afrikaans anglic languages baltic sea baltic languages crimean gothic danish language dialect continuum dutch language east germanic languages english language faroese language finnic languages frisian languages german language germanic a-mutation germanic languages germanic philology germanic spirant law germanic strong verb germanic substrate hypothesis germanic umlaut germanic verb germanic weak verb gothic language grammatischer wechsel great vowel shift greenlandic norse hanseatic league high german consonant shift history of danish history of german history of swedish history of the english language history of the icelandic language history of the scots language icelandic language indo-european ablaut indo-european languages ingvaeonic ingvaeonic nasal spirant law language lingua franca lombardic language low german middle dutch middle english middle high german norn language north germanic languages north sea northwest germanic norwegian language old dutch old english old frankish old frisian old gutnish old high german old norse old saxon phonological history of the english language preterite-present verb protestant reformation proto-germanic proto-norse sachsenspiegel scots language swedish language vandalic language west germanic gemination west germanic languages yiddish language