Group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family
East Germanic
Oder-Vistula Germanic, Eastern Rim Germanic
Geographic distribution
Varying depending on time (4th–18th centuries), currently all languages are extinct Until late 4th century: Central andEastern Europe (as far as Crimea) late 4th–early 10th centuries: Much of southern, western, southeastern, and eastern Europe (as far asCrimea) andNorth Africa early 10th–late 18th centuries — disputed (cp.Crimean Gothic): Isolated areas in Eastern Europe (as far as Crimea)
The only East Germanic language of which texts are known isGothic, although a word list and some short sentences survive from the debatably-relatedCrimean Gothic. Other East Germanic languages includeVandalic andBurgundian, though the only remnants of these languages are in the form of isolated words and short phrases. Furthermore, the inclusion of Burgundian has been called into doubt.[1] Crimean Gothic is believed to have survived until the 18th century in isolated areas ofCrimea.[2]
The consensus view is that, of the three main branches of Germanic, East Germanic was the first to branch off, likely originating on theBaltic Sea and moving southward.[3] Earlier scholarship sometimes instead proposed that theNorth Germanic languages were closely related to the East Germanic languages.[4]
Crimean Gothic † (disputed, alternatively considered to be West Germanic)[9]
Whereas historians use ethnographic and historical sources to determine whether Germanic groups were "East Germanic peoples," this information is not relevant to linguists.[10] Because only Gothic is well preserved, there are no clear linguistic criteria that characterize all of the languages classified as East Germanic.[11] According to the late-antique historianProcopius of Caesarea, theOstrogoths,Vandals,Visigoths, and theGepids all spoke a single Gothic language; this in turn means that linguists often apply the innovations of Gothic to the whole East Germanic group.[12]
Frederik Hartmann argues that East Germanic is not a valid genetic clade, as the three most attested languages conventionally identified as East Germanic (Burgundian, Vandalic, Gothic) do not share any common innovations with each other and all independently split from Proto-Germanic.[13] Hartmann instead prefers the termEastern Rim languages to refer to these languages.[14]
^Heinz Mettke,Mittelhochdeutsche Grammatik, 8th ed., Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen, 2000, p. 16 (chart) and 17: „Hauptvertreter des Ostgermanischen ist das Gotische (Wulfilas Bibelübersetzung aus dem 4. Jh.), ferner gehören dazu das Burgundische, das Vandalische und das Rugische.“
^Peter Ernst,Deutsche Sprachgeschichte, 3rd ed., 2021, p. 50: „Ostgermanisch (†): Gotisch, Vandalisch, Burgundisch, Rugisch, u.a. [= und andere]“
^Georg F. Meier, Barbara Meier,Handbuch der Linguistik und Kommunikationswissenschaft: Band 1: Sprache, Sprachentstehung, Sprachen, Akademie-Verlag, Berlin, 1979, p. 73: „1.5.1.2. übrige ostgermanische Sprachen Dazu gehören:Vandalisch, Herulisch, Rugisch, Gepidisch, Burgundisch, Bastarnisch undSkirisch. Diese Sprachen sind meist nur durch kurze Inschriften bzw. aus historischen Quellen bekannt.“
Dabrowski, Jan (1989). "Nordische Kreis und Kulturen Polnischer Gebiete". In Ambrosiani, Björn (ed.).Bronzezeit Im Ostseegebiet (in German).ISBN978-91-7402-203-2.
Demougeot, E.La formation de l'Europe et les invasions barbares, Paris: Editions Montaigne, 1969–74.
Stearns, MacDonald (1989). "Das Krimgotische" [Crimean Gothic]. In Beck, Heinrich (ed.).Germanische Rest- und Trümmersprachen (in German). Berlin: W. de Gruyter. pp. 175–194.ISBN3-11-011948-X.
