ABSTRACT
Of the 4,000 to 6,000 languages presently spoken in the world, the Germanic languages form a very small subset. For the purposes of this book, there are only twelve modern Germanic languages, and even with the inclusion of varieties like Luxembourgish and Swiss German, and perhaps some 40 to 50 creoles, the membership remains modest. In terms of numbers of speakers, the Germanic group scores much better, for there are at least 450 million native speakers, which is approximately one twelfth of the world’s population. Still, even within Indo-European, the Romance languages with an estimated 580 million native speakers rank higher. What the Germanic languages are unrivalled in, however, is their geographical distribution. While originally these languages were confined to a small part of Europe, colonizers and immigrants successfully implanted them, particularly English, in the Americas, Africa (e.g. South Africa), Asia (e.g. India), as well as in the Pacific (e.g. Australia). Moreover, English has become the world’s most important international language, serving commerce, culture, diplomacy, and science, including linguistics.
