The Linguasphere Register

of the world’s languages and speech communities

The linguascale

Change sector or zone

Geosector 0= AFRICA

Phylosector 1= AFRO-ASIAN

Geosector 2= AUSTRALASIA

Phylosector 3= AUSTRONESIAN

Geosector 4= EURASIA

Phylosector 5= INDO-EUROPEAN

Geosector 6= NORTH-AMERICA

Phylosector 7= SINO-INDIAN

Geosector 8= SOUTH-AMERICA

Phylosector 9= TRANSAFRICAN

Phylosector 5= INDO-EUROPEAN

52= GERMANIC

Phylozone

Covers the "Germanic" or Norsk + Frysk set, part of the "Indo-European" intercontinental affinity.

Comprising 1 set of languages (= 25 outer languages) spoken traditionally by communities in Europe, extending from Iceland to eastern Europe, with extensions to all other continents of the world.

Including 2 arterial languages: English; Deutsch (German).

Historically, the Germanic set was tripartite, represented by the [52-A] Nordic, [52-C] Continental West Germanic & [52-D] extinct Gothic chains. [52-B] Anglic (English + Anglo-Creole) is now better treated as a fourth chain, having diverged from the languages of [52-C] under influence from [51] Romance, esp. French, and also [52-A] Nordic (see also note below under [52-C] Frysk + Frasch).

This zone and set include (1) the language spoken in Europe west of Russia by the largest number of primary voices, i.e. German, and (2) the language spoken on the planet by the largest number of alternate voices, i.e. English.


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