East Germanic languages

East Germanic redirects here. For the tribes who spoke

the East Germanic languages, see Germanic peoples.
The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct

The expansion of the Germanic tribes 750 BC AD 1 (after the

Penguin Atlas of World History 1988):
Settlements before 750 BC
New settlements by 500 BC
New settlements by 250 BC
New settlements by AD 1

Based on accounts by Jordanes, Procopius, Paul the Deacon and others; linguistic evidence (see Gothic language);
The distribution of the primary Germanic dialect groups in placename evidence; and archaeological evidence, it is
Europe in around AD 1:
believed that the East Germanic tribes, the speakers of
North Germanic
the East Germanic languages related to the North GerNorth Sea Germanic, or Ingvaeonic
manic tribes, had migrated from Scandinavia into the area
Weser-Rhine Germanic, or Istvaeonic
lying east of the Elbe.[2] In fact, the Scandinavian inuElbe Germanic, or Irminonic
ence on Pomerania and northern Poland from period III
East Germanic
onwards was so considerable that this region is sometimes
included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture (Dabrowski
Germanic languages of the Indo-European language fam- 1989:73).
ily spoken by East Germanic peoples. The only East Ger- There is also archaeological and toponymic evidence that
manic languages of which texts are known are Gothic Burgundians lived on the Danish island of Bornholm (Old
and its dialect, Crimean Gothic; other languages that Norse: Burgundaholmr), and that Rugians lived on the
are assumed to be East Germanic include Vandalic and Norwegian coast of Rogaland (Old Norse: Rygjafylki).
Burgundian, though very few texts in these languages are
known. Crimean Gothic is believed to have survived until
the 18th century.
2 Groups

Groups identied as East Germanic tribes include:

History

Bastarnae
By the 1st century CE, the writings of Pomponius
Mela, Pliny the elder, and Tacitus indicate a division
of Germanic-speaking peoples into large groupings with
shared ancestry and culture. (This division has been appropriated in modern terminology about the divisions of
Germanic languages.)

Burgundians
Goths
Crimean Goths
Gepids
1

4
Ostrogoths
Greuthungi
Thervingi
Visigoths
Heruli
Rugii
Scirii
Silingi
Vandals

Traditionally the Langobards were classied as East Germanic, however, the Lombardic language and Yiddish
are now considered by many specialists to be close to
Old High German, especially its Upper German dialects,
which would make a classication as West Germanic
rather than East Germanic more sensible.

See also
East Germanic strong verb
Germanic verb
Ingvaeonic languages
Irminonic languages
Istvaeonic languages
North Germanic languages
West Germanic languages
Balto-Slavic languages

Notes and References

[1] Nordho, Sebastian; Hammarstrm, Harald; Forkel,

Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). Gothic.
Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
[2] The Penguin atlas of world history, Hermann Kinder
and Werner Hilgemann; translated by Ernest A. Menze;
with maps designed by Harald and Ruth Bukor. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-051054-0,
1988. Volume 1, p. 109.

Dabrowski, J. (1989) Nordische Kreis und Kulturen Polnischer Gebiete. Die Bronzezeit im Ostseegebiet. Ein Rapport der Kgl. Schwedischen
Akademie der Literatur, Geschichte und Altertumsforschung ber das Julita-Symposium 1986. Ed Ambrosiani, B. Kungl. Vitterhets Historie och Antikvitets Akademien. Konferenser 22. Stockholm.
ISBN 91-7402-203-2

NOTES AND REFERENCES

Demougeot, E. La formation de l'Europe et les invasions barbares, Paris: Editions Montaigne, 1969
74.
Kali, Anders. 2001. Gothic Connections. Contacts
between eastern Scandinavia and the southern Baltic
coast 1000 BCE 500 CE.
Musset, L. Les invasions: les vagues germanique,
Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1965.
Nordgren, I. 2004. Well Spring of The Goths. About
the Gothic Peoples in the Nordic Countries and on the
Continent.

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East Germanic languages Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Germanic_languages?oldid=719455446 Contributors: Leandrod,

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Werner (2001). dtv-Atlas Deutsche Sprache. Mnchen: Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 2001. ISBN: 3-423-03025-9; pp. 46, 52.). Additionally, corrections have been made (e.g. North Germanic spoken on the island of Zealand, rather than East Germanic). Original artist:
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