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Which modern languages developed from the Germanic language family?
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The Germanic language family is a branch of the Indo-European language family, traditionally categorized into three groups: West Germanic, North Germanic, and the now-extinct East Germanic.1
Modern languages that have developed from this family include:
- West Germanic: English, German, Dutch (Netherlandic-Flemish), Afrikaans, Frisian, and Yiddish.21
- North Germanic: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, and Faroese.314
The East Germanic group, which included Gothic and the languages of tribes such as the Vandals and Burgundians, is no longer spoken today. These languages are considered related because they are historical developments of a single, reconstructed parent language known as Proto-Germanic.1