The East Germanic languages are a group of extinct Indo-European languages in the Germanic family. The only East Germanic language of which texts are known is Gothic and Crimean Gothic; other languages that are assumed to be East Germanic include Vandalic and Burgundian. Crimean Gothic is believed to have survived until the 18th century.
Based on accounts by Jordanes, Procopius, Paul the Deacon and others, linguistic evidence (see Gothic language), placename evidence, and on archaeological evidence, it is believed that the East Germanic tribes, the speakers of the East Germanic languages, migrated from Scandinavia to the area between the Oder and the Vistula rivers, ca 600 BCE – ca 300 BCE. In fact, the Scandinavian influence on Pomerania and northern Poland from period III and onwards was so considerable that this region is sometimes included in the Nordic Bronze Age culture (Dabrowski 1989:73).
There is also archaeological and toponymic evidence that Burgundians resided in the island of Bornholm in Denmark (Old Norse: Borgundarholm).
The East Germanic tribes (Vandals, Burgundians, Goths, Rugians and others), related to the North Germanic tribes, had migrated from Scandinavia into the area lying east of the Elbe.
Famous quotes containing the words east and/or languages:
“A puff of wind, a puff faint and tepid and laden with strange odours of blossoms, of aromatic wood, comes out the still night—the first sigh of the East on my face. That I can never forget. It was impalpable and enslaving, like a charm, like a whispered promise of mysterious delight.... The mysterious East faced me, perfumed like a flower, silent like death, dark like a grave.”
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924)
“The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.”
—Benjamin Lee Whorf (1897–1934)