page_title: Germanic languages
section_title: Modern status
hierarchical_section_title: Germanic languages / Modern status
caption_attribution_description: West Germanic languages &#160;&#160; Dutch (Low Franconian, West Germanic) &#160;&#160; Frisian (Anglo-Frisian, West Germanic) &#160;&#160; English (Anglo-Frisian, West Germanic) &#160;&#160; Low German (West Germanic) &#160;&#160; Central German (High German, West Germanic) &#160;&#160; Upper German (High German, West Germanic) North Germanic languages &#160;&#160; East Scandinavian &#160;&#160; West Scandinavian &#160;&#160; Line dividing the North and West Germanic languages
context_page_description: The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, English, is the world's most widely spoken language with an estimated 2 billion speakers. All Germanic languages are derived from Proto-Germanic, spoken in Iron Age Scandinavia.
  The West Germanic languages include the three most widely spoken Germanic languages: English with around 360–400 million native speakers; German, with over 100 million native speakers; and Dutch, with 24 million native speakers.
caption: The present-day distribution of the Germanic languages in Europe:
   North Germanic languages   Icelandic   Faroese   Norwegian  Danish  Swedish West Germanic languages   Scots   English   Frisian   Dutch   Low German   German Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.
exif: {}