest Germanic question, there is a fantastic book by Antonsen called 'Runes and Germanic linguistics' which discusses all of the main controversies of present-day Runology, including when we can really talk about a North and West Germanic break-up.

[PhillipDine]

That, of course, is a very deep dig