Languages may be classified according to different principles. The historical, or genealogical classification, groups languages in accordance with their origin from a common linguistic ancestor. Genetically, English belongs to the Germanic or Teutonic group of languages, which is one of the 12 groups of the IE linguistic family. The Germanic language in the modern world are as follows: 1. English – in Great Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zeland, the South African Republic, and many other former British colonies and dominations, (dialects of the Angles, part of the Saxon and Frisians, and probably Jutes develop into the English, WG) wr 7c,; 2. German – in the Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, part of Switzerland, Old High German group dialects (Saxon, the Alemanians, Bavarians, and Thuringians) mixed with Middle and High Franconian, wr 16 c. 10 million; 3. Netherlandish – in the Netherlands and Belgium (known as Dutch and Flemish), WG, the Franconian dialects and Flemish dialect, wr 12 c.; 4. Afrikaans – in the South African Republic, WG, the Dutch, wr 19 c.; 5. Danish – in Denmark (north Germanic, Old Danish); 6. Swedish – in Sweden and Finland (North Germanic, Old Swedish), 7. Norwegian – in Norway (NG, Old Norwegian); 8. Icelandic – in Iceland (its origin goes back to the Viking Age, NG, the West Scandinavian dialect) spoken over 200., Elder edda 12–13 c. 000; 9. Frisian – in some regions of the Netherlands and Germany, dialects of Low German tribes, wr 13 c, WG; 10. Faroese – in the Faroe Islands (its origin goes back to the Viking Age, NG, the West Norwegian dialect), spoken nowadays by about 30.000, wr-18 c.; 11. Yiddish (Old High German dialects, WG)
– in different countries the total number of people speaking Germanic languages approaches 440 million.
