Germanic

The Germanic languages are a branch of Indo-European, all descended from Proto-Germanic, which was spoken in the Iron Age around the Baltic and North Sea coasts, northern Germany and Scandinavia. From the second century BC Germanic tribes moved south from these homelands, and their speech split into three branches. West Germanic produced English, German, Dutch and Frisian; North Germanic developed from Old Norse; East Germanic included Gothic, Burgundian and Vandalic, whose speakers were assimilated by neighbouring peoples around the seventh century.

The earliest Germanic writing is a name scratched on the Negau helmet around 200 BC, followed by the runic Elder Futhark from roughly 100 AD.

In the fourth century Bishop Ulfilas devised a Gothic alphabet to translate the Bible; Christian monks later used Latin letters to write the other Germanic tongues. Runes remained in everyday use in Scandinavia through the Viking Age.