North Sea Germanic, also known as Ingvaeonic ( ), is a subgrouping of West Germanic languages that consists of Old Frisian, Old English, and Old Saxon, and their descendants. These languages share a number of commonalities, such as a single plural ending for all persons of the verb, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, common changes to the Germanic vowel *a, a plural form -as, and a number of other features which make scholars believe they form a distinct group within West Germanic.
It is debated whether the shared features of North Sea Germanic are inherited from a common proto-language or formed through later contact and influence. Additionally, the membership of the group is sometimes debated. Some scholars exclude Low German for lacking a number of features associated with North Sea Germanic. Other scholars include Dutch for sharing some features with the group.
Name The name Ingvaeonic derives from ancient Roman sources such as Tacitus, who describes a tribal group called the Ingvaeones. In current scholarship, the term "North Sea Germanic" is often preferred, as it is more descriptive of where these languages are spoken and also more neutral as to whether any connection exists to the Ingvaeones. Other names used include "Coastal Germanic" and "North Sea West Germanic."
Membership The North Sea Germanic languages are usually defined as consisting of the Anglo-Frisian languages (English and Frisian) and Low German. Scholars debate whether these languages shared a single proto-language, or whether their common features are the result of contact and influence—some of them are also shared with the North Germanic languages. Some features may be common inherited features and others are likely areal features.
+ Examples of the distribution of some early North Sea Germanic sound shifts across Northwestern Germanic according to Feature Old High German Old Low Franconian Western Old Saxon Eastern Old Saxon Old English Old Frisian Old Norse loss of nasal before a fricative aN > oN a > e
The status of Low German in the group is sometimes questioned, but most scholars believe that its oldest attested form, Old Saxon, shows clear North Sea Germanic features. Low German has been steadily influenced by High German, causing it to lose some of its North Sea Germanic features and become a linguistic "hybrid". Other scholars have argued that Old Saxon was always variable and represents a transitional dialect between North Sea Germanic and "Franconian". Much variation between North Sea Germanic and Franconian features in the language is dialectal; generally, eastern dialects show more Ingvaeonic phonetic features whereas western ones show more "Franconian" features.
Some scholars have argued that Dutch belongs to the North Sea Germanic languages, as it shares some characteristics with the others. On the other hand, there are arguments for grouping Old Saxon and Old Low Franconian (the ancestor of Dutch) together, as they also share features that are lacking in Anglo-Frisian. Within Dutch, forms that resemble those of the North Sea Germanic languages are called "Ingvaeonisms". These can be further divided into older Ingvaeonisms, which are found throughout Low Franconian, and younger Ingvaeonisms, which are only found in the coastal areas.
Characteristic phonetic changes lowering of *u Throughout Northwest Germanic (North Germanic and West Germanic), stressed *u lowered to *o when *a was found in the next syllable: Proto-West Germanic *fulką > Old Norse, Old Saxon, Old High German , Old English "troop, tribe" However, *u was not lowered before a nasal consonant and a following consonant: Proto-Germanic *pundą > Old Norse, Old English, Old Saxon , Old High German "pound" In the North Sea Germanic languages and North Germanic, however, *u was not lowered before a single nasal consonant, whereas in Old High German, lowering occurred: Proto-Germanic *numanaz > Old English , Old Saxon , but Old High German "taken" Unlowered *u is also found in some other environments in northern West Germanic as opposed to Old High German.
Loss of unstressed and syllable final *z All West Germanic languages lost final -z in unstressed final syllables (Proto-Germanic *hundaz > Proto-West Germanic *hund). However, all North Sea Germanic languages and Old Low Franconian also lost syllable-final z in unstressed prefixes, whereas High German retained and rhoticized them, thus Old High German vs. Old Saxon "to ask for".
In northern West Germanic dialects, Germanic word final -z was also lost in monosyllables and caused compensatory lengthening of the preceding vowel, whereas in southern West Germanic, it became -r: Proto-Germanic *hiz > Old English , Old Frisian/Old Saxon "he" (cf. German with final r) This same change is attested for most Low Franconian dialects as well (Dutch ); in modern Low Franconian, enclitic forms with a final -r are still found in South Low Franconian. Similar enclitic forms are also found in Old Frisian.
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law
Old English, Old Frisian, and Old Saxon all share the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, in which a nasal is lost before a fricative consonant and the preceding vowel is first nasalized and then lengthened: Proto-West Germanic *fimf > *fįf > Old English, Old Saxon, Old Frisian "five" Proto-West Germanic *gans > *gąs > Old English, Middle Low German, Old Frisian "goose" Although Old Saxon consistently shows the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law, Middle Low German dialects restore many nasal consonants lost through the spirant law, giving forms such as rather than Old Saxon ("other"). In some words, the presence or absence of the nasal fluctuates by dialect, with modern West Low German mostly having ("us") while modern East Low German mostly has . Some of these changes may be due to leveling of forms with and without the nasal, while others point to High German influence. High German influence on Low German vocabulary is already visible in the Old Saxon period, as Old Saxon attests words such as and that do not follow the nasal spirant law.
Low Franconian shows some cases of the nasal spirant law through its whole dialect area, most frequently before f, e.g. "five". Other instances are restricted to coastal dialects, such as , used for river mouths in place names and cognate with standard Dutch "mouth".
Among High German dialects, Central German Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, and Lorraine Franconian all feature the pronominal form via Ingvaeonic influence. Other n-less forms are also found in these dialects, such as islands where the word lacks an n (e.g. "wild geese"). Upper Hessian likewise shows . However, most cases have been replaced by forms featuring n. The standard German word for south, , represents an early expansion of a word featuring the nasal spirant law into High German (Old High German vs. North Sea Germanic ).
Nasalization and Rounding Throughout North Sea Germanic, *a was nasalized in unstressed positions when before a nasal consonant. Additionally, West Germanic *a became rounded before a nasal when in stressed position: Proto-North West Germanic *mānō > Old English/Old Frisian "moon" Proto-West Germanic *langaz > Old English/Old Frisian "long" Long *ā was more regularly affected than short *a. Many forms in Old English show variants with both a and o, e.g. ~ ("drank").
This change is only occasionally attested in Old Saxon with forms such as "hand". Ringe and Taylor suggest that the lack of consistency with which the rule is either applied or not applied in Old Saxon points to High German dialect influence. By Middle Low German, forms with a have come to dominate. However, in cases where the nasal consonant has been lost before a spirant and the o lengthened, the o remained: Middle Low German "goose" (see e.g. modern Eastphalian ).
Forms with a > o are also found in Western Dutch dialects of Hollandic, Flemish, and Zealandic in some cases, e.g. "soft" in medieval Flemish (modern standard Dutch ). These forms appear connected to the related change in Anglo-Frisian and Old Saxon.
Fronting Proto-West Germanic *a was frequently fronted in the ancestor of Old English, less frequently in the ancestor of Old Frisian: Proto-West-Germanic dag > Old English , Old Frisian "day" While this change is exceptionless in Old English (all stressed examples of *a became *æ except those that were rounded or nasalized), subsequent developments mean that it is difficult to tell if it was as exceptionless in Old Frisian.
In Old Saxon, the change is only partially attested, producing doublets of words with a/e in Old Saxon. In Middle Low German, most of these doublets were eliminated in favor of the a version. Of the Old Saxon variants and ("glass") only is found in Middle Low German.
Some Dutch dialects also show signs of palatalization of a to e, most often before sp and sk (e.g. modern standard Dutch , cf. High German ). This has sometimes been claimed to be an Ingvaeonism, although other factors, such as i-umlaut or analogy, can be used to explain most instances.
Palatalization of velars The North Sea Germanic languages show a tendency toward palatalizing velar consonants before front vowels. Old English and Frisian both palatalize the velar consonants k and g before the front vowels i and e in many or all cases: Proto-West Germanic *kirika > Old English (modern English church), Old Frisian Fulk argues that this change occurred early and possibly in Proto-Anglo-Frisian or even Proto-North Sea Germanic, given evidence of palatalization in Old Saxon. Ringe and Taylor, however, argue that Frisian palatalization differs from the Old English pattern, meaning that the two languages likely experienced palatalization as a parallel development.
Palatalization of k and g is also common in Old Saxon and Middle Low German. Palatalized k is indicated in the orthography by (e.g. , cf. High German ) or in some cases by (e.g. , cf. High German ), while palatalized g is indicated by or sometimes (e.g. , cf. High German ). The palatalization of /k/ probably occurred over a wide area and to differing amounts in different dialects; in modern Low German, it has in most but not all cases been reversed to k. Outside of many place names, one modern survival is the word ("beetle"), still used in many Low German dialects and equivalent to High German . Earlier ɡ, on the other hand, often alternates with j or is a palatal fricative in modern Low German German dialects, often including in the environment of back vowels.
r-metathesis Metathesis of sequence of vowel, /r/, and a following consonant has traditionally been considered a North Sea Germanic trait: Proto-West Germanic *brinnen > Old English , Middle Low German , Old Frisian "burn" Metathesis of r clusters can be traced in Old English from the 8th century and infrequently in Old Saxon ( "horse" vs. Old High German ) from the 9th century onward. However, metathesis is not frequent in Old Saxon compared to later periods. Among the modern languages it is most frequent in Frisian. From Low German, r-metathesis spread south into the High German area, a process that is seen through the presence of place names with the element rather than "spring".
R-metathesis is also common in Dutch (cf. Dutch "burn"); however, it appears to have begun in the Flemish area in the 11th century and is thus unconnected to the r-metathesis in Old Saxon or Anglo-Frisian.
Monophthongization of *au and *ai