Germanic-speaking Europe

Distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:
West Germanic languages

German

Low German

Dutch

Frisian

English

Scots

North Germanic languages

Icelandic

Faroese

Norwegian

Swedish

Danish

Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.

Germanic-speaking Europe refers to the area of Europe that today uses a Germanic language.^[1] Over 200 million Europeans (some 30%) speak a Germanic language natively. At the same time 515 million speak a Germanic language natively in the whole world (6.87%) (the plurality of whom are speakers of North American English, with approximately 245 million native speakers).

History[]

By the 1st century AD, most of what is today Germanic-speaking Europe was dominated by peoples speaking Germanic languages. These peoples were called Germani by the Romans, and the area they dominated was called Germania. In the preceding centuries, this area had expanded greatly through a series of Germanic expansions. By the 1st century AD, it stretched from the Danube in the south to the North Sea and Baltic Sea in the north, and from the Rhine in the west to beyond the Vistula in the east. The population of this area was however not entirely composed of Germanic peoples. Modern research has determined that much of the area was also inhabited by a non-Germanic indigenous population, who probably spoke a non-Germanic Indo-European language. For this reason, scholars sometimes use the term Germanic-dominated Europe for the region during this time.^[a]^[b]

During Late Antiquity, improvements in agricultural methods resulted a massive population expansion in Germanic Europe.^[4] During the Migration Period, the area of Germanic Europe was shifted towards the south and west as a result of a series of Germanic migrations.^[5] Most notably, there was the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, which placed this region into the orbit of Germanic Europe.^[6]

Speakers[]

West Germanic (c. 180 million)
- German-speaking Europe (90 million)
  - Germans (78 million)
  - Austrians (7 million)
  - Swiss (4.6 million)
  - South Tyroleans (0.3 million)
  - Belgians (0.1 million)
- Luxembourgish
  - Luxembourgers (0.3 million)
- Dutch (22 million)
  - Dutch people (16 million)
  - Flemish people (6 million)
- English-speaking Europe (58 million)
  - English (45 million)
  - Welsh (2.5 million)
  - Scottish (4.5 million)
  - Irish (6 million)
- Frisians (0.5 million)
North Germanic (22 million)
- Swedes (9.5 million)
- Danes (6 million)
- Norwegians (4.7 million)
- Icelanders (0.3 million)
- Faroese (0.07 million)
- Ålanders (0.03 million)
- Finland-Swedes (0.3 million)

Countries[]

Independent European countries whose population are predominantly native speakers of a Germanic language:

Austria
Belgium (slightly more than 60% majority concentrated in Flanders and the German-speaking Community of Belgium)
Denmark
Germany
United Kingdom
Netherlands
Norway
Sweden
Iceland
Ireland
Liechtenstein
Luxembourg (mostly and day-to-day use of Luxembourgish, German and French are also used in some areas of life)
Switzerland

Countries without officially recognised minority	Countries with an officially recognised non-Germanic minority	Countries with a Germanic minority
Denmark Faroe Islands Iceland Liechtenstein Netherlands	Austria 29,000 Burgenland Croatians 5,000 Hungarians in Burgenland 5,000 Carinthian Slovenes Belgium 3.4 million Walloons Germany 60,000 Sorbs Luxembourg Norway 100,000 Sámi people 8,000 Kven speakers N/A Romani speakers 150 Tavringer Romani speakers Sweden 470,000 Finnish speakers 25,000 Sámi people 40,000 Meänkieli speakers 9,500 Romani speakers Switzerland 1.5 million French Swiss 500,000 Italian Swiss 36,600 Romansh speakers United Kingdom Welsh Cornish Scottish Gaelic Irish (Northern Ireland)	Finland 275,000 Swedish-speaking population of Finland 27,000 Åland Swedes France 700,000 Alsatians 180,000 German Mosellans 20,000 French Flemings Italy 480,000 South Tyroleans 2,000 Cimbrian dialect speakers 500 Walser dialect speakers Poland 152,900 German minority in Poland

Notes[]

^ "When we talk of Germanic Europe, therefore, we are really talking about Germanic-dominated Europe, and there is no reason to suppose that the entire population of this truly vast area – some of it militarily subdued in the fairly recent past – was culturally homogeneous in terms of belief systems or social practice, or even that it necessarily spoke the same language.^[2]
^ "In the first century AD, Germanic-speaking groups dominated most of central and northern Europe beyond Rome’s riverine frontiers. The Germani, as the Romans called them, spread all the way from the Rhine in the west (which, before the Roman conquest, had marked an approximate boundary between Europe’s Germanic and Celtic speakers) to beyond the River Vistula in the east, and from the Danube in the south to the North and Baltic Seas... First-century Germania was thus much bigger than modern Germany... With the excision of nationalistic assumptions from the interpretation of literary sources, the history of Germanic-speaking Europe in the Roman period can be rewritten in new and exciting ways... While the territory of ancient Germania was clearly dominated in a political sense by Germanic-speaking groups, it has emerged that the population of this vast territory was far from entirely Germanic... Analysis of river names has shown, however, that there was once in northern Europe a third population group with its own Indo-European language, located between the Celts and the Germani. These people were under the domination of the other two long before Roman commentators reached the area, and we know nothing about them. Much of ancient Germania was also the product of periodic Germanic expansion... But this kind of expansion did not annihilate the indigenous, non-Germanic population of the areas concerned, so it is important to perceive Germania as meaning Germanic-dominated Europe."^[3]

References[]

^ Nicholas 2009.
^ Heather 2012, p. 6.
^ Heather 2007, pp. 52–54.
^ Heather 2007, p. 87.
^ Heather 2007, pp. 191–192.
^ Heather 2012, p. 266, 365.

Sources[]

Heather, Peter (2007). "The Transformation of Germanic Europe". The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians. Oxford University Press. pp. 84–94. ISBN 9780195325416.
Heather, Peter (2012). Empires and Barbarians: The Fall of Rome and the Birth of Europe. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199892266.
Nicholas, David (2009). The Northern Lands: Germanic Europe, C.1270 - C.1500. Wiley. ISBN 9781405100502.

show v t Germanic peoples
Ethnolinguistic group of Northern European origin primarily identified as speakers of Germanic languages
History	Nordic Bronze Age Pre-Roman Iron Age Roman Iron Age Germanic Iron Age Viking Age
Early culture	Architecture Art Calendar Clothing Family Festivals Folklore (Proto-Germanic folklore, Anglo-Saxon mythology, Continental Germanic mythology, Norse mythology) Funerary practices Anglo-Saxon Norse Law Anglo-Saxon Norse Literature Anglo-Saxon Norse Names Gothic Paganism Anglo-Saxon Gothic Norse Scripts Gothic alphabet Runic Symbology Warfare Anglo-Saxon Gothic and Vandal Viking
Languages	Germanic parent language Proto-Germanic language East Germanic languages West Germanic languages North Germanic languages
Groups	Alemanni Brisgavi Bucinobantes Lentienses Raetovari Adrabaecampi Angles Anglo-Saxons Ambrones Ampsivarii Angrivarii Armalausi Auiones Avarpi Baemi Baiuvarii Banochaemae Bastarnae Batavi Belgae Germani cisrhenani Atuatuci Caeroesi Condrusi Eburones Paemani Segni Morini Nervii Bateinoi Betasii Brondings Bructeri Burgundians Buri Cananefates Caritni Casuari Chaedini Chaemae Chamavi Chali Charudes Chasuarii Chattuarii Chatti Chauci Cherusci Cimbri Cobandi Corconti Cugerni Danes Dauciones Dulgubnii Favonae Firaesi Fosi Franks Ripuarian Franks Salian Franks Frisiavones Frisii Gambrivii Geats Gepids Goths Crimean Goths Greuthungi Gutones Ostrogoths Thervingi Thracian Goths Visigoths Gutes Harii Hermunduri Heruli Hilleviones Ingaevones Irminones Istvaeones Jutes Juthungi Lacringi Lemovii Lombards Heaðobards Lugii Diduni Helisii Helveconae Manimi Nahanarvali Marcomanni Marsacii Marsi Mattiaci Nemetes Njars Nuithones Osi Quadi Reudigni Rugii Rugini Saxons Semnones Sicambri Sciri Sitones Suarines Suebi Sunici Swedes Taifals Tencteri Teutons Thelir Thuringii Toxandri Treveri Triboci Tubantes Tulingi Tungri Ubii Usipetes Vagoth Vandals Hasdingi Silingi Vangiones Varisci Victohali Vidivarii Vinoviloth Warini
Christianization	Gothic Christianity Christianization of the Franks Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England Christianization of Scandinavia Christianization of Iceland
Category