Germanic language

A Germanic language is a language which is a member of the Germanic language family and is therefore historically related to proto-Germanic.

Typical linguistic features of Germanic languages include:

• They are tense-poor. English for example, has two tenses.
• They are case-poor, compared to PIE. English, for example, has mostly lost its case system.
• They have Germanic strong and weak verbs:
  • Weak verbs form preterites by suffixation of alveolar stops /t/ or /d/. e.g. English watched or wanted.
  • Strong verbs form preterites by stem-changing. e.g. English sing+sang+sung
• They have dative shift.

The historical origin and geographic centre of Germanic languages tends to be in Northern Europe, though English has spread worldwide.