North Germanic languages
71-468: Weser–Rhine Germanic is a proposed group of prehistoric West Germanic dialects, which includes both Central German dialects and Low Franconian , the ancestor of Dutch . The term was introduced by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer as a replacement for the older term Istvaeonic , with which it is essentially synonymous. The term Rhine – Weser Germanic is sometimes preferred. The term Istvaeonic
142-699: A South Saxon army in about 685, was able to kill Hlothhere, and replace him as ruler of Kent. In the 680s, the Kingdom of Wessex was in the ascendant, the alliance between the South Saxons and the Mercians and their control of southern England, put the West Saxons under pressure. Their king Cædwalla , probably concerned about Mercian and South Saxon influence in Southern England, conquered
213-525: A closer relationship between them. For example, the plural of the word for "sheep" was originally unchanged in all four languages and still is in some Dutch dialects and a great deal of German dialects. Many other similarities, however, are indeed old inheritances. Jutes The Jutes ( / dʒ uː t s / JOOTS ) were one of the Germanic tribes who settled in Great Britain after
284-486: A few innovations of their own. West Germanic West Germanic languages West Germanic 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). The West Germanic branch is classically subdivided into three branches: Ingvaeonic , which includes English ,
355-426: A fourth distinct variety of West Germanic. The language family also includes Afrikaans , Yiddish , Low Saxon , Luxembourgish , Hunsrik , and Scots . Additionally, several creoles , patois , and pidgins are based on Dutch, English, or German. The Germanic languages are traditionally divided into three groups: West, East and North Germanic. In some cases, their exact relation was difficult to determine from
426-477: A list of various linguistic features and their extent among the West Germanic languages, organized roughly from northwest to southeast. Some may only appear in the older languages but are no longer apparent in the modern languages. The following table shows some comparisons of consonant development in the respective dialect/language (online examples though) continuum, showing the gradually growing partake in
497-496: A massive evidence for a valid West Germanic clade". After East Germanic broke off (an event usually dated to the 2nd or 1st century BC), the remaining Germanic languages, the Northwest Germanic languages, divided into four main dialects: North Germanic, and the three groups conventionally called "West Germanic", namely: Although there is quite a bit of knowledge about North Sea Germanic or Anglo-Frisian (because of
568-415: A number of Frisian, English, Scots, Yola, Dutch, Limburgish, German and Afrikaans words with common West Germanic (or older) origin. The grammatical gender of each term is noted as masculine ( m. ), feminine ( f. ), or neuter ( n. ) where relevant. Other words, with a variety of origins: Note that some of the shown similarities of Frisian and English vis-à-vis Dutch and German are secondary and not due to
639-917: A people called the Eudoses, a tribe who possibly developed into the Jutes. The Jutes have also been identified with the Eotenas ( ēotenas ) involved in the Frisian conflict with the Danes as described in the Finnesburg episode in the Old English poem Beowulf . Theudebert , king of the Franks, wrote to the Emperor Justinian and in the letter claimed that he had lordship over a nation called
710-612: A pivotal region between the Northern and the Western Germanic dialects . It has not been possible to prove whether Jutish has always been a Scandinavian dialect which later became heavily influenced by West Germanic dialects, or whether Jutland was originally part of the West Germanic dialectal continuum . An analysis of the Kentish dialect by linguists indicates that there was a similarity between Kentish and Frisian. Whether
781-410: A series of pioneering reconstructions of Proto-West Germanic morphological paradigmas and new views on some early West Germanic phonological changes, and in 2013 the first monographic analysis and description of Proto-West Germanic was published (second edition 2022). Today, there is a scientific consensus on what Don Ringe stated in 2012, that "these [phonological and morphological] changes amount to
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#1732765244614852-681: Is derived from the Istvæones (or Istvaeones), a culturo-linguistic grouping of Germanic tribes , mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania . Pliny the Elder further specified its meaning by claiming that the Istævones lived near the Rhine . Maurer used Pliny to refer to the dialects spoken by the Franks and Chatti around the northwestern banks of the Rhine , which were presumed to be descendants of
923-637: Is discussion about who crafted the jewellery (found in the archaeological sites of Kent). Suggestions include crafts people who had been trained in the Roman workshops of northern Gaul or the Rhineland. It is also possible that those artisans went on to develop their own individual style. By the late 6th century grave goods indicate that west Kent had adopted the distinctive east Kent material culture. The Frankish princess Bertha arrived in Kent around 580 to marry
994-754: Is in the extreme northern part of Germany between the Danish border and the Baltic coast. The area of the Saxons (parts of today's Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony ) lay south of Anglia. The Angles and Saxons , two Germanic tribes , in combination with a number of other peoples from northern Germany and the Jutland Peninsula, particularly the Jutes , settled in Britain following the end of Roman rule in
1065-539: Is now southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland can be considered the end of the linguistic unity among the West Germanic dialects, although its effects on their own should not be overestimated. Bordering dialects very probably continued to be mutually intelligible even beyond the boundaries of the consonant shift. During the Early Middle Ages , the West Germanic languages were separated by the insular development of Old and Middle English on one hand, and by
1136-650: Is thought that mercenaries may have started arriving in Sussex as early as the 5th century. Before the 7th century, there is a dearth of contemporary written material about the Anglo-Saxons' arrival. Most material that does exist was written several hundred years after the events. The earlier dates for the beginnings of settlement, provided by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , has been contested by some findings in archaeology. One alternative hypothesis to
1207-515: The High German consonant shift and the anglofrisian palatalization. The table uses IPA , to avoid confusion via orthographical differences. The realisation of [r] will be ignored. C = any consonant, A = back vowel, E = front vowel The existence of a unified Proto-West Germanic language is debated. Features which are common to West Germanic languages may be attributed either to common inheritance or to areal effects. The phonological system of
1278-511: The High German consonant shift on the continent on the other. The High German consonant shift distinguished the High German languages from the other West Germanic languages. By early modern times, the span had extended into considerable differences, ranging from Highest Alemannic in the South (the Walliser dialect being the southernmost surviving German dialect) to Northern Low Saxon in
1349-619: The Low German languages , and the Frisian languages ; Istvaeonic , which encompasses Dutch and its close relatives; and Irminonic , which includes German and its close relatives and variants. 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. Frisian, spoken by about 450,000 people, constitutes
1420-570: The Migration Period , while others hold that speakers of West Germanic dialects like Old Frankish and speakers of Gothic were already unable to communicate fluently by around the 3rd century AD. As a result of the substantial progress in the study of Proto-West Germanic in the early 21st century, there is a growing consensus that East and West Germanic indeed would have been mutually unintelligible at that time, whereas West and North Germanic remained partially intelligible. Dialects with
1491-617: The Picts . They landed at Wippidsfleet ( Ebbsfleet ), and went on to defeat the Picts wherever they fought them. Hengist and Horsa sent word home to Germany asking for assistance. Their request was granted and support arrived. Afterward, more people arrived in Britain from "the three powers of Germany; the Old Saxons, the Angles, and the Jutes". The Saxons populated Essex , Sussex and Wessex ;
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#17327652446141562-605: The Saxones Eucii . The Eucii are thought to have been Jutes and may have been the same as a little-documented tribe called the Euthiones . The Euthiones are mentioned in a poem by Venantius Fortunatus (583) as being under the suzerainty of Chilperic I of the Franks. The Euthiones were located somewhere in northern Francia , modern day Flanders , an area of the European mainland opposite to Kent. Bede inferred that
1633-639: The departure of the Romans . According to Bede , they were one of the three most powerful Germanic nations, along with the Angles and the Saxons : Those who came over were of the three most powerful nations of Germany—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes. From the Jutes are descended the people of Kent, and of the Isle of Wight, and those also in the province of the West Saxons who are to this day called Jutes, seated opposite to
1704-675: The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were evangelised the script of the Latin alphabet was introduced by Irish Christian missionaries . However, they ran into problems when they were unable to find a Latin equivalent to some of the Anglo-Saxon phonetics. They overcame this by modifying the Latin alphabet to include some runic characters. This became the Old English Latin alphabet . The runic characters were eventually replaced by Latin characters by
1775-649: The Geats resided in southern Sweden and also in Jutland (where Beowulf would have lived). The evidence adduced for this hypothesis includes: However, the tribal names possibly were confused in the above sources in both Beowulf (8th–11th centuries) and Widsith (late 7th – 10th century). The Eoten (in the Finn passage) are clearly distinguished from the Geatas . The Finnish surname Juutilainen , which comes from
1846-419: The Isle of Wight was the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to be evangelised in 686, when Cædwalla of Wessex invaded the island, killing the local king Arwald and his brothers. The Jutes used a system of partible inheritance known as gavelkind , which was practised in Kent until the 20th century. The custom of gavelkind was also found in other areas of Jutish settlement. In England and Wales, gavelkind
1917-555: The Isle of Wight. There is no consensus amongst historians on the origins of the Jutes. One hypothesis is that they originated from the Jutland Peninsula but after a Danish invasion of that area, migrated to the Frisian coast. From the Frisian coast they went on to settle southern Britain in the later fifth century during the Migration Period, as part of a larger wave of Germanic migration into Britain. During
1988-736: The Jutes Kent , the Isle of Wight and Hampshire ; and the Angles East Anglia , Mercia and Northumbria (leaving their original homeland, Angeln , deserted). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle also lists Wihtgar and Stuf as founders of the Wihtwara (Isle of Wight) and a man named Port and his two sons Bieda and Maeglaof as founders of the Meonwara (southern Hampshire). In 686 Bede tells us that Jutish Hampshire extended to
2059-627: The Jutes settled in England, they are divided on where they actually came from. The chroniclers, Procopius , Constantius of Lyon , Gildas , Bede, Nennius , and also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle , Alfred the Great and Asser provide the names of tribes who settled Britain during the mid-fifth century, and in their combined testimony, the four tribes mentioned are the Angli , Saxones , Iutae and Frisii . The Roman historian Tacitus refers to
2130-566: The Jutish kingdom of Kent was founded, around the middle of the 5th century, Roman ways and influences must have still had a strong presence. The Roman settlement of Durovernum Cantiacorum became Canterbury. The people of Kent were described as Cantawara , a Germanised form of the Latin Cantiaci . Although not all historians accept Bede's scheme for the settlement of Britain into Anglian, Jutish and Saxon areas as perfectly accurate,
2201-468: The Jutish homeland was on the Jutland peninsula. However, analysis of grave goods of the time have provided a link between East Kent, south Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, but little evidence of any link with Jutland. There is evidence that the Jutes who migrated to England came from northern Francia or from Frisia. Historians have posited that Jutland was the homeland of the Jutes, but when the Danes invaded
Weser–Rhine Germanic - Misplaced Pages Continue
2272-572: The Jutish settlements in Hampshire. Therefore, it is possible that the German folk arriving in the 5th century that landed in the Selsey area would have been directed north to Southampton Water. From there into the mouth of the Meon valley and would have been allowed to settle near the existing Romano-British people. The Jutish kingdom in Hampshire that Bede describes has various placenames that identify
2343-518: The Jutland Peninsula in about AD 200, some of the Jutes would have been absorbed by the Danish culture and others may have migrated to northern Francia and Frisia. In Scandinavian sources from the Middle Ages, the Jutes are only sporadically mentioned, now as subgroup of the Danes. There is a hypothesis , suggested by Pontus Fahlbeck in 1884, that the Geats were Jutes. According to this hypothesis
2414-472: The Kentish system underlaid the 5th century farming practices of Sussex. He hypothesised that Sussex was probably settled by Jutes before the arrival of the Saxons, with Jutish territory stretching from Kent to the New Forest. The north Solent coast had been a trading area since Roman times. The old Roman roads between Sidlesham and Chichester and Chichester to Winchester would have provided access to
2485-453: The North. Although both extremes are considered German , they are not mutually intelligible. The southernmost varieties have completed the second sound shift, whereas the northern dialects remained unaffected by the consonant shift. Of modern German varieties, Low German is the one that most resembles modern English. The district of Angeln (or Anglia), from which the name English derives,
2556-668: The Proto-West Germanic language was published in 2013 by Wolfram Euler , followed in 2014 by the study of Donald Ringe and Ann Taylor. If indeed Proto-West Germanic existed, it must have been between the 2nd and 7th centuries. Until the late 2nd century AD, the language of runic inscriptions found in Scandinavia and in Northern Germany were so similar that Proto-North Germanic and the Western dialects in
2627-522: The West Germanic branching as reconstructed is mostly similar to that of Proto-Germanic, with some changes in the categorization and phonetic realization of some phonemes. In addition to the particular changes described above, some notable differences in the consonant system of West Germanic from Proto-Germanic are: Some notable differences in the vowel system of West Germanic from Proto-Germanic are: The noun paradigms of Proto-West Germanic have been reconstructed as follows: The following table compares
2698-420: The West Germanic language and finally the formation of the daughter languages. It has been argued that, judging by their nearly identical syntax, the West Germanic dialects were closely enough related to have been mutually intelligible up to the 7th century. Over the course of this period, the dialects diverged successively. The High German consonant shift that occurred mostly during the 7th century AD in what
2769-431: The West Germanic languages and are thus seen as a Proto West Germanic innovation. Since at least the early 20th century, a number of morphological, phonological, and lexical archaisms and innovations have been identified as specifically West Germanic. Since then, individual Proto-West Germanic lexemes have also been reconstructed. Yet, there was a long dispute if these West Germanic characteristics had to be explained with
2840-677: The West Germanic languages is the development of a gerund . Common morphological archaisms of West Germanic include: Furthermore, the West Germanic languages share many lexemes not existing in North Germanic and/or East Germanic – archaisms as well as common neologisms. Some lexemes have specific meanings in West Germanic and there are specific innovations in word formation and derivational morphology, for example neologisms ending with modern English -ship (< wgerm. -*skapi , cf. German -schaft ) like friendship (< wg. *friund(a)skapi , cf. German Freundschaft ) are specific to
2911-565: The archaeological evidence indicates that the peoples of west Kent were culturally distinct from those in the east of Kent, with west Kent sharing the 'Saxon' characteristics of its neighbours in the southeast of England. Brooches and bracteates found in east Kent, the Isle of Wight and southern Hampshire showed a strong Frankish and North Sea influence from the mid-fifth century to the late sixth century compared to north German styles found elsewhere in Anglo-Saxon England. There
Weser–Rhine Germanic - Misplaced Pages Continue
2982-410: The characteristic features of its daughter languages, Anglo-Saxon/ Old English and Old Frisian ), linguists know almost nothing about "Weser–Rhine Germanic" and "Elbe Germanic". In fact, both terms were coined in the 1940s to refer to groups of archaeological findings, rather than linguistic features. Only later were the terms applied to hypothetical dialectal differences within both regions. Even today,
3053-408: The concept of a West Germanic proto-language claim that, not only shared innovations can require the existence of a linguistic clade , but also that there are archaisms that cannot be explained simply as retentions later lost in the North or East, because this assumption can produce contradictions with attested features of the other branches. The debate on the existence of a Proto-West Germanic clade
3124-510: The earlier Istvaeones. The Weser is a river in Germany, east of and parallel to the Rhine. The terms Rhine–Weser or Weser–Rhine , therefore, both describe the area between the two rivers as a meaningful cultural-linguistic region. Maurer asserted that the cladistic tree model , ubiquitously used in 19th and early 20th century linguistics, was too inaccurate to describe the relation between
3195-542: The end of the 14th century. The language that the Anglo-Saxon settlers spoke is known as Old English . There are four main dialectal forms, namely Mercian , Northumbrian , West Saxon and Kentish . Based on Bede's description of where the Jutes settled, Kentish was spoken in what are now the modern-day counties of Kent , Surrey , southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight . However, historians are divided on what dialect it would have been and where it originated from. The Jutish peninsula has been seen by historians as
3266-533: The existence of a West Germanic proto-language or rather with Sprachbund effects. Hans Frede Nielsen 's 1981 study Old English and the Continental Germanic Languages made the conviction grow that a West Germanic proto-language did exist. But up until the 1990s, some scholars doubted that there was once a Proto-West Germanic proto-language which was ancestral only to later West Germanic languages. In 2002, Gert Klingenschmitt presented
3337-419: The fear of God, he among the rest destroyed the city of Rochester In 681 Wulfhere of Mercia advanced into southern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. Shortly after he gave the Isle of Wight and Meonwara to Æthelwealh of Sussex . In Kent, Eadric was for a time co-ruler alongside his uncle Hlothhere with a law code being issued in their names. Ultimately, Eadric revolted against his uncle and with help from
3408-492: The features assigned to the western group formed from Proto-Germanic in the late Jastorf culture ( c. 1st century BC ). The West Germanic group is characterized by a number of phonological , morphological and lexical innovations or archaisms not found in North and East Germanic. Examples of West Germanic phonological particularities are: A relative chronology of about 20 sound changes from Proto-Northwest Germanic to Proto-West Germanic (some of them only regional)
3479-457: The foundation legend suggests, because previously inhabited sites on the Frisian and north German coasts had been rendered uninhabitable by flooding , that the migration was due to displacement. Under this alternative hypothesis, the British provided land for the refugees to settle on in return for peaceful coexistence and military cooperation. Ship construction in the 2nd or 3rd century adopted
3550-480: The island. Once in Britain, these Germanic peoples eventually developed a shared cultural and linguistic identity as Anglo-Saxons ; the extent of the linguistic influence of the native Romano-British population on the incomers is debatable. Divisions between subfamilies of continental Germanic languages are rarely precisely defined; most form dialect continua , with adjacent dialects being mutually intelligible and more separated ones not. The following table shows
3621-522: The king Æthelberht of Kent . Bertha was already a Christian and had brought a bishop, Liudhard , with her across the Channel. Æthelberht rebuilt an old Romano-British structure and dedicated it to St Martin allowing Bertha to continue practising her Christian faith. In 597 Pope Gregory I sent Augustine to Kent, on a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxons , There are suggestions that Æthelberht had already been baptised when he "courteously received"
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#17327652446143692-562: The kingdom of the Gewissae , he also took the Isle of Wight, which till then was entirely given over to idolatry, and by cruel slaughter endeavoured to destroy all the inhabitants thereof, and to place in their stead people from his own province. Cædwalla killed Aruald, the king of the Isle of Wight . Aruald's two younger brothers, who were heirs to the throne, escaped from the island but were hunted down and found at Stoneham , Hampshire . They were killed on Cædwalla's orders. The Isle of Wight
3763-469: The land of the South Saxons and took over the Jutish areas in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight . Bede describes how Cædwalla brutally suppressed the South Saxons and attempted to slaughter the Jutes of the Isle of Wight and replace them with people from "his own province", but maintained that he was unable to do so, and Jutes remained a majority on the island. After Cædwalla had possessed himself of
3834-468: The locations as Jutish. These include Bishopstoke ( Ytingstoc ) and the Meon Valley ( Ytedene ). In Kent, Hlothhere had been ruler since 673/4. He must have come into conflict with Mercia , because in 676 the Mercian king Æthelred invaded Kent and according to Bede : In the year of our Lord's incarnation 676, when Ethelred, king of the Mercians, ravaged Kent with a powerful army, and profaned churches and monasteries, without regard to religion, or
3905-475: The modern Germanic languages , especially those belonging to its Western branch. Rather than depicting Old English , Old Dutch , Old Saxon , Old Frisian and Old High German to have simply 'branched off' a single common 'Proto-West Germanic', he proposed that there had been much more distance between the languages and the dialects of the Germanic regions. Weser–Rhine Germanic seems to have been transitional between Elbe Germanic and North Sea Germanic , with
3976-525: The other hand, the internal subgrouping of both North Germanic and West Germanic is very messy, and it seems clear that each of those subfamilies diversified into a network of dialects that remained in contact for a considerable period of time (in some cases right up to the present). Several scholars have published reconstructions of Proto-West Germanic morphological paradigms and many authors have reconstructed individual Proto-West Germanic morphological forms or lexemes. The first comprehensive reconstruction of
4047-436: The period after the Roman occupation and before the Norman conquest, people of Germanic descent arrived in Britain, ultimately forming England. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle provides what historians regard as foundation legends for Anglo-Saxon settlement. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle describes how the brothers Hengist and Horsa in the year 449 were invited to Sub-Roman Britain by Vortigern to assist his forces in fighting
4118-478: The pope's mission. Æthelberht was the first of the Anglo-Saxon rulers to be baptised. The simplified Christian burial was introduced at this time. Christian graves were usually aligned East to West, whereas with some exceptions pagan burial sites were not. The lack of archaeological grave evidence in the land of the Haestingas is seen as supporting the hypothesis that the peoples there would have been Christian Jutes who had migrated from Kent. In contrast to Kent,
4189-473: The properties that the West Germanic languages have in common, separate from the North Germanic languages, are not necessarily inherited from a "Proto-West Germanic" language, but may have spread by language contact among the Germanic languages spoken in Central Europe, not reaching those spoken in Scandinavia or reaching them much later. Rhotacism, for example, was largely complete in West Germanic while North Germanic runic inscriptions still clearly distinguished
4260-570: The ship to be moored up overnight. Marine archaeology has suggested that migrating ships would have sheltered in various river estuaries on the route. Artefacts and parts of ships, of the period, have been found that support this theory. It is likely that the Jutes initially inhabited Kent and from there they occupied the Isle of Wight, southern Hampshire and also possibly the area around Hastings in East Sussex ( Haestingas ). J E A Jolliffe compared agricultural and farming practices across 5th century Sussex to that of 5th century Kent. He suggested that
4331-401: The south were still part of one language ("Proto-Northwest Germanic"). Sometime after that, the split into West and North Germanic occurred. By the 4th and 5th centuries the great migration set in. By the end of the 6th century, the area in which West Germanic languages were spoken, at least by the upper classes, had tripled compared to the year 400. This caused an increasing disintegration of
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#17327652446144402-400: The sparse evidence of runic inscriptions, so that some individual varieties have been difficult to classify. This is especially true for the unattested Jutish language ; today, most scholars classify Jutish as a West Germanic variety with several features of North Germanic. Until the late 20th century, some scholars claimed that all Germanic languages remained mutually intelligible throughout
4473-447: The two phonemes. There is also evidence that the lowering of ē to ā occurred first in West Germanic and spread to North Germanic later since word-final ē was lowered before it was shortened in West Germanic, but in North Germanic the shortening occurred first, resulting in e that later merged with i . However, there are also a number of common archaisms in West Germanic shared by neither Old Norse nor Gothic. Some authors who support
4544-407: The use of iron fastenings, instead of the old sewn fastenings, to hold together the plank built boats of the Jutland peninsula. This enabled them to build stronger sea going vessels. Vessels going from Jutland to Britain probably would have sailed along the coastal regions of Lower Saxony and the Netherlands before crossing the English Channel. This was because navigation techniques of the time required
4615-451: The very small number of Migration Period runic inscriptions from the area, many of them illegible, unclear or consisting only of one word, often a name, is insufficient to identify linguistic features specific to the two supposed dialect groups. Evidence that East Germanic split off before the split between North and West Germanic comes from a number of linguistic innovations common to North and West Germanic, including: Under that view,
4686-410: The western edge of the New Forest ; however, that seems to include another Jutish people, the Ytene , and it is not certain that these two territories formed a continuous coastal block. Towards the end of the Roman occupation of England, raids on the east coast became more intense and the expedient adopted by Romano-British leaders was to enlist the help of mercenaries to whom they ceded territory. It
4757-443: The word "juutti", is speculated by some to have had a connection to Jutland or the Jutes. The runic alphabet is thought to have originated in the Germanic homelands that were in contact with the Roman Empire, and as such was a response to the Latin alphabet. In fact some of the runes emulated their Latin counterpart. The runic alphabet crossed the sea with the Anglo-Saxons and there have been examples, of its use, found in Kent. As
4828-448: Was abolished by the Administration of Estates Act 1925 . Before abolition in 1925, all land in Kent was presumed to be held by gavelkind until the contrary was proved. The popular reason given for the practice remaining so long is due to the "Swanscombe Legend"; according to this, Kent made a deal with William the Conqueror whereby he would allow them to keep local customs in return for peace. Although historians are confident of where
4899-421: Was published by Don Ringe in 2014. A phonological archaism of West Germanic is the preservation of grammatischer Wechsel in most verbs, particularly in Old High German. This implies the same for West Germanic, whereas in East and North Germanic many of these alternations (in Gothic almost all of them) had been levelled out analogically by the time of the earliest texts. A common morphological innovation of
4970-422: Was summarized (2006): That North Germanic is ... a unitary subgroup [of Proto-Germanic] is completely obvious, as all of its dialects shared a long series of innovations, some of them very striking. That the same is true of West Germanic has been denied, but I will argue in vol. ii that all the West Germanic languages share several highly unusual innovations that virtually force us to posit a West Germanic clade. On
5041-416: Was then permanently under West Saxon control and the Meonwara was integrated into Wessex. Cædwalla also invaded Kent and installed his brother Mul as leader. However, it was not long before Mul and twelve others were burnt to death by the Kentishmen. After Cædwalla was superseded by Ine of Wessex , Kent agreed to pay compensation to Wessex for the death of Mul, but they retained their independence. When
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