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Germanic languages.
The history of English language has been reconstructed on the
basis of written
records of different periods. The earliest texts in English are dated back to 7th
c.A.D.; the earliest records in other Germanic languages to the 3rd or 4th A.D. But
to say where the English language came from one must learn some facts of the
prewritten history of the Germanic group.
Certain information about the early stages of English and Germanic
history can be
found in the works of ancient historians, especially Roman. They contain the
description of
Germanic tribes, personal names and place-names.
English language belongs to the Germanic group of languages, which is one of the
twelve groups of the Indo-European linguistic family. The
history of the Germanic
group begins with the appearance of what is known as the Proto-Germanic
language
which split from the
