West Germanic languages

E11706

West Germanic languages are a major branch of the Germanic language family that includes languages such as English, German, and Dutch, spoken primarily in Western and Central Europe and many parts of the world.

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Observed surface forms (2)

Surface form Occurrences
West Germanic 10
North Sea Germanic 1

Statements (53)

Predicate Object
instanceOf Germanic languages subgroup
branch of language family
developedFrom Northwest Germanic languages
geographicDistribution Central Europe
North America
Oceania
Southern Africa
Western Europe
parts of South Asia
parts of the Caribbean
hasFeature grammatical gender in many member languages
rich consonant systems
strong and weak verb distinction
vowel length distinctions in many historical stages
hasSubgroup Anglic languages
Anglo-Frisian dialects
surface form: Anglo-Frisian languages

Elbe Germanic languages
Frisian languages
High German languages
Irminonic languages
Low Franconian languages
Low German languages
Anglo-Frisian dialects
surface form: North Sea Germanic languages

Scots language group
Yiddish
historicalAncestor Proto-Germanic language
includesLanguage Afrikaans
Alemannic German
Bavarian language
Dutch language
English language
Frisian languages
German
surface form: German language

Limburgish
Low German
Luxembourgish
Middle Dutch
Middle English
Middle High German
Old Dutch
Old English
Old Frisian
Old High German
Old Saxon
Pennsylvania German
Rhenish Franconian
surface form: Ripuarian Franconian

Scots
surface form: Scots language

Yiddish
surface form: Yiddish language
majorWorldLanguageBranch true
partOf Indo-European language family
surface form: Indo-European languages
subclassOf Germanic languages
timeOfEmergence 1st millennium CE
writingSystem Latin script

Referenced by (58)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Low Franconian languages subclassOf West Germanic languages
Dutch subfamily West Germanic languages
this entity surface form: West Germanic
Lombardic subfamily West Germanic languages
this entity surface form: West Germanic
Luxembourgish subfamily West Germanic languages
Mumbai English subfamily West Germanic languages
New High German subfamily West Germanic languages
Scots subfamily West Germanic languages
Scottish English subfamily West Germanic languages