The present volume is a revised and translated version of "De germanske sprog. Baggrund og gruppering" (Odense University Press, 1979), which has been out of print for several years. The book is especially concerned with the grouping of the Germanic languages: with the research history of this much-debated question and with a discussion of the methods applied to past attempts and indeed applicable to future research in the field. These topics are discussed in the two longest chapters of the book (IV and V). The three preceding chapters should be seen as useful background information to the two central chapters. In ch. I the Germanic languages are introduced, an outline of their earliest attestations is given, and finally the dialectal status of the early runic language is discussed. The delimitation of Germanic in relation to the other Indo-European languages is dealt with in ch. II, while in ch. III the subject of Germanic tribal movements is taken up. The Germanic migrations are of great interest to Germanic dialect grouping because Gothic, Old High German and Old English are all colonial languages. Therefore the chapter focuses on the migrations of respectively the Goths, the Central and Upper German tribes, and the Anglo-Saxons.
Author(s): Hans Frede Nielsen
Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
Year: 1989
Language: English
Pages: X+178
City: Tuscaloosa
Preface vii
Abbreviations ix
I. The Germanic Languages 1
1. Present-day extension 1
2. Earliest attestation 2
3. The early runic language 5
II. Germanic: An Indo-European Language Group 15
1. Indo-European 15
2. The position of Germanic within Indo-European 18
3. Linguistic features characteristic of Germanic 28
III. Germanic Tribal Movements 35
1. The Goths 37
2. The Upper and Central German tribes 45
3. The Anglo-Saxons 53
IV. The Grouping of the Germanic Languages 67
1. Early attempts at Germanic dialect grouping 67
2. Wrede, Maurer and the West Germanic problem 72
3. Schwarz and his critics 80
4. Recent attempts at Germanic dialect grouping 89
V. Methodological Deliberations 109
1. Stammbaum theory, wave theory and substratum theory 109
2. Dialect geography 116
3. Parallels (partly) attributable to other factors 134
4. Closing remarks 143
References 153
Index 171
