Germanic languages: most and least archaic daughters

[Token]

Interesting chart i've found. 'More archaic' in linguistics can be roughly defined as 'closer to the respective proto-language' - in this case, Proto-Germanic. The opposite of archaicness is innovativeness.



Criteria for archaicness:
a) root-initial accent
b) 3 or more vowel qualities in weak inflectional syllables (e.g. OE cyningas, cyningum, cyninges)
c) a dual (e.g OE nom. wit = we two)
d) grammatical gender
e) 4 vowel grades in certain strong verbs (e.g. OE clêofan, clyfth, clêaf, clufon, -clofen)
f) distinct dative in at least some nouns
g) inflected definite article
h) adjective inflection
i) infinitive suffix
j) person number marking on the verb

So basically, from most archaic to more innovative:
Gothic > Old Norse > Old English > Old High German = Modern Icelandic > Middle High German = Middle Dutch = Modern German > Middle English = Modern Dutch = Modern Swedish > Afrikaner > Modern English

[Dandelion]

You forgot Yiddish, which I'd say is about the same as Middle High German when it comes to archaic. In some regards it's more intricate than Modern German, but it has been more than a decade ago a native speaker explained me grammatical examples. I haven't studied it, but there will be a Duolingo course about it soon. It's just difficult to read a Germanic language in the Hebrew abjad for me, hence never truly got to analyse it.

But overal, I agree with your ranking. German has changed far less since the Middle Ages, that I also noticed. Probably due to the German lands having been linguistically diverse historically and how its modern speakers practically adapted to a 'new language' when getting literate, but still not a different language in their perception. Or simply because of being a larger and more continental culture.

Standard German just is less dialectical, even if Dutch neither is, our standard tongue has more dialectical 'loans' in proverbs among others. For that reason I assume Dutch to be slightly more difficult than German.

[Token]

You forgot Yiddish, which I'd say is about the same as Middle High German when it comes to archaic. In some regards it's more intricate than Modern German, but it has been more than a decade ago I native speakers explained me grammatical examples. I haven't studied it, but there will be a Duolingo course about it soon. It's just difficult to read a Germanic language in the Hebrew abjad for me, hence never truly got to analyse it.

But overal, I agree with your ranking. German has changed far less since the Middle Ages, that I also noticed. Probably due to the German lands having been linguistically diverse historically and how its modern speakers practically adapted to a 'new language' when getting literate, but still not a different language in their perception. Or simply because of being a larger and more continental culture.

Standard German just is less dialectical, even if Dutch neither is, our standard tongue has more dialectical 'loans' in proverbs among others. For that reason I assume Dutch to be slightly more difficult than German.

The chart is not mine but i agree with your observations. Plus i forgot to stress that all of the criteria of archaicness here are morphological in nature i.e disregarding phonology, syntax etc. German is quite unconservative in terms of phonology due to the High German consonant shift, and Dutch too with its strongly Northern Old French-influenced vowel system (as in the spontaneous fronting of rounded back vowels). I too believe Yiddish is as much if not more conservative than Standard German, but i've heard about some weird Slavic phonological interpolations such as in the unaspirated voiceless stops. It would be interesting too see the chart remade with phonological aspects being taken into account.

[Ouistreham]

Standard German just is less dialectical, even if Dutch neither is, our standard tongue has more dialectical 'loans' in proverbs among others. For that reason I assume Dutch to be slightly more difficult than German.

Yes, I'm always puzzled by the fact that despite its overall simplification, Dutch retains a lot of expressions and idioms with declined articles unpredictably showing up (Koning der Nederlanden, Europa der Volkeren, De stem der arbeiders, "De slaap des arbeiders is zoet" etc.)

[Dandelion]

Yes, I'm always puzzled by the fact that despite its overall simplification, Dutch retains a lot of expressions and idioms with declined articles unpredictably showing up (Koning der Nederlanden, Europa der Volkeren, De stem der arbeiders, "De slaap des arbeiders is zoet" etc.)

And also dialectical at times. Like 'Wie het kleine niet eert, is het grote niet weerd', for the sake of rhyming we pronounce 'waard' in a long extinct Brabantian (modern Brabantian dialects mostly pronounce it as 'aa' or outside of that proverb though might depend on region, older people say 'ei' in Antwerp and the Campine region yet in Standard Dutch it's an idiom).

And we call those examples you mentioned 'linguistic fossils' often found in winged expressions. Afrikaans is also full of them. They start speaking in archaic Dutch while their language otherwise lacks inflections generally.

French also has similar examples I'm sure, though, where Middle French words pop up only used in expressions. But in French it's more about older syntaxis/vocabulary rather than inflection.