Discovering German History: The Proto-Germans

Does Johannes Gutenburg play at all in your memory nowadays?

Let's face it; you may not be interested in German history.

Yet, the germans can become more memorable to you in just five pages of this dazzling book called 'The Shortest History of Germany" .

So, what can't you forget about the Germans?

From the first two pages of this book's introduction, we discover a few fascinating little nuggets about the Proto-Germans (Proto meaning original or primitive).

Before the Christian Era (BC), consonant sounds were changing in Europe.

Consonant sounds like 'p' for father used in the Latin word 'pater' became 'f' for 'father' in English.

Or, in simpler examples: instead of the 'p' sound for fish - like other Indo-European languages used - we ( the English language) somehow used 'f' sound for 'fish' with the Germans and Danish.

If it's difficult to understand how this is significant, remember, fish is called 'Fisch' in German and 'Fisk' in Danish compared to 'Pcisis' in Latin and 'Poisson' in French.

Notice the difference in sounds?

The Proto-Germans, however, were the first to pronounce consonants distinctly out of all the languages.

Their pronunciation of typical words compared to other Indo-European languages (Latin and French) started two shifts in language; the second occurred many years later, in about the 6th century AD.

The reasons why this happened is unknown to us.

This must have been a interesting time for languages and for the rest of the europeans who came in contact with this unknown tribe.

Now that's ancient German history!

Imagine a group of people pronouncing words with entirely different consonants and yourself not knowing what was happening.

But, remember, The Germans were actually the first at this!

Send us a tweet if you know anything else about the Proto-germans and their ancient history timeline.