German Language Course Institute - Quick Facts about the German Language

Top Germanic Languages To Learn

Germanic languages are widely considered to be the closest to English due to their shared roots and origins. Here we present you the list of the 5 Germanic languages which are close to English:

German :- German is also closely linked to English due to English being a part of the Germanic language group. German is spoken principally in Germany, but it’s also officially accepted in other areas around the world, even such distant places as Brazil. That’s why many people have now understood that there are multiple reasons as to why learn German language in the first place.

German is the 2nd most generally spoken Germanic language. The most mutual, of course, is English.

It is having around 95 million native speakers.

Few people believe it sounds angry.

One of the first printed books- the Gutenberg Bible, is in German.

The German language mutually shares 60% of its vocabulary with English. How much of this sample text can you comprehend? 

• Scottish :- The closest language to English is Scottish, although it is still not technically considered a language. As per a 2010 study by the Scottish government, the bulk (64%) of the Scottish people don’t consider it as such.
• And until now, Scots started to separate from English as far as back as the Middle English period. The UK government categorizes it as a regional language and it is sheltered under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
• Frisian :- Frisian is essentially a cluster of 3 languages spoken in parts of the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. Scots, English and the Frisian languages are the only surviving members of the Anglo-Frisian language group.
• Dutch :- Many people say that Dutch is the closest language to English. Certainly, it’s the closest “major” language and is occasionally said to be “intermediating between” English and German.
• Norwegian :- Many scholars, place English in the West Germanic family, alongside other languages enumerated above. But not all of them. Jan Terje Faarlund, a professor from the University of Oslo considers it to be more closely linked to the Scandinavian languages.

He claims that because Old English borrowed substantial amounts of grammar and vocabulary from Old Norse during the time when England was underneath Viking rule, Old Norse fundamentally “replaced” Old English as the language changed into Middle English.

Norwegian is closer to English than both Danish and Swedish. In reality, it’s often labelled as the easiest of the three languages to learn.

Resource URL: https://www.squadvision.org/knowledgebase/top-germanic-languages-to-learn/