Lower Saxon as a group

John Cowan cowan at ccil.org
Sun Feb 22 21:05:08 CET 2009


CE Whitehead scripsit:

> I myself would like a clarification though of what East Germanic
> Languages [gem], West Germanic languages [gmw], and North Germanic
> languages [gmq] include.

If you mean an official clarification, I doubt you'll get one: all 639-5
codes are vague.  As generally used by historical linguists, however:

East Germanic is an extinct branch, including Gothic and also Vandalic
and Burgundian (which are only known from a few words and proper names).

West Germanic includes German (High and Low), Dutch, Frisian, and English.

North Germanic includes Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and
Faroese.

Here's the full Ethnologue tree:

Germanic (52)
    East (1)
        Gothic  [got] (Ukraine) (extinct)
    North (11)
        East Scandinavian (6)
            Danish-Swedish (6)
                Danish-Bokmal (1)
                    Norwegian, Bokmål  [nob] (Norway)
                Danish-Riksmal (2)
                    Danish (2)
                        Danish  [dan] (Denmark)
                        Jutish  [jut] (Denmark)
                Swedish (3)
                    Dalecarlian  [dlc] (Sweden)
                    Scanian  [scy] (Sweden)
                    Swedish  [swe] (Sweden)
        West Scandinavian (5)
            Faroese  [fao] (Denmark)
            Icelandic  [isl] (Iceland)
            Jamtska  [jmk] (Sweden)
            Norwegian, Nynorsk  [nno] (Norway)
            Norn  [nrn] (United Kingdom) (extinct)
    West (40)
        English (2)
                English  [eng] (United Kingdom)
                Scots  [sco] (United Kingdom)
        Frisian (3)
                Frisian, Western  [fri] (Netherlands)
                Frisian, Northern  [frr] (Germany)
                Saterfriesisch  [stq] (Germany)
        High German (20)
                German (18)
                    Frankish  [frk] (Germany) (extinct)
                    Middle German (9)
                        East Middle German (3)
                            German, Standard  [deu] (Germany)
                            Silesian, Lower  [sli] (Poland)
                            Saxon, Upper  [sxu] (Germany)
                        West Middle German (6)
                            Moselle Franconian (2)
                                Luxembourgeois  [ltz] (Luxembourg)
                                Mainfränkisch  [vmf] (Germany)
                            German, Pennsylvania  [pdc] (USA)
                            Rhenisch Franconian (2)
                                Pfaelzisch  [pfl] (Germany)
                                Limburgisch  [lim] (Netherlands)
                            Ripuarian Franconian (1)
                                Kölsch  [ksh] (Germany)
                    Upper German (8)
                        Alemannic (4)
                            German, Colonia Tovar  [gct] (Venezuela)
                            Schwyzerdütsch  [gsw] (Switzerland)
                            Swabian  [swg] (Germany)
                            Walser  [wae] (Switzerland)
                        Bavarian-Austrian (4)
                            Bavarian  [bar] (Austria)
                            Cimbrian  [cim] (Italy)
                            German, Hutterite  [geh] (Canada)
                            Mócheno  [mhn] (Italy)
                Yiddish (2)
                    Yiddish, Eastern  [ydd] (Israel)
                    Yiddish, Western  [yih] (Germany)
        Low Saxon-Low Franconian (15)
                Frisian, Eastern  [frs] (Germany)
                Low Franconian (4)
                    Afrikaans  [afr] (South Africa)
                    Dutch  [nld] (Netherlands)
                    Vlaams  [vls] (Belgium)
                    Zeeuws  [zea] (Netherlands)
                Low Saxon (10)
                    Achterhoeks  [act] (Netherlands)
                    Drents  [drt] (Netherlands)
                    Gronings  [gos] (Netherlands)
                    Saxon, Low  [nds] (Germany)
                    Plautdietsch  [pdt] (Canada)
                    Sallands  [sdz] (Netherlands)
                    Stellingwerfs  [stl] (Netherlands)
                    Twents  [twd] (Netherlands)
                    Veluws  [vel] (Netherlands)
                    Westphalien  [wep] (Germany)

-- 
It was impossible to inveigle           John Cowan <cowan at ccil.org>
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel           http://www.ccil.org/~cowan
Into offering the slightest apology
For his Phenomenology.                      --W. H. Auden, from "People" (1953)


More information about the Ietf-languages mailing list