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East Germanic languages

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The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family. The only East Germanic language of which texts are known is Gothic; other languages that are assumed to be East Germanic include Vandalic, Burgundian, and Crimean Gothic. Crimean Gothic is believed to have survived until the 18th century.

Based on accounts by Jordanes, Procopius, Paul the Deacon and others, linguistic evidence (see Gothic language), placename evidence, and on archaeological evidence, it is believed that the East Germanic tribes, the speakers of the East Germanic languages, migrated from Scandinavia to the area between the Oder and the Vistula rivers, ca 600 BC - ca 300 BC. In fact, the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania and northern Poland from period III and onwards was so considerable that this region is sometimes included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture (Dabrowski 1989:73).

There is a widely assumed connection between the Burgundians and the island of Bornholm in Denmark (Old Norse: Borgundarholm).

See also

References

Germanic languages
Afrikaans | Danish | Dutch | English | Faroese | Frisian |
German | Icelandic | Norwegian | Scots | Swedish | Wymysojer | Yiddish

 


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