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Page 4 of 7 Early GermansThe vocabulary of proto-Germanic can be accurately reconstructed because there survive writings of a whole series of closely related descendant dialects dating roughly to thirteen hundred years ago and some even earlier. Orel, for example, has recently published such a compendium, quite detailed if somewhat incomplete (2003). A careful study of all known early Germanic word roots and their relationships reveals that very close to half of them are known to have obvious cognates in the Indo-European lexicon. This confirms the general conclusion that Germanic is indeed an Indo-European language. Germanic words from Indo-European include such expressions as “father, mother, brother, daughter”, and all the numbers. Almost all particles such as “at, on, for, under, up, out” and so forth are included. One also sees “head, eye, nose, lip, chin, arm, finger, toe” and “eat, do, have, know, come, see, sew, stand, and be”. The core of the language is firmly in place. Other than the obvious Indo-European forms, there are other elements in early Germanic. About ten percent of the vocabulary has cognates in nearest neighbor language sub-family Balto-Slavic (with an emphasis on Baltic). Some words, certainly, like “hleb” (Russian for bread or loaf) were clearly borrowed from Germanic. The lack of any discernable cognates in this group anywhere else within Indo-European suggests that these are probably not Indo-European words. The Germanic people have long been aggressive towards their Baltic neighbors. The Goths, for example, appear to have in prehistoric times crossed from Sweden and appropriated erstwhile Baltic territory. Germans are not likely to have borrowed Baltic words because words have a tendency to flow only from the aggressor to the victim. Thus there is a reasonable likelihood that many Balto-Slavic cognates with the Germanic resulted from borrowing from the early Germanic (note that this group of words differs in the six shifted consonants characteristically changed in Germanic Indo-European words from those corresponding in Balto-Slavic. This suggests a borrowing in early times before these shifts took hold). Where no obvious cognates are found for Germanic words there are often offered obscure or tortured etymologies. Even when those without any discernable merit are ignored, there still remain some ten percent of Germanic words whose etymologies are at best uncertain. Because virtually all of these etymologies are attempts to make an Indo-European connection suggests that the attempt results from the premise that, because Germanic is demonstrably basically Indo-European, an Indo-European etymology for questionable words is likely or at least possible. Such a large number of convoluted etymologies, however, is unusual and therefore doubtful. Most modern European languages have rather complete etymologies and such awkward derivations are not prevalent. The purpose of language, after all, is communication and it is remarkable how strictly the form of most words is preserved. Anything else would undermine the essential function of words. Notice, by contrast, the mutation of place-names over time. Finally, fully thirty percent of early Germanic vocabulary enjoys no known cognates of any stature. This is generally readily admitted for specific words in dictionaries and etymologies. Thirty percent is a large proportion. Add to that the probability of Balto-Slavic cognates and questionable etymologies hiding more non Indo-European word origins. Important words like “all, blood, drink, dry, fly, give, grow, hand, hay, roof, calf, knife, morning, rain, rope, sheep, smith, take, weapon, and word” have no cognates. Notice also that these words have distinctly different sound frequencies from Indo-European vocabulary. Early Germanic as reconstructed from later dialects dates back roughly to three thousand years ago, while early farmers apparently speaking Indo-European languages only approached the area of Germanic origins some six thousand years ago. Surely early Germanic speech had developed apart from its Indo-European element for less than three thousand years. Modern European languages that have origins in Latin and Germanic speech over comparable time spans have no such body of unexplained elements. Clearly early Germanic is a mixed language.
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Germanic Origins 
