The Germanic Languages

Most people have heard of the Tower of Babel story in the Bible. According to this story, long ago all people spoke the same language. Later, however, they were punished by speaking a great number of different tongues. Today, there are literally thousands of different languages (defined as mutually unintelligible tongues) around the world, though many are related to one another. Indeed, the two largest language families, the Indo-European (the language family with the largest number of speakers) and Sino-Tibetan (containing the Chinese languages, Thai, Vietnamese, and Tibetan) include hundreds of languages with over half the world's population.
　　Because there are so many languages within the above two super-categories of language families, linguists have further divided these linguistically rich and geographically diverse families into sub-groups, one of which, the Germanic language group, has the second-largest number of speakers (Chinese being first). Within this group of over 500,000,000 speakers is the world's foremost international language, English, foremost in terms of its geographic spread and number of second-language users. German, spoken by just over 100,000,000 people, is one of the world's ten-largest languages in terms of population. As English and German speakers constitute the majorities in several of the world's most economically, militarily, and technologically developed countries, it is important to be familiar with this particular language grouping.
　　Linguists further divide the Germanic languages into three groups, two extant and one extinct. East Germanic languages are no longer spoken; Gothic is an example of this small and historic grouping. Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Flemish, and German are the more important languages within the West Germanic grouping. The Scandinavian languages of Danish, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish comprise the North Germanic grouping. Though these languages cannot be easily understood among their different speakers, the similarities in vocabulary are striking.
　　Take for example the two largest languages with this group, English and German. The word Haus in German is house in English, with nearly the same pronunciation. Some names of German family members are instantly recognizable to English listeners and readers: Mutter, Bruder, and Onkel for the English mother, brother, and uncle (all German nouns are capitalized in print). Other German family members are easily learned: Vater, Schwester, and Tante for the English father, sister, and aunt. Thus, those who know English and want to study German find their first year of learning vocabulary to be relatively easy. The same is true, of course, for those who want to learn Dutch or Danish from an English or German background; these many similarities are due to the single common parent language of all the Germanic tongues, even though this "grandfather" language no longer exists.
　　Speakers and writers of the Germanic languages account for a great deal of the world's output in everything from economics to literature to military to science and technology. Hardly an aspect of modern life does not benefit from the contributions made by those using these languages, as in the Internet, Hollywood entertainment, Dutch (Phillips) and Scandinavian consumer goods design (Ericsson, maker of cellular phones, is a Swedish company, as are Volvo and Saab), and even the Nobel prizes (awarded by both Norwegian and Swedish institutes). More than one-third of the world's economic production originates in these countries, too.
　　For any speaker of a language outside the Germanic language group preparing to choose a useful second language for the future, English is probably the best bet. German, too, is very useful in the fields of medicine, economics, military, and science and technology. Being able to communicate with others in this far-reaching linguistic group will offer the user immeasurable benefits.

　　大多数的人都听过圣经中巴别塔的故事。故事称很久以前，人们说的是同一种语言。但是，后来人们遭受惩罚，而开始说各种不同的语言。今天，全世界真是有好几千种不同的语言（此处指的是彼此无法相通的语言），虽然其中语言彼此都有所关联。的确，这两个最大的语系，印欧语系（最多人使用的语系）和汉藏语系（包括华语、泰语、越语和西藏语），涵盖了几百种不同的语言，使用者也超过了全世界半数的人口。
　　就因为有太多的语言涵盖于上述的两个超级语系，语言学家就进一步的把这两种语言丰富、地理涵盖范围非常广的语系再区分为几种不同的次级语系，其中的1个就是日耳曼语系，使用这个语系的人数在所有语系中排名第二位（第一位为华语）。在这个有5亿多人口使用的语系中，包括了世界最重要的国际语言，那就是英语。英语之所以称得上是最重要的语言乃因使用的地区很广，且把英语当作第二种语言使用的人口亦很多。有1亿多人操德语，故就人口而言，德语是世界十大语言之一。由于使用英语和德语的人口在几个经济、军事和科技先进的国家中占绝大比例，因此熟悉日耳曼语系的来龙去脉是很重要的。
　　语言学家又进一步地把日耳曼语系细分成3个支系，其中两个支系至今仍然存在，另1个支系，也就是东日耳曼语，因无人使用而已不复存。歌德语就属于这种使用者不多但历史悠久的语系。南非荷兰语、荷兰语、英语、佛兰芝语、及德语则属西日耳曼语的几个重要语言。丹麦语、冰岛语、挪威语及瑞典语等北欧语系则属北日耳曼语系。虽然这些不同语言使用者彼此不易沟通，不过词汇的雷同处却很明显。
　　就拿日耳曼语系中英语及德语两大语言来说吧，德文的 Haus 就是英文的 house，发音几乎完全相同。一些德语家庭成员的称呼如：Mutter, Bruder 和 Onkel，懂英语的人很快地就知道这些字指的就是 mother, brother 和 uncle（德文的名词一律大写）。其它有关家庭成员名称的德语说法也很容易学：像 Vater, Schwester 和 Tante 在英文里指的就 father, sister 和 aunt。因此懂英语而想学德语的人，会发现初学词汇的第一年是很容易的一件事。当然，具有英语和德语背景的人要学丹麦语和荷兰语也同样是件易事。这些相似处乃因所有日耳曼语系皆源自共同的母语，尽管这个“爷爷级”的语言已不复存。
　　全球举凡经济、文学、军事乃至科技等方面的产品，有很多都是使用日耳曼语系的人所生产的。现代生活几乎各方面无不受益于这些人的贡献，譬如互联网络，好莱坞娱乐事业，荷兰（菲立普公司）和北欧的消费品设计（生产手机的爱利信公司就是瑞典的一家公司、富豪及绅宝汽车亦是瑞典的公司），甚至诺贝尔奖（由挪威及瑞典学术机构颁发）。全世界的经济生产量有超过三分之一也是源自这些国家。
　　对于那些非使用日耳曼语系的人而言，为了前途而准备要选修第二种语文时，英文很可能是最佳的选择。在医学、经济、军事和科技方面，德语也是一样管用。日耳曼语系影响深远，若能使用这种语言与该语系的人沟通将会带来莫大的好处。