German History 4
German History 4
The Germans
(Continued from German History 3)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
PART FOUR
Germanic Peoples
The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European speaking peoples, originating in
Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic languages which diversified out of
Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The ancestors of these people
became th Anonymous ethnic groups of Western Europe, such as the Danes, Swedes,
Norwegians, Germans, Dutch, and English. (Originally, the Germanic peoples migrated from
Asia into Central Europe.)
Migrating Germanic peoples spread throughout Europe in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle
Ages. Germanic languages became dominant along the Roman borders (Austria, Germany,
Netherlands and England), but in the rest of the (western) Roman provinces, the Germanic
immigrants adopted Latin (Romance) dialects. Furthermore, all Germanic peoples were
eventally Christianized to varying extents. The Germanic people played a large role in
transforming the Roman Empire into Medieval Europe, and they contributed in developing a
common identity, history, and culture which transcended linguistic borders.
Ethnonym
Further information: Theociscus and Teutonic
Various etymologies for Latin Germani are possible. As an
adjective, germani is simply the plural of the adjective
germanus (from german, "seed" or "offshoot"), which has
the sense of "related" or "kindred" or "authentic".
According to Strabo, the Romans introduced the name,
Germani, because the Germanic tribes were the authentic
Celts. Alternatively, it may refer from this use based on
Roman experience of the Germanic tribes as allies of the
Celts.
|