Proto Germanic / Germanic Languages Similarities
|
|
|
You get the picture ... ----------------- Enjoy ! |
|
|
|
Butter in Norwegian, Danish and Swedish: smør / smör German: Schmiere English: smear |
|
|
|
is: English is: Dutch is: Scots ist: German |
|
|
|
and: English an: Scots |
|
|
|
and: English an: Scots en: Dutch und: German |
|
|
|
hånd: Norwegian hand: Swedish hand: English hand: German hand: Dutch |
|
|
|
Old English - se mann English - the man Frisian - de man Dutch - de man German - der mann Norwegian - mannen Swedish - mannen Danish - manden |
|
|
|
Proto-Germanic was the hypothetical ancestor of all of the modern Germanic (or Teutonic ) languages. It was spoken sometime between 1200 and 600 B.C. probably in what is now Poland. The Slavs were still living a little further east in White Russia at that time. About 300 B.C The Germanic peoples began moving out of Poland into present day Germany, Bohemia and Scandinavia which had been occupied previously by Celtic and Finnish speaking peoples. They were probably forced out of Poland by the Slavs who were a more fierce and warlike people at that time than their modern day descendents in Russia and Eastern Europe. During the course of these migrations, Proto-Germanic began splitting up into separate West-, East- and North- Germanic groups. Since there is no written record of Proto-Germanic, linguists have tried to reconstruct it based on roots shared in common by all of the more modern Germanic languages. It's no surprise that Gothic and Icelandic come the closest to the reconstructed Proto-Germanic language while English and Yiddish have diverged the most. Frederick Bodmer and Lancelot Hogben cite one of the oldest Germanic inscriptions found in their book "The Loom of Language": ek hlewagastir holtingar horna tawiðo which means "I Luigast the holting made this horn". It was found in Schlesweig - Holstein. |
|
|
| Just read Beowulf and noticed that Old English and Dutch look very much alike ! |
|
|
|
The similarities are amazing ! .... Old English > Dutch ---------------------- forlætan; ofgiefan > verlaten , afgeven nægan > nagaan begietan > begieten ræd > raad læran > leren gedrefan > gedreven leof > lof motan > moeten ælmihtig > almachtig eac > ook engel > engel deor > dier ænig > enig befeolan > bevelen sceotan > schieten gelendan > gelanden ( used in Belgian Dutch ) astigan > afstijgen onslepan > inslapen hærfæst > herfst freolic > vrolijk ( This is just a really small fraction of all similarities ) |
|
|
| There is evidence to suggest that Southern Scandinavia has always (for several thousand years) been occupied by Germanic people. |
|
|
| Denmark was the home of the Celtic Cimbri, a branch of the Belgic Gauls, until about the 1st Century B.C. The Finns seem to have been in Sweden rather early - 5000 B.C. - which was well before Indo-European broke up into separate Celtic, Germanic and Balto-Slavic groups. The Finns were probably the ones who drew the prehistoric rock art pictures found in both Sweden and Karelia. The Vikinglike boats in some of these pictures suggest that the Germanic invaders may have acquired much of their boat-building knowledge from the Finns. |
|
|
|
Fredrik from norway, =>There is evidence to suggest that Southern Scandinavia has always (for several thousand years) been occupied by Germanic people.<=\ Isn't this logical since "scandinavian" is/are germanic languages? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- To "!", When I read Beowulf for the first time I also was stunned by the similarities!You can really see that Old English and Dutch have a common ancestor.Its a real difference with modern english It looked to me as if the romantic influensces 10-faulted! |
|
|
| If English wasn't influenced by romance and nordic languages , Dutch and English would have remained very close , at least that's what I think ... |
|
|
| Im almost sure of that. |