Elbe Germanic | |
---|---|
Irminonic, Erminonic, Alpine Germanic[1] | |
Ethnicity | Irminones |
Geographic distribution | German-speaking Europe, United States, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Colonia Tovar |
Linguistic classification | Indo-European
|
Proto-language | Proto-Elbe Germanic |
Subdivisions | |
![]() The distribution of the primary Germanic languages in Europe c. AD 1:
North Sea Germanic, or Ingvaeonic
Weser–Rhine Germanic, or Istvaeonic
Elbe Germanic, or Irminonic
|
Elbe Germanic, also called Irminonic or Erminonic,[2] is a term introduced by the German linguist Friedrich Maurer (1898–1984) in his book, Nordgermanen und Alemanen, to describe the unattested proto-language, or dialectal grouping, ancestral to the later Lombardic, Alemannic, Bavarian and Thuringian dialects. During late antiquity and the Middle Ages, its supposed descendants had a profound influence on the neighboring West Central German dialects and, later, in the form of Standard German, on the German language as a whole.[3]