TEUTONIC (GERMANIC) LANGUAGES, a compre hensive term for a number of languages, namely English, Frisian, Dutch, Flemish, German (both High and Low) Swedish, Danish, Icelandic, the Norwegian dialects, and the now extinct Gothic, formerly spoken over a large part of Europe. The written rec ords of the various languages date from different periods. Gothic is known to us almost entirely from Ulfilas' translation of the Bible, which dates from the 4th century. English written litera ture starts with the beginning of the 7th century, though earlier matter may be preserved in certain poems. The earliest known German and Dutch documents date from the 8th and 9th centu ries respectively, while Frisian is practically unknown before the 13th century. Scandinavian written literature seems to have be gun in the 12th century, but many poems are probably from two to three centuries older. In the North there is a large number of inscriptions of great value for linguistic purposes. They show all stages of development of language from that found in literary times back to a more archaic type even than the Gothic.
The Teutonic languages form a distinct and well-defined group of the Indo-European family (q.v.), and belong, together with Celtic, Italic and Greek, to the western or Centum division.
The chief characteristic of the Teutonic languages as a whole lies in their treatment of the Indo-European explosive sounds. This characteristic, generally known as Grimm's Law, is due to sound-changes peculiar to Teutonic, though somewhat similar changes may be traced both in Armenian and Celtic. The fol lowing abbreviations are used: A.S.=Anglo-Saxon; O.H.G. = Old High German; O.N.=Old Norse; I.-E.=Indo-European.
The voiced aspirates bh,dh,gh (Lat. f ,f ,h; Gr. 4, 0, x) became voiced spirants, b,d,3. After nasals these spirants became explo sives (b,d,g) ; and in the first two cases the same change took place initially. The I.-E. voiceless explosive's, p,t,k, were pre served only after s (t also in the I.-E. groups pt and kt). In all
other cases they became voiceless spirants, f,p,x,(h). These new sounds remained (i.) initially; (ii.) in combination with other voiceless sounds; (iii.) immediately after the (original) accent. In all other cases they became voiced spirants ("Verner's Law"), identical with those arising from I.-E. bh,dh,gh.
The I.-E. voiced (unaspirated) explosives, b,d,g, became voice less, p,t,k.
3w arising from I.-E. ghw or kw (see above) was reduced (ex cept after nasals) before u (perhaps also before I.-E. o) to 3, and in all other cases to w.
The I.-E. cons. group arising from combination of dental sound +t became ss, as in Celtic and Latin. The I.-E. s was preserved (i.) initially, (ii.) in combination with voiceless sounds, (iii.) immediately after the (original) accent. In all other cases it be came voiced (z). This voiced spirant subsequently became r in all Teutonic languages except Gothic, where, however, the distinc tion between voiced and voiceless spirants is not well preserved.
Most of the other consonantal changes are in the nature of assimilation. Thus, bn,dn,zn before the accent became pp,tt,kk (probably through the intermediate stage bb,dd,gg) ; In became ll; nw became nn; dl became IL In some combinations conso nants are lost or new consonants developed.
The following changes are found in all Teutonic languages, but took place apparently later than those enumerated above : n was lost before x (h), with resultant lengthening of the vowel. Final explosives and nasals were lost.
The chief peculiarities of the vowel-system of the earliest known form of Teutonic are It had one vowel (a) corresponding to the two vowels a, o, found in the other I.-E. languages.
It had also one vowel (o) corresponding to the two vowels a, a, found in the other I.-E. languages.
The other I.-E. vowels, e, I, were preserved in the earliest Teutonic. Soon after the beginning of our era, however, e began to change to i before a nasal followed by a consonant. The diph thong ei became i.