EINFÜHRUNG introduction

If you could go back in time and trace back the origins of the German language, you would see something very interesting. As you approach 1066, the year William the Conqueror sailed over the English Channel and invaded England, English and German (a.k.a. Old English and Old German) start to look very similar. By the time you arrived at 449, the year the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes left northern Germany and landed in Britain, English and German would be indistinguishable. Then, around 500 BC this common English/German (Proto-Germanic) merges with Latin and Greek. Finally between 4000-5000 BC German along with English, Latin and all its Romance descendents, Greek, Russian, Sanskrit, Hittite, and others become a single language called Proto-Indo-European (PIE). It is important to note that PIE is a reconstructed language which means that linguists have pieced together a version of what the inhabitants of the so-called "Indo-European Homeland" would have spoken some 6000 years ago. (The most widely accepted location of the homeland is in the steppes of the Ukraine.) PIE is 100% theoretical since no written records exist in this language. Nonetheless, linguists have amassed considerable evidence that leaves no doubt that variations, i.e. dialects, of Proto-Indo-European were actually spoken.

If we look at the Germanic family tree from PIE to the present we can make out the general relationships of the major modern Germanic languages.

Since German and English are both Western Germanic languages, you would expect them to share many grammatical features ... and they do.

However, German has retained many older Germanic features that English has lost due in large part to the Norman French invasion in 1066. In fact, Modern German shares more grammatical features with Old English than Modern English.

PERIODISIERUNG periodization

NAME TIMEFRAME GERMAN
Proto-Indo-European ca. 5000 - 500 BC (Ur)Indo-Germanisch
(Proto-)Germanic ca. 500 BC - ? (Ur)Germanisch
Old High German ? - 1050 Althochdeutsch
Middle High German 1050 - 1350 Mittelhochdeutsch
Early New High German 1350 - 1600 Frühneuhochdeutsch
New High German 1600 - present Neuhochdeutsch

INDO-GERMANISCH proto-indo-european (PIE)

Proto-Indo-European
Centum Group Satem Group
Germanic Italic Celtic Greek Anatolian Tocharian Slavic Baltic Indic Iranian Armenian Albanian
German
English
Dutch
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
Icelandic
*Gothic		 *Latin
French
Spanish
Italian
Portuguese		 Welsh
Irish (Gaelic)
Scots Gaelic
Breton		 Greek *Hittite
*Lycian
*Lydian
*Luvian		 *Tocharian A
*Tocharian B		 Russian
Czech
Slovak
Polish
Ukrainian
Serbian
Croatian		 Lithuanian
Latvian
*Old Prussian		 *Sanskrit
Hindi
Urdu
Gujurati
Bengal		 *Avestan
Farsi
Pashto		 Armenian Albanian

(UR)GERMANISCH (proto-)germanic

Proto-Germanic
Western Northern Eastern
German
English
Dutch
Afrikaans
Frisian		 Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
Icelandic
Faroese		 *Gothic

DIE ERSTE (GERMANISCHE) LAUTVERSCHIEBUNG grimm's law

PIE Germanic Description
p, t, k f, þ, x (>h) voiceless stops become voiceless fricatives
b, d, g p, t, k voiced stops become voicless stops
bh, dh, gh b, d, g voiced aspirated stops become voiced unaspirated stops

VERNERS GESETZ verner's law

Voiceless fricatives become voiced fricatives.

PIE Germanic Description
f, þ, x, s v, ð, gh, z (>r) voiceless fricatives become voiced fricatives

DIE ZWEITE (HOCHDEUTSCHE) LAUTVERSCHIEBUNG high german sound shift

Voiceless stops become voiceless affricates (and fricatives).

Germanic High German Description
p, t, k pf (ff), ts (ss), [k]ch voiceless stops become voiceless affricates or medially fricatives

Nouns

Definite Articles

Indefinite Articles

Verbs

Numbers