Are you confused with the seven differences between Germanic languages and other Indo-European languages?   We would like to help assist you not only with the differences, but also provide you with examples to help in the translation.  The following are what scholarship has said to be characteristic of Germanic language:

1. Expanded vocabulary that included a large number of words with non Indo-European cognates.
2. The simplified number of tenses to two:  present and preterit (past). The Indo-European verb system had multiple tenses of verbs.
3. The added use of "d" or "t" (or the dental preterite) sounds at the end of verbs (weak verbs), to indicate past tense (preterite), unlike IE, where an interior vowel changed (strong verbs).
4. All adjectives now had two declensions--strong and weak.
5. The simplification of the vowel system.
6. The stress (known as the stress shift) was moved to the first syllable of every word.  This is the most important difference between Germanic and other IE based languages.
7. Grimm's law and Verner's law, the explanation of what happened during the stress shift.

Any questions? E-mail one of us:
Guybeaudoin@msn.com
s _berry@salem.mass.edu

Or to visit our professor's web site, click here.