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| Elbe Germanic | |
|---|---|
| Irminonic, Erminonic | |
| Geographic distribution | German-speaking Europe |
| Ethnicity | Irminones |
| Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Elbe Germanic |
| Language codes | |
 The distribution of the primary Germanic languages in Europe c. AD 1: North Sea Germanic, or Ingvaeonic Weser–Rhine Germanic, or Istvaeonic Elbe Germanic, or Irminonic | |
Elbe Germanic, also calledIrminonic orErminonic, is a proposed subgrouping ofWest Germanic languages introduced by the German linguistFriedrich Maurer (1898–1984) in his book,Nordgermanen und Alemanen, to describe the West Germanic dialects ancestral toLombardic,Alemannic, andBavarian.[1]: 17–18 Duringlate antiquity and theMiddle Ages, its supposed descendants had a profound influence on the neighboringWest Central German dialects and, later, in the form ofStandard German, on theGerman language as a whole.[2] While most scholars accept the existence of an Elbe Germanic archaeological group, the existence of a linguistic group remains controversial.[3]
The termIrminonic is derived from theIrminones, a culturo-linguistic grouping of Germanic tribes that was mentioned byTacitus in hisGermania.[4]Pliny the Elder further specified its meaning by claiming that the Irminones lived "in the interior", meaning not close to theRhine orNorth Sea.[5][full citation needed] Maurer used Pliny to refer to the dialects spoken by theSuevi,Bavarii,Alemanni andLombards around theHercynian Forest and theNortheastern German plain.[2]
Maurer asserted that the cladistictree model, which was used ubiquitously in linguistics in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, was too inaccurate to describe the relation between the modern Germanic languages, especially those belonging to its Western branch. Rather than depictingOld English,Old Dutch,Old Saxon,Old Frisian andOld High German to have simply 'branched off' a single common 'Proto-West Germanic', which many previous linguists equated to "Old German / Urdeutsch", he assumed that there had been much more distance between certain dialectal groupings and proto-languages.[6]: 113–114
