ABSTRACT
We survey Germanic as a distinct branch of Indo-European, tracing developments that differentiate Germanic from IE up to attested Germanic varieties. We cover structural patterns shared across parts of the family and those that distinguish the sisters from one another. Beyond familiar examples (umlaut, case loss, verb second), we treat areas of recent progress, such as laryngeal phonetics and phonology, foot structure, definiteness and complementizers. We stress how these patterns cut across grammatical modules, connecting phonology, morphology and syntax. That discussion is embedded in the available social and cultural context, e.g. language contact.
