Германістика Відповіді (Final)

1. The Germanic language family.
General characteristics
5 Distinct Groups
North Germanic – remained mostly in Scandinavia
East Germanic – (Gothic) East of the Oder, and spread along the Baltic Coast
West Germanic – west of the Oder, and spread out as far as modern Belgium
Common Germanic branch later split-up into 3 groups:
• North Germanic, represented only by Old Norse (also called old Scandinavian)
To North Germanic belong the modern Scandinavian languages – Norwegian,
Icelandic, Faroese (West), Swedish, Danish, and Gutnish (East). The earliest
recorded form of North Germanic (Old Norse) is found in runic inscriptions from
about AD 300.
• West Germanic, including Old High German, Old Law German, Old Saxon, Old
English and Old Frisian
To West Germanic belong the OHG, OLow Germ, Old Low Franconian
(Netherlandish), Dutch, Frisian, and English. The language most closely related to
English is Frisian.
• East Germanic group, represented be Gothic, Burgandian, Vandalic
The East Germanic dialects were spoken by the tribes that expanded East of the
Oder around the shores of the Baltic. They included the Goths, and Gothic is the
only East Germanic language of which we have any record (a translation of the
Bible into Visigothic, made by the Bishop Wulfila in 4 c.) The Goths were later
overrun by the Huns, but a form of Gothic was being spoken in the Crimea as late
as the 17th century. It has since died out + Vandal ; Burgundian
2. English as a world language.
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, originally
spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after Anglia, a peninsula
on the Baltic Sea (not to be confused with East Anglia), and the Angles, one of the ancient
Germanic peoples that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name:
England. Living languages most closely related to English include the Low Saxon and
Frisian languages, while English's vocabulary has been significantly influenced by Old
Norman French and Latin, as well as by other Germanic languages, particularly Old Norse
(a North Germanic language).
English has developed over the course of more than 1,400 years. The earliest forms of
English, a group of West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) dialects brought to Great Britain by
Anglo-Saxon settlers in the 5th century, are collectively called Old English. Middle English
began in the late 11th century with the Norman conquest of England; this was a period in
which English was influenced by Old French, in particular through its Old Norman dialect.
Early Modern English began in the late 15th century with the introduction of the printing
press to London, the printing of the King James Bible and the start of the Great Vowel
Shift.
Modern English has been spreading around the world since the 17th century by the
worldwide influence of the British Empire and the United States. Through all types of
printed and electronic media of these countries, English has become the leading
language of international discourse and the lingua franca in many regions and
professional contexts such as science, navigation and law. Modern English grammar is the
result of a gradual change from a typical Indo-European dependent-marking pattern, with
a rich inflectional morphology and relatively free word order, to a mostly analytic pattern
with little inflection, and a fairly fixed subject–verb–object word order. Modern English
relies more on auxiliary verbs and word order for the expression of complex tenses,
aspect and mood, as well as passive constructions, interrogatives and some negation.
English is the most spoken language in the world (if Chinese is divided into various
variants) and the third-most spoken native language in the world, after Standard Chinese
and Spanish. It is the most widely learned second language and is either the official
language or one of the official languages in almost 60 sovereign states. There are more
people who have learned English as a second language than there are native speakers. As
of 2005, it was estimated that there were over 2 billion speakers of English. English is the
majority native language in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia,
New Zealand and Ireland, an official language and the main language of Singapore, and it
is widely spoken in some areas of the Caribbean, Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia and
Oceania. It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and many
other world and regional international organisations. It is the most widely spoken
Germanic language, accounting for at least 70% of speakers of this Indo-European
branch. English speakers are called "Anglophones". There is much variability among the
many accents and dialects of English used in different countries and regions in terms of
phonetics and phonology, and sometimes also vocabulary, idioms, grammar, and spelling,
but it does not typically prevent understanding by speakers of other dialects and accents,
although mutual unintelligibility can occur at extreme ends of the dialect continuum.
3. Word stress in Proto-Germanic and its morphological consequences.
It was caused by the heavy Germanic word stress fixed on the root. When the stress fixed
on the 1 syll., on the root, suffixes weren’t distinctly pronounced anymore and it merged
with endings.
PG fisk-a-z a disappears Goth. Fisks
Consequences: the vowels of non-initial syllables became unstressed & therefore they
were weakened & could be lost (Verner’s Law). The 1st syllable of a word was given a
special prominence. The morphological structure of the words became simplified.
4. The Proto-Germanic phonology. The consonants.
Periodization
1. Early PG (15/5c. BC - 1/4c. AD) - separation of PG from the west IE (centum branch) to its
stabilization as a separate system.
Features: (it possessed a lot of linguistic features typical of PIE)
 the existence of the fixed & moveable stress types
 there didn’t exist any difference between stressed & unstressed syllables.
 The 3-morphe structure of the word
 The existence of two-tense aspect stems in the system of the verb (the Infect and Perfect
stems)
2. Late PG (4/7c. – 11/16c. AD) --- from stabilization of PG to its dispersal into separate
groups of Germanic dialects.
Features: (it acquired a lot of specific features of its own)

 the dynamic stress was fixed on the first root syllable
 the opposition between stressed & unstressed syllables.
 The 3-morpheme structure of the word developed into the 2 – morpheme structure
 PG tense forms developed from PIE tense-aspect stems
Common features in PG:

 a great number of fricatives, small number of plosives;
 no palatal consonants at all, as in other Centum languages.
Such a quantity of fricatives appeared in PG as a result of sound shifting described as

Grimm’s Law and Verner’s Law.
Aspirated consonants disappear because of consonant shift (3 act of Grimm’s law)

Palatal cons were disappeared in centem languages in the western brunch of ID.
Germanic lan below to this.
Fricatives appears as a result of Verner’s Law, Grimm’s Law(1, 3)
5. The first consonant shifting (Grimm’s Law).

The changes of consonants in PG were first formulated in terms of a phonetic law by
Jacob Grimm in the early 19th century and are often called Grimm’s Law. It is known as
the First of Proto-Germanic consonant shift.
By the terms of Grimm’s Law voiceless plosives developed in PG into voiceless fricatives
(Act 1); IE voiced plosives were shifted to voiceless plosives (Act 2) and IE voiced
aspirated plosives were reflected as pure voiced plosives. (Act 3)
There are some exceptions to Grimm's law: PIE voiceless plosives [p, t, k] did not change
into voiceless fricatives [f, θ, h], if they were preceded by voiceless fricative [s] (tres -
dreo, but sto - standan).
Another exception: a PIE voiceless plosive followed another voiceless plosive changed
into voiceless fricative, while the second one didn’t.
6. Voicing of fricatives in Proto-Germanic (Verner’s Law).
Karl Verner (a Danish scholar) in the late 19 th c. explained certain apparent exceptions to
Grimm’s Law.
According to Verner’s law, if an IE voiceless stop (p, t, k) was preceded by an unstressed
vowel, the voiceless fricative (f, θ, h), which developed from it in accordance with
Grimm’s law, became voiced (v, ð, γ), and later this voiced fricative became a voiced
stop (b, d, g).
t > θ > ð > d Lat. altus > OE ald
p>f>v>b
k>x>y>g
s>s>z>r
Latin pater has a Germanic correspondence fæder because the stress in the word was on
the second syllable, and so voiceless plosive was preceded by an unstressed vowel.
As a result of Verner’s Law there appeared interchange of consonants (explains why
some verbs in Old English changed their root consonant in the past tense and in Participle
II – originally, these grammatical forms had the stress on the second syllable).
Hence, the basic forms such as sniðan (to cut) and weorðan (to become) were:
sniðan – snað – snidon – sniden;
weorðan – wearð- wurdon – worden.
7. The West Germanic lengthening of consonants.

The essence of this process appears to be assimilation. The consonant is assimilated to
the preceding sound after producing palatal mutation (i-umlaut) in the root.
Every consonant except “r” is lengthened if it is preceded by a short vowel and followed
by the sonorant “j” (i) or by the sonorants “w”,” l”, ‘r’, “n”, “m”. Before “j” the process of
lengthening was the strongest, before “m”- the weakest. There appeared long
consonants as a result of the doubling and an opposition based on the quantity between
short and long consonants. If voiced fricatives were doubled, they became voiced
plosives: a long “f” later develops into long “b”, denoted by “bb”, “ʒ”- “cʒ”, “ð” – “dd’’.
The lengthening might have been connected with changes in division of words into
syllables:
Goth.: b|idjan> b|idjan>biddan
Consonants were not lengthened after a long vowel
But: Goth. domjan>OE deman
8. The second consonant-shifting (High German).
The second consonant shift, or Old High Germanic consonant shift, is called the process
of sound changing in German language. These changes didn’t affect other Germanic
languages, therefore, it appeared after division of Germanic tribes. It is believed to have
started approximately in the 5th century in the southern dialects.
1) The 1st phase (approx. 4th cent.): PG voiceless plosives [p, t, k] occurring between
vowels, between vowel and consonant or being final after vowel were shifted and
correspond to German double spirants [ff, zz, hh] .
2) In the 2nd phase (approx. 8th cent.) the same sounds [p, t, k] became affricates in
three environments: in word-initial position; when were geminated (doubled); and after
sonorants and nasal consonants [l, r, m, n] in the middle or at the end of the word.
The shift did not take place where the plosive was preceded by a fricative, i.e. in the
combinations [sp, st, sk, ft, ht, t] also remained unshifted.
3) In the 3rd phase (with the most limited geographical range, 8-9th cent.) PG voiced
plosives become voiceless ones in German: PG [b, d, g] → OHG [p, t, k]. Of these, only the
dental shift d→t finds its way into standard German.
9.The ablaut in the Indo-European languages and Germanic languages.

Ablaut or vowel gradation is an independent vowel interchange unconnected with any
phonetic conditions; different vowels appear in the same environment, surrounded by
the same sounds. везу/ воз; гремит/ гром
There are 2 types of Ablaut:
 Qualitative – is the alteration of different vowels, mainly the vowels [e] / [a] or [e] /
[o].
Rus. бреду (I stroll, I wade) – брод (ford, wade)
Lat. tego (to cover, to cloth) – toga (clothes)
 Quantitative - means the change in length of qualitatively one and the same vowel:
normal, lengthened and reduced (this is the "zero" vowel, ie its loss, or reduced
vowel)
The Germanic language employed both types of ablaut + their combination
 Qualitative – qualitative
IE e> o> zero.
Рус. беру- сбор-брать
Germ. i/e > a, a >long o
OHG beran – barn- giburt
OE scacan – scōn – scōcon - scacen
 Ablaut in Germanic languages is a further development of Indo-European alterations.
 Internal flexion functioned in Old Germanic languages both in form- and word-
building, but it was the most extensive and systematic in the conjugation
(відмінювання) of strong verbs.
10.The Proto-Germanic phonology. The vowels.

Throughout history, beginning with PG, vowels displayed a strong tendency to change.
They underwent different kinds of alterations: qualitative and quantitative, dependent
and independent. Qualitative changes affect the quality of the sound, e.g.: [o>a];
quantitative changes make long sounds short or short sounds long, e.g.: |i>i:]; dependent
changes (also positional or combinative) are restricted to certain positions or phonetic
conditions, for instance, a sound may change under the influence of the neighbouring
sounds or in a certain type of a syllable; independent changes — also spontaneous or
regular — take place irrespective of phonetic conditions, i.e. they affect a certain sounds
in all positions.
From an early date the treatment of vowels was determined by the nature of word
stress. In accented syllables the oppositions between vowels were carefully maintained
and new distinctive features were introduced, so that the number of stressed vowels
grew. In unaccented positions the original contrasts between vowels were weakened or
lost; the distinction of short and long vowels was neutralised so that by the age of writing
the long vowels in unstressed syllables had been shortened. As for originally short
vowels, they tended to be reduced to a neutral sound, losing their qualitative distinctions
and were often dropped in unstressed final syllables.
Strict differentiation of long and short vowels is commonly regarded as an important
characteristic of the Germanic group. The contrast of short and long vowels is supported
by the different directions of their changes. While long vowels generally tended to
become closer and to diphthongise, short vowels, on the contrary, often changed into
more open sounds. These tendencies can be seen in the earliest vowel changes which
distinguished the PG vowel system from its IE source.
Proto-Germanic had four short vowels (i, u, e, a), and four long vowels (i:, u:, e:, o:),
while PIE had five short (i, u, e, a, o) and five long vowels (i:, u:, e:, o:, a:), because in PG
disappeared short vowel /o/ and long vowel /a:/.
11. The umlaut in Old Germanic languages.

Umlaut (the term of J. Grimm, from German um- "around"/"the other way" + Laut
"sound") or mutation is a process of regressive assmimilation of a vowel by a vowel of
the following syllable. Umlaut is a form of assimilation, the process by which one sound is
changed to make it more like another following sound in the process of speech, which is
explained by the fact that it requires less effort to pronounce the vowels which are closer
according to the place of articulation, thus, it is natural way of language change for these
vowels to be drawn closer together.
This process took place separately in various Germanic languages in approximately 450-
500 AD, and affected all Germanic languages except Gothic.
There are 2 main types of mutation in Germanic languages:
1)palatal mutation or i-umlaut
2)velar mutation or u-umlaut, a/o-umlaut.
I-umlaut is the change of back vowels when they precede the syllable containing /i/, /iː/,
or /j/. The main vowels affected by i-umlaut are back sounds [a, o, u] which undergo the
process of fronting (becoming closer to the front vowel i of the following syllable). In
other words when a two-syllable word had /a/, /o/ or /u/ in the first syllable and /i/ in
the second, the vowel in the first syllable was fronted.
It is obvious that vowel i which stimulated the umlaut was either reduced, or
transformed into vowel e.
In OE of 16 basic vowels and diphthongs, only the 4 vowels ǣ, ē, i, ī were unaffected by i-
mutation. I-umlaut was originally triggered by an /i/ or /j/ in the syllable following the
affected vowel, by Old English times the /i/ or /j/ had generally dropped out or been
modified (usually to /e/).
As a result of i-imlaut new phonemes appeared in German – e, æ, ö, œ, ü, ū.
Although umlaut was not a grammatical process, umlauted vowels often serve to
distinguish grammatical forms (e.g. plural marker in man-men, tooth-teeth, goose-geese,
foot-feet, mouse-mice, louse-lice, brother-brethren).
U-umlaut is another type of mutation which occurred in OE, it resulted in
diphthongization of stressed [a(æ), e, i] into [ea, oe, io (later eo)] respectively under the
influence of vowels u, a/o of the following syllable.
So, it is obvious, that mutation as a type of assimilative vowel changes introduced new
phonemes into the vocalic system of Germanic languages.
This process differs from I-Umlaut in 3 respects:

-it effected almost exclusively short vowels;
-it effected only front vowels;
-its results are less uniform (однорідні).
Old English Breaking (Fracture of Vowels)
The Old English fracture is a change of the short vowels [æ] and [e] into diphthongs before some groups
of consonants, when [æ] turned into the diphthong [ea] and [e] into the diphthong [eo]. Such
diphthongization took place when [æ] or [e] was followed by the combination of [h], [l], [r] with any
other consonant or when the word ended in [h]. E.g.: ærm > earm ‘arm’, æld > eald ‘old’, æhta > eahta
‘eight’, sæh > seah ‘saw’, herte > heorte ‘heart’, melcan > meolcan ‘to milk’, selh > seolh ‘seal’, feh >
feoh ‘property.
12.The inflectional system of Proto-Germanic: general concept.

Phonetic processes in the word final position started in Early PG and became rather
active in Late PG. They were connected with the specific peculiarities of word accent in
the Germanic languages. In OE this process resulted in gradual replacement of the
synthetic language devices by the analytical ones.
13.The verb categories in Old Germanic languages.
Grammatical Categories of the finite forms of the PG Verb.

 The system of the PG verb was rather developed. The main form-building means were
synthetic: suffixation (endings), gradation (ablaut, vowel interchange) and suppletion
(suppelative formations). Some of them could be combined.
 The forms of verb could be finite (changeable in accordance with grammatical categories)
and non-finite. Non-finite forms existing in PG are: The Infinitive, Participle 1 and
Participle 2.
The category of person
The category of Tense was represented only by two opposite members – The Present
and the Past. No Future Tense!!!!!
 Preterite forms had only one function to express past actions.

 Present forms had several functions:
o Permanent actions
o Actions, which coincide with the moment of speech
o Future actions (free word combinations)
The category of mood

There were 3 moods: Indicative, Imperative and Oblique.
The category of voice was based on 2 member opposition:

ACTIVE
MEDIOPASSIVE (used only in present)
There are two voices in Germanic, active and passive or media-passive (only in Goth).
For example, the Gothic verb bairan “to carry”. When it is inflected actively, as in bairiþ
“(he) carries”, the subject is seen as carrying something. When it is inflected passively, as
in bairada “(he) is carried”.
The older Germanic languages really have only two tenses, namely present and preterite
(past action or condition). The Future actions are expressed by means of synthatical
combination of verbs or by Present tense (just like in Modern English). The Preterite is
also used to express past participle, as in Modern English “I had run”.
Number in the Germanic verb is governed by the subject. Thus, when the subject is
singular, the verb is inflected for the singular; when the subject is in the plural, the verb is
also.
Person, too, is a verbal category governed by the subject.
14. Strong verbs in Gothic language.

The terms strong and weak were suggested by J. Grimm; he called the verbs strong
because they had preserved the richness of form since the age of the parent-language
and in this sense could be contrasted to weak verbs lacking such variey of form.
They built their forms be means of vowel gradation (root vowel interchanges) and by
adding grammatical endings.
Among all the paradigmatic forms of strong verbs there are four basic forms:
1)The Infinitive 3)The Past Plural
2)The Past Singular 4)Participle Ⅱ
The four basic forms of every strong verb create a chain of four alternating vowels
responsible for a specific form in the line. The PG alternation of vowels goes back to the
original IE alteration which differentiated the forms of the verb. The scholars called it
Ablaut (in German the word means ‘the interchange of sounds’).
Ablaut (Vowel gradation), an independent vowel interchange unconnected with any
phonetic conditions; different vowels appear in the same environment, surrounded by
the same sounds.
Alteration made it possible to express different aspects of actions. It is supposed (on the
basis of comparative analysis of IE languages) that PIE did not have tenses but only
aspects, on the basis of which different tenses developed later.
Strong verbs are characterized by the formation of past tense by means of ablaut /stem
vowel gradation (without dental suffixes characteristic of weak verbs) and by the
formation of present participles by means of the marker -n-.
1. in Gothic Class I is formed by the ablaut series e + i, ai, i and i;
2. Class II has identical ablaut changes, but the root is different from that in Class I;
3. Class III is formed by e + sonorant + plosive in Stem I, a in Stem II, u in Stem III
and u(o) in Stem IV, instead of a zero ablaut change in the last two stems;
4. in Class IV stems end in a single liquid or a nasal;
5. the prolonged vowel e, which originates from the prolonged form of IE perfect and,
perhaps, aorist, is also found in Class V. Thus, in Classes IV and V stem-forms 1 and
2 are opposed as e – a (the feature shared with Classes I-III; but instead of a zero
gradation series in stem 3 (as in Classes I-III), Classes IV and V have a quantitative
vowel gradation which opposes stems 1 and 3. So, Classes IV and V were inherited
from the IE parent-language, but their similarity in the stem-form 3 (the present
plural) is a specific Germanic feature.
6. Class VI consists of the verbs whose root morpheme ends in a single consonant; in
this class IE vowel gradation o – o: corresponds to Gmc a- o:.
7. Class VII is peculiar to Gothic, and is based on reduplication (i.e. in stem-forms of

the preterite an unstressed syllable was added to the root morpheme).
Reduplication is not found in other Germanic languages.
All in all the system of strong verbs in Germanic was inherited from PIE and preserved a
lot of IE features, which were modified in Germanic. The modifications included 1) the
transformation of the original series into the new gradation series caused by the changes
in peculiar phonetic environment for the gradation vowels; 2) the splitting of the original
gradation series into a number of series caused by the influence of the structure of a
root-morpheme on the gradation in the root.
The oldest classes of Germanic strong verbs are Classes I-III; they show correspondences
with the IE vowel gradation series. Germanic innovative peculiarity in Classes IV and V is
that IE Class VI of strong verbs had quantitative gradation, while in PGmc it transformed
into a quantitative-qualitative series. Class VII is specifically Germanic.
15.The weak verbs in Old Germanic languages.
In Germanic languages, including English, weak verbs are by far the largest group of
verbs.
Whereas strong verbs used ablaut as a means of differentiation among the basic forms,
weak verbs used for that purpose dental suffixation. Weak verbs formed their Past and
Participle II by means of the dental suffix -d- (-t- -ð-). This way of building grammatical
forms is considered to be a purely Germanic phenomenon. It is found only in Germanic
languages.
Weak verbs are considered to have only 3 basic forms: present infinitive, past tense, past
participle. lōcian – lōcode – lōcod (to look)
Weak verbs were divided into 4 main classes

Class 1 consisted of verbs ending in -(i)j, and has a past tense in -id-. The present tense
suffix varied between -ja/ija- and -i/ī-. A significant subclass of class 1 weak verbs were
causative verbs. These were formed in a way that reflects a direct inheritance from the
PIE causative class of verbs. PIE causatives were formed by adding an accented suffix -
éye/éyo to the o-grade of a non-derived verb. In Proto-Germanic, this suffix survives as -
j/ij-, and is affixed to the stem of the strong past tense with Verner's Law voicing applied
(originally due to the placement of the accent on the suffix).
Class 2 consisted of verbs ending in -ôną, and had a past tense in -ōd-. The present tense
suffix was -ô-. It was originally a denominative subclass of class 1, formed from nouns.
However, because of the loss of -j- between vowels, the surrounding vowels contracted,
creating a distinct class. Already in Proto-Germanic, new verbs of this class began to be
formed from nouns of other classes. It appears in verbs borrowed from other languages,
in transitive verbs.
Class 3 This class had two subclasses, which were mostly different in the forms, but they
shared the suffix -ai- in some.
The first and larger subclass had an infinitive in -(i)janą and a past tense in -d- with no
linking vowel. The present tense suffix varied between -ja/ija- and -ai-.
The second subclass had an infinitive in -āną and a past tense in -ād-, with -ā- having
contracted from earlier -aja- after loss of intervocalic -j-. The present tense suffix varied
between -ā- and -ai-. These verbs were factitives, similar to the first class of weak verbs.
It was already a small class in Proto-Germanic, though it may have remained marginally
productive. The verb *þewāną "to enslave" is shown here.
Class 4 Intransitive verbs denoting an action or a state. The infinitive ended in –na/n, and
the past tense was formed with -nōd-. The present tense forms are uncertain, but
probably varied between -ō- and -a-.
16.Preterite-present verbs in Old Germanic languages.

Preterite-Present Verbs are of specific character in the verb system.
Originally these verbs were srtong and each belonged to a corresponding strong class in
accordance with its ablaut series (line).
Have 5 forms: Inf, Present Sg, Present Pl, Past , Participle II
Have 6 classes:
 I Class: Gt witan, OHG wissen (to know), Gt aihan (to have)
 II Class: duzan (бути придатним)
 III Class: Gt kunna(can)
 IV Class: Gt. skulan (shall)
 V Class: OE mazan (may), OE zeneah (enough)
 VI Class: OE motan (must)
Preterite-present verbs combine the qualities of the strong verbs as well as the weak
verbs. Their Present tense is formed according to the rules of formation of the past tense
of the strong verbs (vowel gradation), while their past tense has the peculiarities of the
weak verbs (a dental suffix)
The Present Tense of Pr-Pr verbs corresponds to the past tense os strong verbs while
their past is derived according to the past tense of weak verbs. Originally the present-
tense forms of Pr-Prs were Part tense forms of strong verbs which derived from IE. The IE
resultative aspect merged with aorist aspect in the Past tense forms of PG strong verbs.
The resultative aspect could also be interpreted as signifying the present result of a past
action: know < have learnt.
Pr-Prs could also convey a kind of attitude to an action expressed by another verb.
Eventually they developed into modern modal verbs.
17. The verbals in Old Germanic languages. Infinitive and participle: their
origin and morphological categories.
In PG there were 2 non-finite forms of the verbals. In many respects they were closer to
the noun and adjectives than to the finite verbs. There are more nominal features than
verbal especially at the morphological level.
1)The Infinitive.
The infinitive had no verbial grammatical characteristics being a verbial noun by origin. It
had a sort of reduced case-system: there were 2 forms which roughly corresponded to
Nom. and Dat. Cases of nouns.
2)The Participle.
The participle was a kind of verbal adjective which was characterized not only by nominal
but also by certain verbal features. Present Participle was opposed to Past Participle
through voice and tense distinction: PI (Goth. nasjands, nimands) was active and
expressed present or simultaneous processes and qualities, while PⅡ (Goth. nasibs,
numans) expressed states or qualities resulting from past action and was contrasted to PI
as passive to active is the verb was transitive. PII of intransitive (неперехідні) verbs has
an active meaning; it indicated a past action and was opposed to PI only through tense.
18. Nominal parts of speech in Old Germanic languages, their

morphological categories.
Noun
Case: The system of nominal declensions was largely inherited from PIE. In PG were Six
cases were from 4-6. The instrumental and vocative can be reconstructed only in the
singular. The locative case had merged into the dative case, and the ablative may have
merged with either the genitive, dative or instrumental cases. The instrumental and
vocative can be reconstructed only in the singular; the instrumental survives only in the
West Germanic languages, and the vocative only in Gothic.
Nominative (the subject case),
Accusative ( the object case),
Genitive (indicating possession)
Dative (used after most prepositions and also as the indirect object).
Number: Sg. and Pl.
Nominative dæġ dagas

Accusative dæġ dæġ
Genitive dæġes daga
Dative dæġe dagum
Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter
Noun declensions: On the basis of former stem-building suffixes most distinguish strong
and weak declensions of PG nouns.
1. the strong declension includes nouns with stems (-a, -ō, -i, -u) which are often
called vocalic; the plural inflexion -as is the antecedent of the modern standard
plural marker.
2. the weak declension comprises nouns with the stem originally ending in n-stem
only. This declension gave the later -en plural
3. There are some minor declensions (r-stems, s-stem,nd- stems) (consonantal).
4. There is also the root-stem declension in which the ending is added not to the
suffix but to the root immediately. Its most obvious characteristic is that they
should have shown i-mutation. PDE foot ~ feet, man ~ men, goose ~ geese
Singular Plural
 Nom. fōt fēt

 Gen. fōtes fōta
 Dat. fēt fōtum
 Acc. fōt fēt
it is the source of irregular plurals;
Adjective
1) Number: singular, plural
2) Case: vocative, nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental
3) Gender: masculine, neuter, feminine
1. Degrees of comparison.
The so-called qualitative adjectives were inflected for the degrees of comparison. They
are positive, comparative, superlative.
Comparative degree was built by means of the suffixes –iza, -oza; superlative degree was
built with the suffixes –ist, -ost.
2. Declensions: strong and weak.

A distinct characteristic of Germanic adjectives however is that each adjective can be
inflected according to two different paradigms: strong and weak. The strong
declension was based on a combination of the nominal /a/ and /ō/ stems with the PIE
pronominal endings; the weak declension was based on the nominal /n/ declension.
The two kinds of inflection reflect a difference in meaning. Weak adjectives are
considered definite, and refer to specific individuals, known people or things, or to
people or things for which the adjective is a defining characteristic. They are often
used with demonstrative determiners, although they can also be used alone, in which
case they are similar to a definite article. Strong adjectives are used in all other cases.
Many determiners can inflect only according to one type, and are either always strong
or always weak.
Pronouns
There are several types of pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstrative,

interrogative, definite, indefinite, negative, and relative.
 The oldest classes are personal, demonstrative and interrogative.

 Personal pronoun had only two persons, the 3rd person developed later from the
demonstrative pronouns.
 Another ancient feature was the dual number of personal pronouns (ic – wit – wē;
þu – ʒit – ʒē ).
In OE, as in Gothic, there are besides singular and plural personal pronouns, also dual
pronouns for the 1st and 2nd persons, which are used to refer to a pair of people, e.g.
a married couple.
All three persons and genders are preserved in the singular. OE has also four cases in
the pronouns, still distinguishing the dative and accusative forms, which fell together
by Middle English, producing the ‘objective case’.
Adverbs
The PG adverbs inherited the main structural types of PIE ones.
1. Simple (root) adverbs (made with help of different particles) - adverbs, that
present the morphologically unexecuted parts mostly monosyllabic. It is mainly
adverbs of place, time, frequency, direction - adverbs, that have very large
frequentness of the use.
OE oft “often”,
Gt faur, OE for “in front of”
2. Derivatives (made with help of suffixes) - form by means of suffixes. Unlike other
indoeuropean, in Germans this method of creation of dialects is basic. Such suffixes
are most widespread: -r, -t, -n.
-r: Gt. Hër “here”.
-t: OE oft “often”.
-n: OE innan “inside”
-а: OE sona “soon”
-е: OE brade “widely” Adj + -e = Adv
-liko: OHG gernlicho “willingly” (developed into –ly)
-ingo (-ungo): Gt un-weniggo “unexpectedly”
3. Word-combinations – unchangeable indirect case forms of some nouns: Prep+N

Dialects that present the hardening case forms of the name, in Germans of mainly
genitive, rarer dative case.
Gt. landis “round about the country”
4. Composite adverbs
OE of dune “down”, Gt ni aiw “nowhere”

The adverbs were inflected only for comparison (positive, comparative, superlative).
the comparative ended in -is or -ōs, and the superlative in -ist(a) or -ōst(a).
Some comparative forms were formed only by means of mutation of the root vowel
without any suffixes.
OE feorr – fierr (or) – fierrost “far”
Suppletive formation (suppletion is the use of two or more phonetically distinct roots
for different forms of the same word, such as the adjective bad and its suppletive
comparative form worse.)
OE wel (“well”) *batre (“better”) *best (“best”)
19.Old Germanic noun and its morphological categories.

The noun in Old German had 3 categories:
 Gender лексико-граматична категорія коли він вживається в різних відмінках, це
додає до лексичного значення граматичне.
(masc,dugs fem,giva neut waurd) This distinction was not a grammatical category, it was
merely a classifying feature. The gender:
a. regulates the forms of adj and articles accompanying nouns
b. regulates which specific forms of the case and number endings appear on the nouns.
Progressively, due to the dissapearane of stem-classes, nouns could change the type of
their gender or declension. For instance, the category of gender disappeared in English,
Scandinavien l-ges but German has still 3 gender.
 Number (singular, plural and dual) The dual number of noun had preserved only in
pronouns and verbs Both case and number were expressed by one morpheme. (двоєна,
двоє предметів)
 Case. (відмінок) There exist 8 cases in IE: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accus, Ablative,
Locutive, Instrumental, and Vocative(місцевий). Progressively, this system changed,
because of transfusion of some case forms, so in Common Germanic there existed 6
cases:
Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Vocative Instrumental is used to dentify the
instrument of an action. Was preserved only in OSax, OHG.
20. The morphological structure of the noun in Proto-Germanic.

The word-class noun in all PG had 4 grammatical categories:
-the category of gender;
-the category of number;
-the category of case;
- declension.
Nouns in PG were differentiated for the grammatical category of gender. They fell into
masculine, feminine and neuter. Such division is still preserved in modern German,
Icelandic, Faroese and New Norwegian.
The division into genders was in a certain way connected with the division into stems,
though there was no direct correspondence between them: some stems were
represented by nouns of one particular gender, e.g. ō-stems were always Fem., others
embraced nouns of two or three genders. The grammatical gender did not always
coincide with the natural gender of the person and sometimes even contradicted it (thus,
for instance, the noun wifman (woman) was declined as masculine).
There were 3 types of number distinction differentiated in PG: singular, plural and
dual. But in Germanic languages the dual type disappeared in prehistory era, it means
that there were not any written evidences. The dual number of nouns had preserved only
in pronouns and verbs. Both case and number were expressed by one morpheme.
Case. There exist 8 cases in IE: Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative,
Locative, Instrumental, and Vocative. Progressively, this system changed, because of
transfusion of some case forms, so in PG there existed 6 cases:
Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Vocative and Instrumental.
(OE had 4 of them Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative; but Goth 4 + Vocative;
Old Saxon 4+Instrumental. )
Historically, the OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the

stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in
the final syllables. On the basis of former stem-building suffixes most scholars distinguish
strong and weak declensions of PG nouns.
 The strong declension includes nouns with stems (-a-, -ō-, -i-, -u-) which are often
called vocalic.
 The weak declension comprises nouns with the stem originally ending in n-stem
only.
 There are some minor declensions (r-stem, s-stem, nd-stem) – consonantal.
 There is also the root-stem declension in which the ending is added not to the
suffix but to the root immediately.
21.Old Germanic strong declension of nouns.
A noun was considered to be strong if it had a vowel stem. A stem is a sound (a vowel or
a consonant) standing between the root and the flexion. The strong declension includes
nouns with the stems –a, -o, -i, -u, which are often called vocalic.
1) To the nouns of the so-called a - stem (descends from PIE –o/-jo/-wo) belong
masculine and neuter nouns. The declension of a neuter a-stem noun depends on the
quantity of syllables in the word and also on the length of the root vowel. ja - declension
of nouns. These nouns a special type of a-stems. Their root vowel undergoes mutation
under the influence of an original -j- in the stem.
2) o - stem. Only feminine nouns belong to this stem. To jo-stem also belong feminine
nouns. These are a special type of o-stems. Their root vowel has undergone mutation
induced by an original -j- in the stem. wo-stem. These are also a special of o-stems:
N mǣd ( луг) mǣdwa N fõr fora

G mǣdwe mǣdwa G fõre fõra
D mǣdwe mǣdwum D fõre fõrum
A mǣdwe mǣdwa A fõre for a
3) u-stem. Nouns of all the three genders may belong to it.
N hyll hyllas ‘hill’ (masc.)

G hylles hylla
D hylle hyllum
A hyll hyllas
4) i-stem. Nouns of all the three genders may belong to it. Correspond to Lat. and Greek
i-declension.
Masculine Feminine
Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur.
N sunu suna duru dura ‘door’

G suna suna dura dura
D suna sunum dura durum
A sunu suna duru dura
22.Old Germanic weak declension of nouns.

The consonantal stems are called weak nouns or the weak declension.
There were 4 types of consonantal stems of nouns:
1) n-stems (all the gender)
Guma gumans
Gumins gumane
Gumin gumam
Guman gumans
2) r-stems ( masculine and feminine gender only)
They were not numerous: words denoted fadar, modir, brothar, swistar, dauhtar
( батько, мати, брат, сестра, дочка)
Brothar brothrjus
Brothra brothre
Brothr brothrum
Brothar brothruns
3) s-stems (mostly neutral gender)
They were not numerous. Many nouns of this class in PIE merged to another class of
stems in Germanic languages.
4) nd-stems (masculine gender)
They are not numerous. This class originated from IE Particiole 1 with the *-nt- stems.
Then Participle 1 merged into nouns.
Якщо в іменника основотворчий суфікс закінчується голосним – сильний іменник.

Приголосний – слабкий.
23. Old Germanic strong and weak declension of adjectives.

Adjectives had two declensions that had to do also with the category of determination –
strong (definite) and weak (indefinite) – and unlike nouns practically all adjectives could
be declined both ways (by strong and weak declension). So, an adjective did not belong
to a particular declension. The strong and weak declensions arose due to the use of
several stem-forming suffixes in PG: vocalic a-, ō-, ū-, i- and consonantal n-. Accordingly,
there developed sets of endings of the strong declension mainly coinciding with the
endings of a-stems and of ō-stems of nouns. Some endings in the strong declension of
adjectives have no parallels in the noun paradigms; they were similar to the endings of
pronouns. The original nominal endings were replaced by pronominal endings.
The choice of the declension was determined by a number of factors: the syntactical
function of the adjective, the degree of comparison and the presence of noun
determiners. The adjective had a strong form when used predicatively and when used
attributively without any determiners. The weak form was employed when the adjective
was preceded by a demonstrative pronoun or the personal pronouns. Also, if the noun is
known, then we use weak declension, if it is not – strong.
24. The pronoun in Old Germanic languages: its morphological categories.
Pronouns
There are several types of pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstrative, interrogative,

definite, indefinite, negative, and relative.
 The oldest classes are personal, demonstrative and interrogative.

 Personal pronoun had only two persons, the 3rd person developed later from the
demonstrative pronouns.
 The simple demonstrative sa, þata, sō was used both as demonstrative pronoun this,
that, and as definite article, the.
 The reflexive pronouns originally referred to the chief person of the sentence
irrespectively as to whether the subject was the first, second or third person singular
and plural. Declined as Strong Adj
 Another ancient feature was the dual number of personal pronouns (ic – wit – wē; þu
– ʒit – ʒē ).
In OE, as in Gothic, there are besides singular and plural personal pronouns, also dual
pronouns for the 1st and 2nd persons, which are used to refer to a pair of people, e.g. a
married couple.
All three persons and genders are preserved in the singular. OE has also four cases
(Nominative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative) in the pronouns, still distinguishing the dative
and accusative forms, which fell together by Middle English, producing the ‘objective
case’.
25.The vocabulary of Proto-Germanic.

The sources of information about the oldest vocabulary of Germ. Lang-es were: runic
inscriptions, toponymy, texts of literary monuments and modern vocabulary of Germ.
languages, which are examined with the help of the comparative-historical method.
Germanic vocabulary has inherited and preserved many IE features in lexis as well as at
other levels. The most ancient etymological layer in the Germanic vocabulary is made up
of words (or more precisely roots) shared by most IE languages.
IE vocab with concrete lexical meaning.
Common IE vocabulary includes terms of relationship, numerals and names of some
plants and animals. The vocabulary of unknown origin forms 30% of the vocabulary of
PG. the oldest borrowings were from Celtic and Latin. We also distinguish prattle words
borrowed from childish lang., so called traveling words borrowed from unknown lang.
and attested in many Germ. lang-es, folk words used in everyday speech and having
special semantic meanings.
According to lexical meanings of the words (semantic field) we distinguish a) natural
phenomena; b) industrial terms; c) cultural terms, d) animals, e) plants, f) actions
According to stylistics we distinguish neutral, common used and stylistically coloured
(poetic, official, bookish and professional) vocabulary. Common used words are the
names of things which surround us. They are used in everyday speech and are stylistically
neutral: OHG ackar (поле), leban (жити), OE bringan (приносити), wind (вітер).
Bookish lang. appeared in Late CG and is connected with the development of science and
culture. A lot of such words were borrowed from Latin and Greek: L credo> OE creda; L
regula> OE regol.
26. The Indo-European legacy in the Germanic vocabulary: the notion of

isogloss.
Languages, which are examined with the help of the comparative-historical method.
other levels. The Common IE layer includes words which form the oldest part of PG
vocabulary. They go back to the days of the IE parent-language before its extension over
the wide territories of Europe and Asia before the appearance of the Germanic group.
The most ancient etymological layer in the Germanic vocabulary is made up of words (or
more precisely roots) shared by most IE languages. According to lexical meanings of the
words we distinguish: natural phenomena (snow ‘snaiws’, river ‘ahva’, moon ‘mona’,
night ‘niht’), industrial terms, cultural terms, animals (wolf ‘wulfs’, bear ‘bjorn’, deer
‘hjortr’, elk ‘eolh’), plants (tree ‘treow’, ‘boc-treo’), actions. According to stylistics we
distinguish: Neutral, common used vocabulary (Common used words are the names of
things which surround us. They are used in everyday speech and are stylistically neutral:
OHG ackar (поле), leban (жити), OE bringan (приносити), wind (вітер).) and stylistically
coloured vocabulary (poetic, official, bookish and professional vocabulary. Bookish lang.
appeared in Late CG and is connected with the development of science and culture. A lot
of such words were borrowed from Latin and Greek: L credo> OE creda; L regula> OE
regol.).
27.Old Germanic vocabulary: common Germanic word stock.
Languages, which are examined with the help of the comparative-historical method.
PG words can be subdivided into a number of layers:
1) Words of Common IE origin
The common IE layer includes words which form the oldest part of the PG vocabulary.
other levels. The most ancient etymological layer in the Germanic vocabulary is made up
of words (or more precisely roots) shared by most IE languages They go back to the days
of the IE parent-language before its extension over divide territories of Europe and Asia
before the appearance of the Germany group. They were inherited by PG and passed into
the Germanic languages
2) Words of Common Germanic origin
This layer includes words, which are shared by most Germanic languages; do not occur
outside the group. This layer is smaller than the layer of CIE words.
Common Germanic words originated in the common period of Germanic history i.e. in PG
when the Teutonic tribes lived close together. Semantically these words are connected
with nature, with sea and everyday life. Like the IE layer the specifically Germanic layer
includes not only roots but also affixes and word-building patterns. (findan, earm, hand,
sand)
3) In addition to native words, the OG languages share some borrowings made from
other languages. Some of the early borrowings are found in all or most languages of the
group; probably they were made at the time when the Germanic tribes lived close
together as a single speech community that is in Late PG. A large number of words must
have been borrowed from Latin. These words reflect the contacts of the Germanic tribes
with Rome and the influence of the Roman civilization on their life; they mostly refer to
trade and warfare.
28.Old Germanic vocabulary: borrowings. The notions of substratum and
superstratum.
The oldest borrowings from Celtic lang. were borrowings of law, social and military
terms:
 Goth lekeis – лікар, цілитель
 OE lead – свинець
 OIsl. leđr – шкіра
The oldest borrowings from Latin took place in the I century A.D. These were :
 Military terms:
L campus> OE camp, OHG champf – поле.
 Roads, buildings
L milia> OE mil, OHG mila – миля, тисяча кроків.
 Food and drinks
L vinum> Germ. *wina> Goth wein, OHG win (>G Wein), OE win (>E wine) – вино.
 Plants and animals
L piper> OHG pfeffar (G. Pfeffer), OE pipor (>E pepper) – перець.
 Clothes and shoes
L saccus> OHG sac (>G. sack), OE sacca (>E sack) – мішок.
 Trade (торгівля)
L moneta> OHG monizza (>G. Münze), OE mynet (>E mint) – монета.
 Household goods
L discus> OHG tisks (>G. Tisch), E dish – диск, плоске блюдо.
Slavic borrowings:
 Slav. * osenь> Germ. asani (час жнив)
 Slav. *vorgь> Germ *warga (ворог)
 Slav. pluь> Germ ploga (плуг)
A substratum is a conquered “under - layer” dialect/language over which the language of
the conquerers is dominating
Celtic lang. is a substratum for Engl. 449 year – Anglo-Saxons settled on the British Isles
where the Celts were.
A superstratum is a dialect/language of the conquerors dominating over a conquered
dialect/language
29. Simple and composite sentence characteristics in Old Germanic

languages.
Syntax of Old Germanic languages isn’t fully explored. But it is considered that the
structure of a simple sentence in Old Germanic is the same as in the Modern Germanic
languages. There were a couple of differences due to the morphological peculiarities of
the Old L-ges.
Simple sentence
• The predicate was the obligatory feature of a sentence. The verb was absent only
in a case when the same verb was used in the preceding sentence.
• The verb always took the 2nd place. It took the 1st place only if a sentence does
not have a subject.
• Usually a sentence had both a subject and a predicate, but there were numerous
cases of a sentence having only one or the other.
• The attribute and the object didn’t have a fixed position, could precede or follow
the subject.
• Those parts of the sentence which express something new and important were
located after the predicate.
• At first, the words order was free but later.. there was the model OV or SOV (S –
subject V – predicate O – object) not like SVO as in Modern English.
Composite sentence – was appeared in the latest developmental stage of the IE l-ge or
after the collapse of IE community.
• Complex sentences start their formation in PIE, but we see only the initial stage:
i.e. there already existed subordinate clauses but there were not enough specialized
conjunctions
• The subordinate sentences emerged on the basis of combination of simple
sentences;
• The subordinate clauses appeared on the basis of a simple sentence, when it was
complicated by infinitive or participial constructions with the help of subordinate and
insubordinate conjunction .
• There were mostly coordinative (сурядний)(which was expressed with the help of
the conjunctions) rather than subordinate conjunction.
Note: inversion of the main parts of the sentence, reverse WO of the main and
dependent parts.
30. The concept of the comparative method: reconstruction and asterisk
In linguistics, the comparative method is a technique for studying the development of

languages by performing a feature-by-feature comparison of two or more languages with
common descent from a shared ancestor. The main method is comparison, the main
principle – historical approach.
The comparative method was developed over the 19th century. The Danish scholars
Rasmus Rask and Franz Bopp and the German scholar Jacob Grimm made key
contributions. The first linguist to offer reconstructed forms from a proto-
language was August Schleicher.
The common or hypothesized language that serves as a common ancestor is called a

proto-language, or sometimes, a parent language. In this case, the divergent
continuations are frequently referred to as daughter languages. A parent language and its
daughters constitute a language family.
(more comprehensible: The comparative-historical method is widely used to study the

history of the language. It helps to reconstruct language phenomena of the past, which
are not recorded in the earliest extant written texts. If two or more languages contain
words with the same root, it is possible to assume that these words are of the same
origin. Thus, at the beginning of the 19th century it was proved that there was a
remarkable likeness between certain languages now called Indo-European. These
languages have much in common both in the vocabulary, phonetic, and
grammatical structure. For example:
English brother
German Bruder
Latin frater
Ukrainian брат)
The RECONSTRUCTION of the parent language is undertaken, when linguist run out of
actually documented texts. It is a hypothesis about the specific form of the proto-
language that could have changed into the documented daughter languages.
The ASTERISK (*) is the sign that shows that a letter or a word was reconstructed
31.The concept of the Indo-Europeans and Indo-European family of
languages.
Around 7 thousand languages are spoken in the world today. They can be grouped in
different language families on the basis of genealogical principle. Indo-European
languages form one of the largest language families in the world. It is assumed that the
Indo-European family of languages, has developed out of some single language, which
must have been spoken thousands of years ago by some comparatively small body of
people in a relatively restricted geographical area.
All this Indo-European languages are originated from one ancestor (предок), from one
common language proto language.
It is assumed that the Indo-European family of languages , has developed out of some
single language, which must have been spoken thousands of years ago by some
comparatively small body of people in a relatively restricted geographical area. This
original language is called Proto-Indo-European (PIE). The people, who spoke it or who
spoke languages evolved from it, are called Indo-Europeans.
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the theorized common ancestor of the Indo-European

language family. Its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction
from documented Indo-European languages. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European
exists, it was only reconstructed.
It was spoken about 6 thousand years ago, but we don’t know for sure. We don’t even
know the name of this proto language. In modern Europe and India communicate in
languages derived from Indo-European, so it is called
The Indo-European family has 10 main brunches:
Indo – Iranian ( Indian + Iranian) Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu, Bengali

Balto - Slavik (Baltic + Slavonic) old Russian, Lithuanian (ліфіеніан) polish, check,
Ukrainian, Russian.
Germanic English, German, Gothic, Yiddish, Dutch, Afrikaans, Danish
Romanic French, Italian, Spanish
Celfic irish, scotish
Anatolian lishian, hitaid (хетська) , lidian instinct територія сучасної туреччини
Greek Modern Greek, Old Greek Albanian
Armenian
Tocharian instinct суч китай
32. The Indo-European tree-diagram of languages: the notions of parent

language, daughter languages and dialect; genetically related languages
and closely related languages.
Around 5 thousand languages are spoken in the world today. They can be grouped in
different language families on the basis of genealogical principle. It is assumed that the
Indo-European family of languages, has developed out of some single language, which
must have been spoken thousands of years ago by some comparatively small body of
people in a relatively restricted geographical area. This original language is called Proto-
Indo-European (PIE). The people, who spoke it or who spoke languages evolved from it,
are called Indo-Europeans.
Proto-language is a hypothetical or reconstructed language from which a number of

known languages are believed to have descended in historical linguistics.
Parent language it’s an earlier language from which another is derived.
Daughter languages are the divergent continuations of a parent language.
English is a daughter language of Proto-Germanic, which is a daughter language of Proto-

Indo-European.
Hindi is a daughter language of Sanskrit (/Prakrit), which is a daughter language of Proto-
Indo-European.
Dialect is a form of a language spoken in a particular geographical area or by members of

a particular social class or occupational group, distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar,
and pronunciation
Genetically related languages Two languages are considered to be genetically related if
one is descended from the other or if both are descended from a common ancestor.
Closely related languages are genetically related languages possessing a lot of features in
common, such as English and Frisian or Danish and Swedish.
33.The home of the Indo-Europeans: the existing concepts.
The traditional view has been that the Indo-Europeans were a nomadic (кочові) or semi-
nomadic people, who invaded neighboring agricultural or urban areas, and imposed their
languages on them. This mass migration began in about 7000 BC or according to the
traditional point of view it dates back to 4000 BC or later.
After 4000 BC, when the language had developed into a number of dialects, people
began to expand in various directions. In the course of their expansion, the Indo-
Europeans overran countries, which had reached a higher level of civilization than they
had themselves.
There is one technical factor, which played a role in the expansion of Indo-Europeans.
This was the use of horse-drawn vehicles, which was characteristic of Indo-European
society. It is possible that Indo-Europeans were ahead of time, and it was their use of
wheeled vehicles, especially the fast horse-drawn chariot, that enabled them to overrun
such a large part of the Eurasian continent.
There exist different hypotheses concerning prehistorical settlement of PIE as to the

primeval motherland of PIE:
1) In Northern Europe - 6 millenium BC (Л. Кіліан, М. Звелбіл): Scandinavia, and the

adjacent parts of Northern Germany, and it was often linked with a belief that the
Germanic peoples were the ‘original’ Indo-Europeans;
2) In Central Europe – 3 millenium BC (Є. Прокош) – 2 large group of tribes – Forest (2

mill BC) and Steppe. Forest: northward – Germanic, southward - Celtic, Italic, Balkan,
Greek; Steppe: northward – Baltic, southward - one Thracian and Illyrian; another
Phrygian, Armenian; Indic, Iranian.
3) In the Balkans (В.І. Грегорієв І.М.Дяконов) South to the Caucasis (forced by tribes),
North to the Central Mesopotamis, Armenian hypothesis – 5 millenium (Т.М
Гамкрелідзе, Вячеслав Васильович Іванов).
34.The concept of Kentum and Satem languages.
The first division into an Eastern Group and a Western Group is important. The groups
are marked by a number of differences in phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, which
suggests that there was an early division of the Indo-Europeans into two main areas,
perhaps representing migrations in different directions.
One of the distinctive differences in phonology between the two groups is the treatment
of the PIE palatal k, which appears as a velar [k] in the western languages, but as some
kind of palatal fricative, [s] or (sh)in the Eastern languages. Thus the word for hundred is
Greek he-katon, Latin centum, Tocharian känt, Old Irish cet, and Welsh cant (the c in each
case representing [k]), but in Sanskrit it is satam, in Old Slavonic seto (modern Ukrainian
cто).
For this reason, the two groups are often referred to as the Kentum languages and the
Satem languages. On the whole, the Kentum languages are in the West and the Satem
languages in the East, but an apparent anomaly is Tocharian, right across in western
China, which is a Kentum language. The division into Centum and Satem languages took
place around 1500 BC.
Western CENTUM (Western branch): Celtic, Italic, Germanic, Greek, Anatolian, Tocharian
Satem SATEM (Eastern branch): Baltic, Slavonic, Albanian, Armenian, Indian, Iranian
35. Old Germanic of the Indo-European languages. Basic division. The

concept of Proto-Germanic.
Common Germanic branch later split up into three groups:
• North Germanic, represented only Old Norse (also called Old Scandinavian-
includes Swedish, Danish, Norwegian etc.)
• West Germanic including Old High German, Old Low German, Old Saxon, Old
English and Old Frisian (English, Dutch, Africaans, German etc.)
• East Germanic group, represented by Gothic, Burgandian, Vandalic (dead
languages)
The history of the Germanic group begins with the appearance of what is known as the
Proto-Germanic (PG) language (also termed Common or Primitive Germanic, Primitive
Teutonic and simply Germanic). PG is the linguistic ancestor or the parent-language of
the Germanic group. It is supposed to have split from related IE tongues sometimes
between XV and X centuries BC. The would-be Germanic tribes belonged to the western
division of the IE speech community.
PG is a prehistorical language, as it was never recorded in written form. In the XIX century
it was reconstructed by methods od comparative linguistics from written evidence in
descendant languages.
It is believed that at the earliest stages of history PG was fundamentally one language,
though dialectically differences grew, so that towards the beginning of our era Germanic
appears divided into dialectal groups and tribal dialects.
36. Periodization of Old Germanic languages. Old North Germanic

languages: general characteristics.
We may reconstruct a gradual splitting-up of the Germanic people and their languages,
along with a migration southward out of their original homeland in southern Scandinavia.
Because of the expansion of the Germanic-speaking peoples, differences of dialect within
Proto-Germanic became more marked, and we can distinguish three main branches or
groups of dialects, namely North Germanic, East Germanic, and West Germanic
To North Germanic belong the modern Scandinavian languages – Norwegian, Swedish,

Danish, Icelandic, Faroese and Gutnish (the language of the island of Gotland). The
earliest recorded form of North Germanic (Old Norse) is found in runic inscriptions from
about AD 300;
It took approximately 5 centuries for the Old Germ. lang-es (dialects) to form the features
of individuality to be definitely distinguished from one another, with the East Germ. lang-
es having died away by the time the North Germ. lang-es manifested features of
differentiation.
North Germ.
8-16th
Old Norwegian
c
Old Faroese 9th c
9-16th
Old Icelandic
c
8-16th
Old Swedish
c
916th
Old Danish
c
37. Periodization of Old Germanic languages. Old West Germanic

languages: general characteristics.
Old Germ. lang-es (400 A.D./ 900 A.D.)
As a result of the expansion of the Germanic-speaking peoples, differences of dialect
within Proto-Germanic became more marked, and we can distinguish three main
branches or groups of dialects, namely North Germanic, East Germanic, and West
Germanic
differentiation.
West Germ.
OE 5th c
Old Frisian 5th c
Old Low Franconian 7th c
OHG 8th c
Old Saxon 9th c
The language most closely related to English is Frisian, which was once spoken along the
coast of North Sea, from Northern Holland to central Denmark, but which is now heard
only in a few coastal regions and on some of the Dutch islands. Before the migration of
the Anglo-Saxons to England, they must have been near neighbours of the Frisians.
38. The West Germanic tree-diagram of languages.
The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three branches of the
Germanic family of languages (the others being the North Germanic and the extinct East
Germanic languages).
English is by far the most-spoken West Germanic language, with more than 1 billion
speakers worldwide. Within Europe, the three most prevalent West Germanic languages
are English, German, and Dutch. The language family also includes Afrikaans (which is a
daughter language of Dutch), Yiddish, Luxembourgish, Frisian and Scots. Additionally,
several creoles, patois, and pidgins are based on Dutch, English, and German, as they
were each languages of colonial empires.
Sources of formation of Old West Germanic Languages

39.The East Germanic branch of languages: general characteristics.
40.The North Germanic branch оf languages: general characteristics.

differentiation.
The comparative method was developed over the 19th century. Key contributions were
made by the Danish scholars Rasmus Rask, Rasmus Rask and the German scholar Jacob
Grimm. The first linguist to offer reconstructed forms from a proto-language was August
Schleicher, in 1861. They established, with the help of their main method: the
comparison, the definition of The language family: this is the language which is
represented by a parent language and its daughters (the divergent continuations of
parent languages).
The PG is a dialect of PIE, a linguistic ancestor of Germanic group
Old Norse had a division into eastern and western subgroups.

a) West Scandinavian l-ges: Icelandic; Norwegian; Faroese
b) East Scandinavian languages: Swedish; Danish.
To North Germanic belong the modern Scandinavian languages – Norwegian, Icelandic,

Faroese(West) and Swedish, Danish, Gutnish(East) (the language of the island of
Gotland). The earliest recorded form of North Germanic (Old Norse) is found in runic
inscriptions from about AD 300
41. Old Germanic alphabets. The distinguished written records.

There are three types of Old Germanic alphabets: The Runic alphabet, The Gothic
alphabet, The Latin alphabet.
The Runic alphabet

The earliest written records of English are inscriptions on hard material made in a
special alphabet known as the runes. The word ‘rune’ originally meant ‘secret’,
‘mystery’ and hence came to denote inscriptions believed to be magic. Later the word
‘rune’ was applied to the characters used in writing these inscriptions.
There is no doubt that the art of runic writing was known to the Germanic tribes long
before they came to Britain, since runic inscriptions have also been found in
Scandinavia. The runes were used as letters, each symbol to indicate a separate
sound. Besides, a rune could also represent a word beginning with that sound and was
called by that word.
The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, not to be found in languages of
other groups. The letters are angular, straight lines are preferred, curved lines
avoided; this is due to the fact that runic inscriptions were cut in hard material: stone,
bone or wood.
There were several varieties of runic scripts:
1) Elder Runes or Futhark used in northern Europe from about 2 -3 century; it had 24
letters. The runes were used as letters, each symbol to indicate a separate sound.
Besides, a rune could also represent a word beginning with that sound and was called
by that word.
2) Nordic, or Scandinavian, also called Younger Runes or Younger Futhark, used from
800 to 1100 AD in Scandinavia and Iceland. The Younger Futhark developed further
into the Marcomannic runes, the Medieval runes (1100 AD to 1500 AD), and the
Dalecarlian runes (around 1500 to 1800 AD). Younger Futhark experienced the
reduction of the number of symbols to 16 letters
3) Anglo-Saxon Runes, also called Old English Futhorc used in Britain from 400 to 1100
AD; Anglo-Saxon had 28 letters, and after about 900 AD it had 33.
They differed not only by chronological and territorial parameters, but by several
qualitative features, mainly by the letter shape and the number of symbols in a set.
In general, the territory of present-day Denmark and Norway is the richest in the
earliest inscriptions. Most of them consist of one or several words often difficult to
interpret. There are about 150 inscriptions left to modern days.
The Gothic alphabet.

The Gothic alphabet was invented at the end of the IV century AD by Ulfila, the religious
leader, to provide his people with a written language. It was used exclusively for writing
the ancient Gothic language and was primarily implied by Ulfila to translate the Bible into
Gothic.
Gothic alphabet is believed to be derived from the Greek alphabet with some borrowings
from the Latin and runic alphabets as well. Most of the letters are taken over from the
Greek alphabet directly, but a few letters are innovated to accurately express Gothic
phonology. In cases Greek symbols were not sufficient to designate Germanic sounds he
relied on Latin and runic alphabets.
All in all, the Gothic alphabet consists of 27 characters, among them 25 modified Greek
symbols and two runes.
The names of the letters are clearly related to the names of the Runic alphabet. As in the
Greek alphabet, letters were also used as numerals.
There are only a few Gothic manuscripts which survived. The largest body of them
consists of codices written by Ulfila. Almost three-quarters of the New Testament and
some fragments of the Old Testament from his Gothic Bible translation have survived.
The largest of these fragments is the Codex Argenteus (188 leaves), which contains about
half of the Gospels and is preserved in Uppsala, Sweden.
Codex Ambrosianus (Milan) which is preserved in five parts (193 leaves) contains
scattered passages from the New Testament, the Old Testament and some commentaries
known as Skeireins. This text is likely to be somewhat modified by copyists.
Codex Gissensis (Gießen) : 1 leaf, fragments of Luke 23-24. It was found in Egypt in 1907,
but destroyed by water damage in 1945.
Codex Carolinus (Wolfenbüttel): 4 leaves, fragments of Romans.
Codex Vaticanus Latinus: 3 leaves and the Skeireins.
Except codices scattered old documents are preserved (alphabets, calendars, glosses
found in manuscripts, a small dictionary of more than eighty words, and a song without
translation).
There are not so many references to Gothic after the IX century.
The Latin alphabet.

The Latin alphabet, developed from the Etruscan alphabet in Ⅶ BC, superseded both
Runic and Gothic alphabets. Introduction of the Latin alphabet accompanied the spread
of Christianity and Christian religious texts written in Latin.
Latin alphabet was introduced and started to spread among Germanic peoples in the
Early Middle Age period (VI –XI centuries), when Latin was the only literary language and
the primary language of church and religion. Latin religious texts were incomprehensible
to common people, therefore in additions to them the monks made glosses and
glossaries with the translations of Latin words. The task of the first glossaries was also to
teach Latin.
Later West Germanic and North Germanic peoples started to refer to the Latin alphabet
in order to commit to paper their own texts. But they came across some difficulties, for
the Latin alphabet was certainly not adequate to represent peculiar Germanic sounds. So,
the Latin alphabet needed adaptation.
Latin alphabet itself underwent transformations before it was adopted by the Germanic
tribes.
There were several ‘varieties’ of Latin alphabet that reflect the way it was modified
before it assumed its modern form in different languages.
1) In the Ist century BC the Latin alphabet had 21 letters. The Latin form used throughout
the Roman Empire from the 1st century AD is known as rustic capitals.
2) In III-IV centuries it was transformed into uncial form of writing, which was used in
Latin manuscripts till VIII century AD. On its basis low case letters were developed.
3)In VI century it developed to half-uncial, which in its turn was modified into minuscule
that was mainly adopted and spread in the majority of Germanic texts.
In the course of its use, the Latin alphabet was adapted for use in new languages,
sometimes representing phonemes not found in languages that were already written
with the Roman characters. To represent these new sounds, extensions were performed
by adding diacritics to existing letters, by joining multiple letters together to make
ligatures, by creating completely new forms, or by assigning a special function to pairs or
triplets of letters. These new forms can vary with the particular language where some
letters could be discarded from the classical Roman script or new ones added to it (like
the Danish and Norwegian alphabet). Now the term "Latin alphabet" is used for any
straightforward derivation of the alphabet first used to write Latin.
42. The Runic alphabet, its origin
The earliest written records of English are inscriptions on hard material made in a special
alphabet known as the runes. The runic alphabet is a specifically Germanic alphabet, not
to be found in languages of other groups. The word rune originally meant ’secret’,
‘mystery’ and hence came to denote inscriptions believed to be magic. The runes were
used as letters, each symbol to indicate separate sound. This alphabet is called futhark
after the first six letters. The earliest known Runic inscriptions date from the 1st century
AD, but the vast majority of Runic inscriptions date from the 11th century. Runic
inscriptions have been found throughout Europe from the Balkans to Germany,
Scandinavia and the British Isles.
 runic letters are angular; (кутові)

 straight lines are preferred, curved lines avoided;
 this is due to the fact that runic inscriptions were cut in hard material: stone, bone
or wood.
 the shapes of some letters resemble those of Greek or Latin, other have not been
traced to any known alphabet, and the order of the runes in the alphabet is
certainly original.
 the number of runes in different OG languages varied.
The three best-known runic alphabets are the Elder Runes (around 150 to 800 AD), also
called Futhark; the Younger Runes (800–1100), which was further subdivided
into Danish and Swedish-Norwegian; and the Anglo-Saxon Runes (400 to 1100
AD).
The earliest runic inscriptions found on artifacts give the name of either the
craftsman or the owner, or, sometimes, remain a linguistic mystery. Due to this, it
is possible to assume that the early runes were not so much used as a simple
writing system, but rather as magical signs to be used for charms. The name rune
itself, taken to mean "secret, something hidden", seems to indicate that knowledge
of the runes was originally considered esoteric, or restricted to an elite.
A recent study of runic magic suggests that runes were used to create magical
objects such as amulets, but not in a way that would indicate that runic writing was
any more inherently magical than were other writing systems such as Latin or
Greek.
The number of runes varied in different Germanic languages. Elder Runes

consisted of 24 characters, while Younger Runes, the Scandinavian version of the
alphabet was reduced to 16 letters. As compared to continental, the number of
runes in England was larger, new runes were added as new sounds appeared in English.
Originally Anglo-Saxon Futhark consisted of 28 letters, to be increased to

33. Neither on the mainland, nor in Britain were the runes used for everyday
writing or for putting down poetry and prose works. Their main function was to
make short inscriptions on objects, often to bestow on them some special power or
magic. The two best known inscriptions in Britain are the earliest Old English
written records. One of them is an inscription on a box called the “Franks Casket”,
the other is a short text on a stone cross near the village of Ruthwell, known
as the “Ruthwell Cross”. Both records are in the Northumbrian dialect of the Old
English language.
Professor Eric Moltke (1901 - 1984), a Danish Scholar gives a detailed

comparative analysis of the futhark with the major variants of the Phoenician,
Greek, Etruscan and Latin alphabets and arrives at the conclusion that the Latin
alphabet was the basis for the runes. Ludvig Wimmer, another Danish scholar, also
believed that the futhark was based on Latin letters.
This Latin theory states (1874) that the runes are a result of the adaptation of the
Roman (or Latin) alphabet. It is assumed that the ancient Germanic people, who came
into contact with Roman culture through the invasion of the Teutones and Cimbri, were
familiarized with the Roman written alphabet as early as the 2 nd century B.C.E. They then
adapted the Roman alphabet into the runes and put it to use, spreading it by the means
of trading routes into Scandinavian countries and then eastward from there.
The one thing that we need to watch in this theory is the fact that there is little
evidence of the runes near Roman lands at such a time. However, the spread of the runes
into Scandinavian countries and from there eastward may mean that the adaptation of
the Roman alphabet wasn’t complete until the runes had begun to spread northward.
Scholars have taken the Greek and Etruscan alphabets seriously in the past
as possible sources for the futhark.
The latest 'Greek' theory was published in 1988. This theory was first stated in 1899
by Sophus Bugge and talks about how the ancient Germanic people adapted the Greek
alphabet to create the runes. The theory goes that the Goths had come into contact with
a cursive form of the Greek alphabet. The Goths then adapted the cursive form of that
alphabet for their own use allowing the new alphabet to spread with them as they
traveled.
There are problems with this theory, which have led it to be abandoned by many people.
Again we see a fault in the times for this theory. The earliest the Goths would have been
able to adapt such an alphabet is around 200 C.E. and the earliest runic inscription would
have been earlier than that.
Etruscan theory by C.J.S. Marstrander in 1928 was strengthened in 1937 by

Wolfgang Krause. The theory goes that the Germanic people living in the Alps came into
contact with the North-Italic (or Etruscan) alphabet and adapted it. Then the Cimbri
encountered the “new” alphabet and pass it on to the Suevi who carry the runes up the
Rhine river to the North Sea, Jutland and beyond.
The only real “problem” with this scenario is that the encounter would have taken place
two to three hundred before any runic inscriptions that are already dated. But this
doesn’t mean that it couldn’t have happened. Items made of wood may have been
carved with the runes and may have long since decayed.
43.Old English literary monuments.
OLD Runic inscriptions:”The Franks Casket”- «Скринька Френкса» 8 ст

ENGLISH “The Ruthwell Cross”- «Рутвельський хрест» 8 ст
Coins, weapons, amulets, rings…The total number is about 40
“Caedmon`s Hymn”,”Bede’s Death Song” by Caedmon 8
‘Fate of the Apostles’,’Elene’ by Cynewulf 8
“BEOWULF” (8)10
King Alfred’s translations:
Orosious ‘WORLD HISTORY’ – ‘Всесвітня історія’ (5)9
Boethious’ ‘ON THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY’ (6)9
‘THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLES’ 8-12
Charters, hymns, glosses, psalms (8-10), Lives of Saints 10-11
1. East Germanic languages. Gothic

The ring from Piertoassa (3 c AD) написано Goths sacred - gutaniowi hailag
A gold ring (necklace) found in 1837 in Pietroassa (north-western Romania), dated to the
4th c. AD, bearing an Elder Futhark inscription of 15 runes.
 The Edge of the spear from kovel (3-4 c AD)
Tilarids – target rider
The head of a lance, found in 1858 30 km from Kovel, Ukraine , dated to the early 3 rd
century.
The spearhead measures 15.5 cm with a maximal width of 3 cm. Both sides of the leaf
were inlaid with silver symbols. The inscription notably runs right to left, reading tilarids.
Codex argenteus "Silver Code". This manuscript was created, apparently, in the V-VI
centuries. N. Silver and gold letters are inscribed on the parchment covered with purple
paint (hence the name - silver codex. The manuscript is not completely preserved (we
have 187 sheets out of 330, ie more than half). The silver codex is stored in the University
Library of Uppsala Sweden) It is believed that the list was made in one of the
monasteries of northern Italy.
2. West Germanic languages: Old English, Old High German, Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old
Low Franconian.
Of the runic inscriptions believed to be in future English, the best known are small texts
on a stone cross near the village of Rutwell ("Rutvel's Cross") in south-west Scotland and
an inscription on a whalebone box (found in France near cities and Clermont-Ferrand)
Both inscriptions date back to the VIII century.
The Franks Casket is a small Anglo-Saxon whale's bone chest from the early 8th century,
now in the British Museum. The casket is densely decorated with knife-cut narrative
scenes with inscriptions mostly in Anglo-Saxon runes.
44.Old Icelandic and its literary monuments.

Old Icelandic is a language of the original written monuments of the XII-XIV centuries,
which originated in Iceland, colonized by Norwegians in the IX-X centuries. Old Icelandic,
like Gothic, plays a particularly important role in comparative studies, because it vividly
represents Old German vocabulary, and the monuments of Old Icelandic poetry most
fully reflect Germanic mythology.
Language Written records Century
OLD Icelandic 1. Runic inscriptions. The total number is about XI – XII
40
2. The Latin alphabet (IX) XII(I)
3. “Elder Edda” (Poetic) – (Codex Regius) – IX – XIII
«Старша Едда» (Королівський список)
4. Scaldic Verse – поезія скальдів XIII
5. “Younger Edda”- «Молодша Едда» by Snorri XII – XIII
Sturluson
6. Sagas, Kings’ Sagas XII
7. Religious texts, law texts, scientific,
translations of novels
Old Icelandic is unique among the Germanic languages in the volume and richness of its
literature. The basic bulk of Old Icelandic manuscripts are in Latin. Runic inscriptions
(about 45) have no value as literary monuments.
1. Eddic poetry (Edda) represents the oldest preserved genre of Old Icelandic
literature. These poems, short, dramatic, and alliterative, are found primarily in a
single manuscript written after 1250. The poems deal with two subjects: the gods
and myths of Germanic heathendom (язичників), and the heroes of the Germanic
Age of Migrations.
2. Prose so-called “Younger Edda” of Snorri Sturluson written in about 1222-1223. It
has three parts: 1. a review of mythology; 2. сollection and explanations of the
most important kenings (a figure of speech, a compound that employs figurative
language in place of a more concrete single-word noun); 3. metrics – the
description of poetic formats and stanzas (строфи) used in skaldic poetry.
3. Scaldic verse was an ancient genre (IX-XII centuries). Much of skaldic poetry deals
with the exploits (подвиги) of kings and other patrons, and was clearly meant as
praise poetry. In contrast to the epic, Skaldic poetry, along with the alliterative
verse (алітераційний вірш — акцентний вірш у старогерманській поезії.),
necessarily had an inner rhyme and a strict size; it deviated considerably from
everyday syntax.
4. Konungasögur (King’s sagas) dealt with the two Norwegian kings Olaf Tryggvason
and St. Olaf Haraldsson. Etymologically the word saga means ‘something said’, but
in the Icelandic tradition it is a piece of prose literature, a deliberate composition
by a particular author.
Icelandic prose sagas are based on the oral stories of the first immigrants from Norway to
Iceland. Most of these works were recorded in the period between the last quarter of
the XII and the end of the XIII century. Among them are family sagas, which tell the story
of prominent families, depict pictures of life, family relationships and traditions of the
Scandinavians of the Viking’s era. Some sagas are fabled, fantastic and there are lots of
fictitious facts and names.
45.Old Saxon and its written records.
Old Saxon language, also called Old Low German, earliest recorded form of Low German,
spoken by the Saxon tribes between the Rhine and Elbe rivers and between the North Sea
and the Harz Mountains from the 9th until the 12th century. A distinctive characteristic of
Old Saxon, shared with Old Frisian and Old English, is its preservation of the voiceless
stops (p, t, k) common to all Germanic languages; in High German these stops were
affricates (pf, tz, kh) or long fricatives (ff, ss, hh).
The Heliand, a life of Christ in alliterative verse written about 830, and a fragment of a
translation of Genesis are the most significant Old Saxon literary works that have
survived, although a number of minor fragments also exist. The modern Low German
dialects developed from Old Saxon
46.Pliny’s classification of the Germanic tribes.

Pliny the Elder, the Roman scientist and writer. (I century AD)
Made a classified list of the Germanic tribes grouping them under six headings in
“Natural History”
He was the first who enumerated and classified the military tribes. It was proved by many
scientists. According to Pliny there were several Germanic tribes:
 The Vindili. They lived in the eastern part of the territory inhabited by the
Germanic tribes. They consisted of the Goths, the Burgundians and the Vandals.
 The Burgundians came to the continent from the island of Bornholm. It was in the
Baltic Sea. Later they moved to the west and settled in south-eastern part of
France in the area called Burgundia.
 The Goths first inhabited the lower coast of the river Vistula. Later they moved to
the south and formed powerful tribal unions of Ostrogoths and Visigoths.
 The Ingvaenoes. They lived in the north-western part of the Germanic territory.
They inhabited the Jutland peninsula and the coast of the North Sea. The tribes of
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians were formed later of this group.
 The Istaevones. They lived on the Rhine. Later they formed a very powerful tribal
union of Franconians. The Herminones lived in the centre of Germany and later
the German nation was formed of these tribes.
 The Hilleviones were isolated from other Germanic tribes. They inhabited
Scandinavia. Modern Scandinavian nations are the descendants of these tribes.
47.Main sources of information about the Germanic tribes. The Germanic

tribes in the AD 1
There were three main sources of information about the Germanic tribes:
 Archeology and ethnography data
 Borrowing in the lang-es of the neighbouring nomadic tribes
 Written records
The written records are as follows:
By the 1st century, the writings of Caesar, Tacitus and other Roman era
writers indicate a division of Germanic-speaking peoples into tribal groupings
centred on:
* the rivers Oder and Vistula/Weichsel (East Germanic tribes),
* the lower Rhine river (Istvaeones),
* the river Elbe (Irminones),
* Jutland and the Danish islands (Ingvaeones).
The Sons of Mannus, Istvaeones, Irminones, and Ingvaeones are collectively

called West Germanic tribes. In addition, those Germanic people who
remained in Scandinavia are referred to as North Germanic. These groups all
developed separate dialects, the basis for the differences among Germanic
languages down to the present day.
Starting with the 1st century AD, the pressure of the Germanic tribes on the
border of the Roman Empire started to be felt. Many Germanic people had
reached Rome as slaves; but later, during the decadence of the Roman
Empire, some Germanic warriors were employed as mercenaries (найманці).
48.The age of migrations: the Visigoths.

In the I-II c. AD Goths lived in the mouth of Vistula river. In 170 moved to the area north of the Black
Sea. In 270 happened a split into two large Gothic groups.
The Visigoths were settled agriculturists in Dacia (Romania) when they were attacked by the Huns in 376
and driven southward across the Danube River into the Roman Empire. They were allowed to enter the
empire but the exactions of Roman officials soon drove them to revolt and plunder the Balkan provinces.
In 378, they defeated the army of the Roman emperor Valens on the plains outside Adrianople, killing the
emperor himself. For 4 more years they continued to wander in search of somewhere to settle. In 382
Valens’ successor, Theodosius I settled them in Moesia (Balkans) as federates, giving them land there and
imposing on them the duty of defending the frontier. It was apparently during this period that the
Visigoths were converted to Arian Christianity.
They remained in Moesia until 395, when, under the leadership of Alaric, they left Moesia and moved
westward. Their depredations culminated in the sack of Rome in 410. In the same year Alaric died and
was succeeded by Ataulphus, who led the Visigoths to settle first in southern Gaul, then in Spain (415).
In 418, they were recalled from Spain by the patrician Constantius, who later became emperor as
Constantius III, and were settled by him as federates in the province of Aquitania Secunda between the
lower reaches of the Garonne and Loire rivers. Their chieftain Wallia died soon after the settlement in
Aquitaine was carried out, and he was succeeded by Theodoric I, who ruled them until he was killed in
451 fighting against Attila in the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains. Theodoric I is the first Visigothic leader
who can properly be described as a monarch.
While persistently trying to extend their territory, the Visigoths continued to be federates until 475, when
Theodoric’s son Euric declared himself an independent king. Euric, a fervent Arian, was succeeded by his
tolerant son Alaric II, who in 507 was defeated and killed by Clovis and the Franks that invaded the
Aquitaine.
The Visigoths lost all their possessions in Gaul apart from Septimania, a strip of land stretching along the
coast from the Pyrenees to the Rhône with Narbonne as its capital, which the Franks were never able to
wrest from them. Henceforth, until the Muslims finally destroyed them in 711, the Visigoths ruled
Septimania and much of Spain, with Toledo as their capital.
49.The age of migrations: the Ostrogoths.
I c. AD Settled in the mouth of the Vistula River. Moved to the area north of the Black Sea
(170). A split between 2 large Gothic groups – Visigoths and Ostrogoths.
THE OSTROGOTHS:
375 Were subjected to a massive invasion by the Huns
435 Attila(395-453)united the Huns
447 Attacked Constantinople
451 The battle of the Catalaunian plains (Battle of Chalons)
451-452 The Huns sacked Milan, Pavia and a number of towns along the Po
River, approached Rome but left it having been promised annual
tribute
455 The collapse of the Hunnish Empire after Attila`s death(453)
476 The collapse of the Western Roman Empire
493 Theodoric headed the Ostrogothic Kingdom and ruled until 526
535 The emperor Justinian declared war on the Goths
555 Total collapse of the Ostrogoths
50.Division of the Frankish Empire and its linguistic consequences.
The Frankish Empire was the territory inhabited and ruled by the Franks from the 3rd to
the 10th century. Under the nearly continuous campaigns of Charles Martel, Pepin the
Short, and Charlemagne—father, son, grandson—the greatest expansion of the Frankish
empire was secured by the early 9th century.
Charlemagne had several sons, but only one survived him. This son, Louis the Pious,
followed his father as the ruler of a united empire. But sole inheritance remained a
matter of chance, rather than intent. When Louis died in 840, the Carolingians adhered to
the custom of partible inheritance, and after a brief civil war between the three
grandsons, they made an agreement in 843, the Treaty of Verdun, which divided the
empire in three:
1. Louis' eldest surviving son Lothair I became Emperor in name but de facto only the
ruler of the Middle Frankish Kingdom, or Middle Francia or King of the Central or
Middle Franks. His three sons in turn divided this kingdom between them into
Lotharingia (centered on Lorraine), Burgundy and (Northern) Italy Lombardy. These
areas with different cultures, peoples and traditions would later vanish as separate
kingdoms, which would eventually become Belgium, the Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Lorraine, Switzerland, Lombardy
2. Louis' second son, Louis the German, became King of the East Frankish Kingdom or
East Francia. This area formed the kernel of the later Holy Roman Empire by way of
the Kingdom of Germany enlarged with some additional territories from Lothair's
Middle Frankish Realm — much of these territories eventually evolved into
modern Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
3. His third son Charles the Bald became King of the West Franks, of the West
Frankish Kingdom or West Francia. This area, most of today's southern and
western France, became the foundation for the later France under the House of
Capet.
The expansion and consequent division of the Frankish Empire had a big influence on the
development of languages in that region. As the Empire was gaining new territories it
brought the franconian language to them, and overtime the substratum language
became overshadowed, resulting in phonetical, lexical and grammatical changes. With
the division of the Empire the whole new countries were created, and it set off the
development of new languages.
51.Old Germanic mythology and beliefs (general outline).

Germanic religion and mythology, complex of stories, lore, and beliefs about the gods and the nature of
the cosmos developed by the Germanic-speaking peoples before their conversion to Christianity.
Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of
northwestern Europe from the Iron Age up until their Christianization during the medieval. Paganism is a
system of closely related religious worldviews and practices, rather than as one individual religion.
Сonsisted of: individual worshippers, family traditions, regional cults, sacrifice to their idols
(some idols were worshipped widely across the Germanic lands but under the different names; others
were specific located) even blood sacrifice.
In Anglo-Saxon and in Icelandic texts Germanic paganism took various different forms in each
different area of the Germanic world: 10th and 11th century Norse paganism (documented version),
Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic sources.
Archaeological finds and remains of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore can supply the
information.
Germanic paganism was polytheistic, with some underlying similarities to other Indo-European
traditions. Many of the deities found in Germanic paganism appeared under similar names across the
Germanic peoples, most notably the god known to the Germans as Wodan, to the Anglo-Saxons as
Woden, and to the Norse as Odin, as well as the god known to the Germans as Donar, to the Anglo-
Saxons as Þunor and to the Norse as Thor. Aesir - gods of higher categories, Vanir - gods of the lower
category.
It continued in the legends and Middle High German epics during the Middle Ages, also continued
in a recharacterized and less sacred fashion in European folklore and fairy tales.
Unlike North Germanic, and to a lesser extent Anglo-Saxon mythology, the attestation of
Continental Germanic paganism is extremely fragmentary. Besides a handful of brief Elder Futhark
inscriptions, Mythological elements were however preserved in later literature, notably in Middle High
German epic poetry, but also in German, Swiss, and Dutch folklore.
The religion of the Germanic pagans, and in particular their mythologies, provided the basis for
much of the artistic endeavors of the Romanticist movement. For instance, Wagner's Ring Cycle is based
upon Germanic mythology.
52.Gods of the Germanic pantheon: the days of the week, names of

months.
Balder was the god of light. He was the son of Odin and Frigga. Odin’s battle maidens
were called the Valkyries; they protected his favourite warriors and granted them victory.
Odin held his court at Valhalla. This was the place where all brave warriors went when
they died. Odin was usually pictured with a raven upon each shoulder. Loki was a great
godlike giant, ‘the spirit of evil’. He was always ended up doing cruel and destructive
things.
Sunday OE sunne – the sun
The first day of the week was named for the sun god
Monday OE mona – the moon
Was devoted to the goddess of the moon
Tuesday OE Tiw – the war-god
Named in honour of the Anglo-Saxon god of war (ON Tyr)
Wednesday OE Wodan – the god of divination and the dead
Was named for the chief god and the giver of wisdom (ON Odin)
Thursday OE Thunor – the storm-god
Was named in honour of the ancient Germ. God of thunder
Friday OE Fri – the fertility goddess (ON Frigda), goddess of the household
and marriage, Oddin’s wife. Later became as Freya, goddess of the
Earth
Saturday OE Setern – Saturn, Jupiter’s father, the god of agriculture and
sowing of seeds in Roman mythology. His feast, called the
Saturnalia, began on December 17 and was a time of rejoicing and
feasting.
There were different versions of old Germanic names of months but in general they
reflect the economical activities of the Germans. April was called grasmaand ( «a month
of grass").
Farming has been reflected in the names brachmanoth (June - "the time of sowing after
the harvest of the first harvest»), aranmanoth (July - "the month of harvest").
Months were devoted to the gods: April (eosturmanoth, ôstarmanoth) - the goddess
Ostara, March (hredmanoth) - goddess Hrede etc.
Very soon, along with starogermanskimi names of months have been used in Latin (and
later all regions of Europe, in Iceland, from the XIII century.)
53.The Époque of Vikings.
The Vikings who invaded western and eastern Europe were chiefly from
Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They also settled the Faroe Islands, Iceland,
Caithness in Scotland, Greenland and (briefly) North America.
Their language became the mother-tongue of present-day Nordic languages.

By 801, a strong central authority appears to have been established in Jutland,
and the Danish were beginning to look beyond their own territory for land,
trade and plunder.
In Norway, mountainous terrain and fjords formed strong natural boundaries.

Communities there remained independent of each other, unlike the situation
in Denmark which is lowland. By 800, some 30 small kingdoms existed in
Norway.
The sea was the easiest way of communication between the Norwegian
kingdoms and the outside world. It was in the eighth century that
Scandinavians began to build ships of war and send them on raiding
expeditions to initiate the Viking Age. The northern sea rovers were traders,
colonizers and explorers as well as plunderers.
The earliest date given for a Viking raid is 787 AD when, according to
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a group of men from Norway sailed to Portland, in
Dorset. There, they were mistaken for merchants by a royal official. They
murdered him when he tried to get them to accompany him to the king's
manor to pay a trading tax on their goods.
The beginning of the Viking Age in the British Isles is, however, often given as
793. It was recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that the Northmen raided
the important island monastery of Lindisfarne.
In 794, according to the Annals of Ulster, there was a serious attack on

Lindisfarne's mother-house of Iona, which was followed in 795 by raids upon
the northern coast of Ireland. From bases there, the Norsemen attacked Iona
again in 802, causing great slaughter amongst the Céli Dé Brethren, and
burning the abbey to the ground.
The end of the Viking Age is traditionally marked in England by the failed
invasion attempted by the Norwegian king Harald III, who was defeated by
Saxon King Harold Godwinson in 1066 at the Battle of Stamford Bridge; in
Ireland, the capture of Dublin by Strongbow and his Hiberno-Norman forces in
1171; and 1263 in Scotland by the defeat of King Hákon Hákonarson at the
Battle of Largs by troops loyal to Alexander III. Godwinson was subsequently
defeated within a month by another Viking descendant, William, Duke of
Normandy (Normandy had been acquired by Vikings (Normans) in 911).
Scotland took its present form when it regained territory from the Norse
between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries.
In 911, French King Charles the Simple was able to make an agreement with
the Viking warleader Rollo, a chieftain of disputed Norwegian or Danish
origins. Charles gave Rollo the title of duke and granted him and his followers
possession of Normandy. In return, Rollo swore fealty to Charles, converted to
Christianity, and undertook to defend the northern region of France against
the incursions of other Viking groups. Several generations later, the Norman
descendants of these Viking settlers not only identified themselves as French
but carried the French language, and their variant of the French culture, into
England in 1066. With the Norman Conquest, they became the ruling
aristocracy of Anglo-Saxon England.
The end of the Viking-era in Norway is marked by the Battle of Stiklestad in

1030. They proclaimed Norway as a Christian nation, and Norwegians could
no longer be called Vikings.
The traditional definition is no longer accepted by most Scandinavian
historians and archaeologists. Instead, the Viking age is thought to have
ended with the establishment of royal authority in the Scandinavian countries
and the establishment of Christianity as the dominant religion. The date is
usually put somewhere in the early 11th century in all three Scandinavian
countries.
54.Old Frisian ethnic community: geographical, cultural, and linguistic

evidence.
Frisians were the tribes of the Ingaevones /'inʤi:vəunz/. They inhabited the northwestern part of
Germanic territory, i.e. the shores of the North Sea.
In this area, there were three Friesian formation - Western, Central and Eastern Friseland. In the 8th
century, after the creation of the Frankish Empire, all three Frieslands were added to the empire of the Franks. In
the 8th century, the Dutch conquered Western Friesland. Central and Eastern Friesland fall into dependence on
Low Saxon aristocrats. Under the historical circumstances, Frisian nation didn’t have their statehood. In the 5th
century, during the period of historical silence, many of them joined the migration of the Anglo-Saxons who went
through Frisian territory to invade Britain, while those who stayed on the continent expanded into the newly
emptied lands previously occupied by the Anglo-Saxons.
By the end of the sixth century, the Frisians occupied the coast all the way to the mouth of the Weser and
spread farther still in the seventh century, southward down to Dorestad and even Bruges. This farthest extent of
Frisian territory is known as Frisia Magna.
Christianity came early to Friesland with the dominion of the Franks in the eighth and ninth centuries, but
it did not succeed in completely eradicating Indigenous tradition. Germanic folk tradition in rural areas and the
forested region: they believed in supernatural beings such as devils, "white ladies" who lived underground and
kidnapped travelers in the night, witches, wizards, and trolls. Belief in oracles and predictive visions were
common in the relatively recent past. Paganism. The heathen Germans worshipped Woden, sacrificed animals to
Thor and Tiw. They also worshipped Freya and Nerthus. Their ancient songs tell of the earth-born god Tiusto and
his son Mannus, ancestor of the whole German race.
They invented runic divination. Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and
16th centuries in the area between the Rhine and Weser on the European North Sea coast. The Frisian settlers on
the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Friesland) also spoke Old Frisian, but there are no known medieval
texts of this area.
55.Old English Heptarchy (seven kingdoms). The role of Wessex in

unifying the country.
Inhveonses – west Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, Jutes, phrases) lived on the North
Sea coast between the Rhine and the Elbe and the Jutland peninsula, whose name
derives from the tribal name of Juts In the middle of V century tribes of Angles, Saxons
and Jutes began to move to Britain. This was preceded by the following facts.
Britain was populated by tribes of the Britons, Scots and other Celtic nations. - in the
Epoque of Caesar began conquest of Rome against Britain in 55-54 years BC... - In the
next century the Romans conquered the Britons. Under the rule of Rome was major
teritory However, Britain was never fully conquered by the Romans. - (410) in Britain
where were Roman troops, Celtic tribes of Picts and Scots attacked from the north, and
on the southern shores of Britain raided the Saxons. But at the beginning of V century the
Romans were forced to withdraw its troops from Britain to protect Rome from barbarian
attacks. Britain had to defend (against attack Picts and Scots) by Britons as the Romans
couldnot longer keep the British forces. Then the Britons ask for help in Saxons. Angles,
Saxons and Jutes, taking advantage of the weakness of the Celtic tribes, instead of
protecting them, began intensive moving in the UK and pushed the local population to
the north and west. That part of the Saxons, not moved to Britain, and remained on the
continent, known as continental Saxons. VIc. – they were the allies of the Franks in war
against the Thuringians. After the war the Saxons spread along the middle current of the
Elbe. 772-804 - lost their independence after the war with the Franks In the year 852 was
formed at the territory of the East Frankish Kingdom. It became a part of Germanic
nation. EVENTS: According to legend, the resettlement of Germans began in 449, under
two leaders, whose name Hengest and Horsa. The time of resettlement the germanic
tribes on the British Isles (V c.) Considered the beginning of the history of English
language. The Germans formed in Britain 7 kingdoms: three Saxon (Wessex, Sussex,
Essex), three Angles (Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia) and one juts (Kent) , which was
created before the other kingdoms. After a long civil war supremacy among the Germanic
kingdoms in Britain took Wessex. According to the political role of the Wessex - Wessexs
dialect strengthened his status (in etymological dictionaries ets). In Studies typically used
just wessexes forms of Old English language. At the end of VI - in the beginning VII - Kent
played a leading role. In the VII century – Northumbria. In VIII Mercia . Since the
beginning of IX century. - Wessex . King of Wessex in 829 Ekbert he managed to unite
into one state all the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.
55. Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians: their original home and migration to the British
Isles.
CONTINENTAL FRISIANS AND SAXONS
I c. AD The Frisians occupied the coastal line of the North Sea around Lake Flevum and
territories of the adjoining islands
V c. Spread westward to the river Scheldt and eastward – to the mouth of the Weser
along the coastal line of the North Sea
VIII c. Were conquered by the Franks and divided into East Frisia, the Duchy of Friesland
and Utrecht
III-IV c. The Saxons settled at the bottom of the Jutland Peninsula
VI c. Were the allies of the Franks in war against the Thuringians. After the war the
Saxons spread along the middle current of the Elbe
772-804 – Lost their independence after the war with the Franks
852 – The Saxon Dukedom was formed at the territory of the East Frankish Kingdom. It
became a part of the Germanic nation
MIGRATION TO THE BRITISH ISLES
410 – After the withdrawal of the Romans in AD 410 the Britons were harried by the Picts
and Scots from Scotland
449 – Hengist and Horsa, Germanic kings were invited by a British king Vortigern as allies.
They soon dispossessed their hosts and were followed by other Teutons
VI c. – The newcomers formed seven separate kingdoms: Kent, Essex, Wessex, Sussex,
Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria. The period of ‘heptarchy’( Gt hepta ‘seven’, archia
‘power’)lasted about 200 years. Mercia, Northumbria and Wessex struggled with one
another for supremacy.
828 - The struggle came to an end with the decisive victory of Wessex under the reign of
Ecgbert. The capital city Winchester
56.Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians: their original home and migration
to the British Isles.
* The Angles, who may have come from Angeln, and Bede wrote that their whole nation
came to Britain, leaving their former land empty. The name 'England' (Anglo-Saxon 'Engla
land' or 'Ængla land' originates from this tribe.
* The Saxons, from Lower Saxony (German: Niedersachsen, Germany)

* The Jutes, from the Jutland peninsula.
The Angles is a modern English word for a Germanic-speaking people who took their
name from the ancestral cultural region of Angeln, a district located in Schleswig-
Holstein, Germany. The Angles were one of the main groups that settled in Britain in the
post-Roman period, founding several of the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England, and their
name is the root of the name "England".
The Saxons (Latin: Saxones) were a confederation of Old Germanic tribes. Their modern-
day descendants in Lower Saxony and Westphalia and other German states are
considered ethnic Germans (the state of Sachsen is not inhabited by ethnic Saxons; the
state of Sachsen-Anhalt though in its northern and western parts); those in the eastern
Netherlands are considered to be ethnic Dutch; and those in Southern England ethnic
English (see Anglo-Saxons). Their earliest known area of settlement is Northern Albingia,
an area approximately that of modern Holstein. Saxons participated in the Germanic
settlement of Britain during and after the 5th century. It is unknown how many migrated
from the continent to Britain though estimates for the total number of Germanic settlers
vary between 10,000 and 200,000. Since the 18th century, many continental Saxons have
settled other parts of the world, especially in North America, Australia, South Africa, and
in areas of the former Soviet Union, where some communities still maintain parts of their
cultural and linguistic heritage, often under the umbrella categories "German", and
"Dutch".
The Jutes, Iuti, or Iutae were a Germanic people who, according to Bede, were one of the
three most powerful Germanic peoples of their time. They are believed to have
originated from Jutland (called Iutum in Latin) in modern Denmark, Southern Schleswig
(South Jutland) and part of the East Frisian coast
The Frisians are an ethnic group of Germanic people living in coastal parts of The
Netherlands, Denmark and Germany. They are concentrated in the Dutch provinces of
Friesland and Groningen and, in Germany, East Frisia and North Frisia. They inhabit an
area known as Frisia. They have a reputation for being tall, big-boned and light-haired
people and they have a rich history and folklore.
The Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians that migrated to Britain after the Roman
occupation became known as the "English" and during modern times are referred to as
"Anglo-Saxons". They mainly came from areas in and around the area of Holstein in
modern Denmark.
The Anglo-Saxons had been raiding the coasts of Britain during the Roman occupation
and it was because of this activity that the Romans constructed a network of large
defensive forts called the Litora Saxonica or Saxon Shore. It wasn't until the Roman
occupation ended around 450AD that the Anglo-Saxon migration to Britain started in
earnest.
There were many possible reasons why these peoples left their homes to risk their lives
sailing across rough seas in small boats to a foreign land:
• they may have been pushed out by other people moving in to their lands
• the lands may have not been as productive as they once were
• the population may have increased such that some had to move away
• armed war-bands may have been attacking their villages making people move to
somewhere they thought was safer
• some people may have looked for trade or work in other lands
We do know that some Saxons were employed by the Britons as mercenaries (найманці)
to fight the Picts and other raiders, and we also know that trade existed between Britain
and Europe. So it was probably a mix of all these reasons and maybe others; whatever
they were, the "English" came to Britain, they stayed and they prospered.
The Early Anglo-Saxon buildings in Britain were simple timber constructions with
thatched roofs. Saxon life was based around agriculture and there was a preference to
settle in small towns away from the old Roman cities, each having a main hall surrounded
by huts for the townsfolk to live in.
The Saxons were pagans worshiping many gods, not just one like the Christians did. In
times of war they would make offerings to the God of War to help them win, they would
make offerings to other gods to help with the harvest and to bring them good fortune
elsewhere. There were religious festivals at various times of the year to honour their
gods and to make offerings to them. The Saxons generally converted to Christianity
during the 6th, 7th and 8th centuries, but there was resistance to this, especially from
the middle classes, who resented the Christian influence on the Saxon nobility.
The Anglo-Saxon army was know as the Fyrd, which was comprised of men who were
called up to fight for the king in times of danger.
The Fyrd was led by the nobles called Thegns who were well armed with swords and
spears but the rest of the Fyrd were armed only with weapons such as farm implements,
clubs and slings.
The later Anglo-Saxon army included a class of professional soldiers called Huscarls
(Household troops) that were loyal to the King or Earl.
The early religion was pagan based on the worship of a number of gods similar to that of
the northern Europeans. Organised Christianity later replaced paganism and led to the
establishment of a unified Church based on the Roman model.
57.Paganism vs. Christianity in Old Germanic ethnic communities.
Germanic paganism refers to the theology and religious practices of the Germanic peoples of
northwestern Europe from the Iron Age up until their Christianization during the medieval. Paganism is a
system of closely related religious worldviews and practices, rather than as one individual religion.
Сonsisted of: individual worshippers, family traditions, regional cults, sacrifice to their idols
(some idols were worshipped widely across the Germanic lands but under the different names; others
were specific located) even blood sacrifice.
In Anglo-Saxon and in Icelandic texts Germanic paganism took various different forms in each
different area of the Germanic world: 10th and 11th century Norse paganism (documented version),
Anglo-Saxon and Continental Germanic sources.
Archaeological finds and remains of pre-Christian beliefs in later folklore can supply the
information.
Germanic paganism was polytheistic, revolving around the veneration of various Gods. Some
Gods were worshipped widely across the Germanic lands, but under different names. Other Gods were
simply local to a specific locality. The Germanic people underwent gradual Christianization in the course
of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (4; 6-8 century).
By the 8th century: England and the Frankish Empire were (officially) Christian, by 1100 AD
Germanic paganism had ceased in Scandinavia lands. In the 4th century, the early process of
Christianization in Germans by the influence of Roman Empire. After the collapse of the Germanic tribes
(Saxons, Franks, Lombards, Vandals, Goths) were Christianized as voluntary. Other tribes were
Christianized when settle within the Empire. From 6 century – by force of the missionaries of the Roman
Catholic Church. The way of Christianization took place “top to the bottom”: at first nobilities were
Christianized and then they spread their new faith to the generation. Thus, early Germanic Christianity
was presented as an alternative to native Germanic paganism: parallel between Woden and Christ.
58.Old Germanic peoples’ beliefs and mythology.

Continental Germanic mythology is a subset of Germanic mythology, going back to
Proto-Germanic polytheism as practiced in parts of Central Europe before gradual
Christianization during the 6th to 8th centuries, and continued in the legends, and Middle
High German epics during the Middle Ages, also continued although in a recharacterized
and less sacred fashion in European folklore and fairy tales.
Unlike North Germanic, and to a lesser extent Anglo-Saxon mythology, the attestation of
Continental Germanic paganism is extremely fragmentary. Besides a handful of brief
Elder Futhark inscriptions, the lone genuinely pagan Continental Germanic documents
are the short Old High German Merseburg Incantations. Mythological elements were
however preserved in later literature, notably in Middle High German epic poetry, but
also in German, Swiss, and Dutch folklore.
Gods and heroes. The major gods can be identified by their influence on the English
weekday names Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday which come from Tiw,
Wóden, Þunor, and Fríge respectively, through the Old English names Tíwesdæg,
Wédnesdæg, Þunresdæg and Frígedæg.
Sunday OE sunne – the sun
The first day of the week was named for the sun god
Monday OE mona – the moon

Was devoted to the goddess of the moon
Tuesday OE Tiw – the war-god

Named in honour of the Anglo-Saxon god of war (ON Tyr)
Wednesday OE Wodan – the god of divination and the dead

Was named for the chief god and the giver of wisdom (ON Odin)
Thursday OE Thunor – the storm-god

Was named in honour of the ancient Germ. God of thunder
Friday OE Fri – the fertility goddess (ON Frigda), goddess of the household
and marriage, Oddin’s wife. Later became as Freya, goddess of the
Earth
Saturday OE Setern – Saturn, Jupiter’s father, the god of agriculture and
sowing of seeds in Roman mythology.
Paganism. The heathen Germans worshipped. Woden, sacrificed animals to Thor and
Tiw. They also worshipped Freya and Nerthus. Their ancient songs tell of the earth-born
god Tiusto and his son Mannus, ancestor of the whole German race.
Divination played great role in their life. They invented runic devination
59.Early Germanic society: the material and spiritual culture.

The material and spiritual culture:
Weapon. The main weapon of early Germans was spear (спис) with thin short tip, iron
sword and bow with arrows. For protection they used shield made of leather or wood.
The biggest shame for a warrior was to leave his shield on the battle field. The helmet
was decorated with fangs of wild boar.
Household goods. The clothes ware kept in separate room. The food (pieces of meat)
was taken out from boiler with the help of a big fork made of wood. They used
earthenware or made plates and dishes of wood.
Clothes. Germans wore animal and sheep skin. Later, they started to make clothes of
wool and flax. Men wore flax shirts and trousers, coarse mantles and jackets with long
sleeves. Women wore long shirts, dresses and mantles. Shoes were made of thick piece
of leather which was fastened to the feet with to thongs.
Dwelling. Houses of Germans consisted of 1 or 2 parts: one for people and the other for
domestic animals. The roof was covered with rush and straw. Inside the house there was
an open fire. Germans dug pits for keeping food supplies in winter, sometimes they lived
there themselves.
Funeral ceremony. The corpses were not buried, they were burnt. Their weapon and
horses were buried also.
+
Strong Verbs
Class 1 Goth. greipan graip gripun gripans
Class 2 Goth. kiusan kaus kusun kusans
Class 3 Goth. wairþan warþ waurþun waurþan
s
Class 4 Goth. niman nam nēmun numans
Class 5 Goth. qiþan qaþ qeþun qiþans
Class 6 Goth. haitan haihait haihaitun haitans
Class 7 Goth. letan lailot lailotun letans
Weak Verbs
Class 1 Goth. nasjan nasida nasidedn nasiþs
Class 2 Goth. salbon salboda salbobedun salboþs
Class 3 Goth. haban habaida habaidedun habaiþs
Class 4 Goth. fullnan fullnoda fullnodedun --
Noun
N dags waurd giba gasts gunus guma
“day”
“word” “gift” “guest” “son” “man”
G dagis waurdis gibōs gastis sunaus gumins
D daga waurda gibai gasta sunau gumin
A dag waurd giba gast sunu guman
N dagōs waurda gibōs gasteis sunjus gumans
G dagē waurde gibō gaste suniwe gumane
D dagam waurdam gibōm gastim sunum gumam
A dagans waurda gibōs gastins sununs gumans
Adjectives
N blinds blinda
G blindis blindis
D blindamma blindin
A blindanna blindan
N blindai blindans
G blindaize blindane
D blindaim blindam
A blindans blindans
Pronoun
ik (я) þu (ти) is (він) sa (той)
N ik þu is sa
G meina þeina is þis
D mis þus imma þamma
A mik þuk ina þana

Германістика Відповіді (Final)

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Германістика Відповіді (Final)

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1. The Germanic language family.

3. Word stress in Proto-Germanic and its morphological consequences.

Features: (it acquired a lot of specific features of its own)

Common features in PG:

Such a quantity of fricatives appeared in PG as a result of sound shifting described as

Aspirated consonants disappear because of consonant shift (3 act of Grimm’s law)

5. The first consonant shifting (Grimm’s Law).

7. The West Germanic lengthening of consonants.

9.The ablaut in the Indo-European languages and Germanic languages.

10.The Proto-Germanic phonology. The vowels.

11. The umlaut in Old Germanic languages.

This process differs from I-Umlaut in 3 respects:

Old English Breaking (Fracture of Vowels)

12.The inflectional system of Proto-Germanic: general concept.

Grammatical Categories of the finite forms of the PG Verb.

 Preterite forms had only one function to express past actions.

The category of mood

The category of voice was based on 2 member opposition:

14. Strong verbs in Gothic language.

4. in Class IV stems end in a single liquid or a nasal;

7. Class VII is peculiar to Gothic, and is based on reduplication (i.e. in stem-forms of

15.The weak verbs in Old Germanic languages.

Weak verbs were divided into 4 main classes

16.Preterite-present verbs in Old Germanic languages.

18. Nominal parts of speech in Old Germanic languages, their

Number: Sg. and Pl.

Nominative dæġ dagas

Gender: masculine, feminine, neuter

 Nom. fōt fēt

it is the source of irregular plurals;

1) Number: singular, plural

2) Case: vocative, nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental

3) Gender: masculine, neuter, feminine

2. Declensions: strong and weak.

There are several types of pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstrative,

 The oldest classes are personal, demonstrative and interrogative.

Gt faur, OE for “in front of”

-r: Gt. Hër “here”.

-t: OE oft “often”.

-n: OE innan “inside”

-а: OE sona “soon”

-е: OE brade “widely” Adj + -e = Adv

-liko: OHG gernlicho “willingly” (developed into –ly)

-ingo (-ungo): Gt un-weniggo “unexpectedly”

3. Word-combinations – unchangeable indirect case forms of some nouns: Prep+N

Gt. landis “round about the country”

OE of dune “down”, Gt ni aiw “nowhere”

OE wel (“well”) *batre (“better”) *best (“best”)

19.Old Germanic noun and its morphological categories.

20. The morphological structure of the noun in Proto-Germanic.

Historically, the OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the

21.Old Germanic strong declension of nouns.

N mǣd ( луг) mǣdwa N fõr fora

3) u-stem. Nouns of all the three genders may belong to it.

N hyll hyllas ‘hill’ (masc.)

Sing. Plur. Sing. Plur.

N sunu suna duru dura ‘door’

22.Old Germanic weak declension of nouns.

Якщо в іменника основотворчий суфікс закінчується голосним – сильний іменник.

23. Old Germanic strong and weak declension of adjectives.

OE wel (“well”) batre (“better”) best (“best”)