King’s College 2004 v Mistress Gunnvör sílfrahárr
8
Overview: Languages
The
Germanic peoples were a branching
from the old Indo-European
stock, and had a major series
of migrations ca. 400-600AD.
These peoples spoke a
language scholars call "Proto-Germanic".
As
they migrated, this root Germanic
language differentiated into
three branches: East
Germanic, which gave rise to
the now-extinct Gothic
language; West Germanic,
which gave rise to Old English,
Old High German and Old Low
German; and North Germanic,
which was the language of
the Germanic tribes that settled
Scandinavia. 
North
Germanic
Proto-Scandinavian
Old West Norse
Icelandic
Faroese
Norn
(extinct)
Norwegian NynorskOld East Norse
Danish
Norwegian
Bokmål
Swedish