Yahoo Answers is shutting down on May 4th, 2021 (Eastern Time) and beginning April 20th, 2021 (Eastern Time) the Yahoo Answers website will be in read-only mode. There will be no changes to other Yahoo properties or services, or your Yahoo account. You can find more information about the Yahoo Answers shutdown and how to download your data on this help page.

Source of word 'Ingvaeonic'?

I know it has something to do with Tacitus and his writings about the Germanic peoples, but I'm still so confused as to where they come up with the term Ingvaeonic in reference to the North Sea Germanic peoples, and my books about it are giving me a headache.

Does anybody know anything about historical Germanic linguistics?

2 Answers

Relevance
  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    The development of Ingvaeonic languages as a distinct group would have post dated Tacitus by several centuries. He did describe the people on the North Sea coast as Ingvaeonic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingaevones), and that area happens to be part of the area where Frisian is spoken today, hence the revival of the term in modern times to describe the commonalities specific to Frisian and English.

    Low-Saxon and Dutch are also considered North Sea Germanic languages, but are not Ingvaeonic in the linguistic sense. Ingvaeonic has little meaning today. Afrikaans, Dutch (non Ingvaeonic) and Frisian (Ingvaeonic) are mutually intelligible, though Frisian and English are not. Much is made about the closeness between Frisian and English. The term Ingvaeonic from Tacitus' time was called upon to describe this group. Truth is, Frisian may be the closest language to English, but English is not the closest language to Frisian.

    From an English perspective, Dutch is not signifficantly more distant than Frisian.

    "Ingevaenic" and "North Sea Germanic" are used to describe which sound shifts these languages share. "North Sea Germanic" languages are West Germanic languages that does not share the German sound shift, from "s" to "t" at the end of words, nor the "k" to "ch". Hence Dutch maken, English make, German machen. Ingeveonic are languages in which share some changes, for example the "k" in some places shifted to "ch" (tj) sound. This affected Frisian and Old English, but not Dutch.

  • R.F.
    Lv 7
    1 decade ago

    According to Wikipedia, "Ingvaeonic" is named after the "Ingaevones" which means "people of Yngvi".

    And "Yngvi" (or Yngvin, or Ingwine, or Inguin) is an old Norse name which was derived from an older yet word that ultimately meant "worshiper or friend of Ing", and legend has Ingwax as the ancestor of the Ingaevones.

    "Ingaevones" is described in Tacitus's Germania where a West Germanic cultural group or proto-tribe lived along the North Sea coast.

Still have questions? Get your answers by asking now.