TEUTONIC LANGUAGES

The oldest Teutonic language in which documents are still extant was Gothic (e.g.), Ulfilas’s trans. of the Bible, 4th cent.; the modern representatives of the group may be cla ed as follows: (1) Germanic, (2) Scand in avian, and (3) AngloS axon. The Germanic cla comprises modern German, and its high and low dialects, Flemish, Frisian, Dutch, and Cape Dutch; the Scand in avian numbers four members, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and Icelandic; the AngloS axon cla is perpetuated in English, which has undergone more changes than the others, due mainly to additions from Lat. and Fr. sources. The modern representatives of Teutonic languages vary markedly, though some are mutually intelligible (e.g.), Flemish and Dutch in their purer forms. Norwegian and Danish show almost complete similarity save in pronunciation.