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Germanic
editVarious term linked to farming, crop cultivation and the local flora and fauna have probably been borrowed by Pre-Germanic speakers from the largely agricultural Funnelbeaker peoples between 2800 and 2400 BCE.[1][note 1] However, the reconstruction of such loanwords remains a difficult task, since no descendant language of the Funnelbeaker dialects is attested, and plausible etymological explanations have been found for many lexemes previously regarded as of non-Indo-European origin.[2][note 2]
Early attestations
editSome early words and proper names from classical sources have been interpreted as indicating a Proto-Germanic phonology, morphology or etymology.[4] Commonly discussed examples include the Scirii (compared with Gothic skeirs 'sheer, pure') and the Bastarnae (OHG Bastard), two tribal names attested by 220–200 BCE and possibly translated as the 'the pure ones, purebreds' and the 'the bastards, underbreds', respectively.[5]
The Cimbri (*Himbrōz) and the Teutons (*Þeudanōz; 'they of the tribe, the people'; derived from the same noun *þeudō 'people, tribe' as German deutsch and Dutch, originally 'of the (common) people, popular, vernacular'; cf. *þeudanaz 'leader of the people, king'), both mentioned by the end of the 2nd c. BCE, have also been interpreted as Proto-Germanic names by some authors.[6] Two regional names located in northern Jutland (Himber-sysæl and Thythæ-sysæl) have often been proposed as pieces of linguistic evidence, although this has been been debated since both names are not attested before the 13th century AD and could be easily explained by the influence of earlier Roman denominations.[7]
Such tribal names do not imply however that their bearers were Germanic or even Germanic speakers, and their ethnic affiliation cannot be determined with certainty. The Bastarnae might have been a mixed Celtic-Germanic people, the leaders of the Cimbri and Teutones appear to have borne Celtic names, and the Scirii were most likely classified as "Celts" by the inhabitants of Olbia, a Greek colony they had attacked along with the Celtic Galatians in the 3rd century BCE.[8] If a northern, Germanic cultural influence cannot be ruled out, as super-regional connections with Celtic and Scythian elites are evidenced by archeological data, it cannot be demonstrated with certainty.[9]
Classical sources
editThe testimonies of Pliny and Tacitus have influenced popular and academic views on the history and languages of Germanic peoples up until modern times. Some ancient accounts are today regarded as fictional, like the theory of the Roman origin of Burgundians formulated by Ammianus Marcellinus, or too late to be interpreted as reliable evidence, like the Scandinavian origin of the Goths and the Langobards, proposed by Jordanes and Paulus Diaconus, respectively.[10]
Since most of their knowledge was based upon indirect contacts with Germanic tribes, classical authors tended to write about "the Germanic language" as a uniform idiom when their internal classifications became unclear to them, and they sometimes misclassified their dialects.[11] For instance, it is most likely that the language of the Aestii, who shared ritus and habitus with the Germanic Suebi, was not a Celtic language as Tacitus stated, but rather a Finnish or Baltic dialect.[12][13] Similarly, Pliny classified Cimbrians as a Germanic tribe, indicating that their name for the "dead sea" was Morimarusa, whereas the word is of Gaulish rather than Germanic origin.[11]
Classical authors used several models of division for the Germanic tribes:
- Pliny: the Vandili (lived east of the Germanic area; themselves divided into Burgodiones, Varinnae, Charini, Gutones), the Inguaeones (near the North Sea; Cimbri, Teutoni, Chauci), Hermiones (in the inner lands; Suebi, Hermunduri, Chatti, and Cherusci), the Istuaeones (near the Rhine) and the Peucini Basternae (near the Dacians, i.e. near the lower Danube/Black Sea);[10]
- Tacitus: Ingvaeones, Istvaeones and Herminones, given in a mythical context as the three sons of Mannus. Tacitus is aware however that these names are not universally accepted, and then quotes another proposed subdivision as the "true and old names" (vera et antiqua nomina): Marsi, Gambrivii, Suebi and Vandilii.[10]
Successful conquerors (Tungri), whether they already spoke Germanic or not, crossed the Rhine and were called Germani by the Gauls, a name that later Roman sources have borrowed and used to name tribes living beyond the Rhine. The name was therefore an exonym, and it is unlikely that Germanic speakers called themselves Germani outside of Roman-controlled territories.[14]
West Germanic
editWest Germanic successor dialects are mainly characterized by the shift of the consonant *þ towards a d-stop, which started in High German varieties (probably within the Bavarian dialect) during the mid-8th century CE, slowly spreading north to eventually affect Low German and Dutch by 1200 and, at least partly, some Frisian dialects.[15] A further sub-division can be made between southern and northern dialects based upon the High German consonant shift, which had initially emerged among Upper German varieties before spreading northward with diminishing force, only affecting the neighbouring Central German dialects.[15] Foreshadowed by an earlier occlusion of the voiced fricatives *ƀ and *γ which changed the articulation of stops in speech, the most ancient attestation of the second consonant shift can be found on the Wurmlingen lancehead (ca. 600), although other attested forms dated to the 6th century clearly exhibit pre-OHG features.[16]
- Goffart, Walter (2006). Barbarian Tides: The Migration Age and the Later Roman Empire. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0028-7.
- Liebeschuetz, Wolf (2015). East and West in Late Antiquity: Invasion, Settlement, Ethnogenesis and Conflicts of Religion. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-28952-9.-
- Speidel, Michael P. (2002b). Ancient Germanic Warriors: Warrior Styles from Trajan's Column to Icelandic Sagas (2004 ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-38420-4.
- Wolfram, Herwig (1997). The Roman Empire and Its Germanic Peoples (2005 ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-24490-0.
- ^ Kristiansen et al. 2017, p. 340; Iversen & Kroonen 2017, pp. 512–513
- ^ a b Seebold 2015, pp. 978–979.
- ^ Seebold 2015, pp. 979–980.
- ^ Nedoma 2015, p. 875; Rübekeil 2015, p. 990
- ^ Wolfram 1997, p. 4; Nedoma 2015, p. 875
- ^ Fortson 2004, p. 338; Nedoma 2015, p. 875
- ^ Randsborg 2015, pp. 32–34.
- ^ Wolfram 1997, p. 4 (Bastarnae); Goffart 2006, pp. 203–205 (Scirii); Randsborg 2015, p. 25 (Cimbri and Teutones)
- ^ Randsborg 2015, p. 26.
- ^ a b c Rübekeil 2015, p. 986.
- ^ a b Rübekeil 2015, p. 988.
- ^ Tacitus, Germania, 45: "illuc usque, et fama vera, tantum natura, ergo iam dextro Suebici maris litore Aestiorum gentes adluuntur, quibus ritus habitusque Sueborum, lingua Britannicae propior."
- ^ Pohl 2004, p. 121; Rübekeil 2015, p. 988
- ^ Wolfram 1997, p. 4.
- ^ a b Stiles 2015, pp. 892–893.
- ^ Nedoma 2015, p. 883.
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