West Germanic Tribes
The Germanic peoples (also called Teutonic or Gothic in older literature) are an Indo-European ethno-linguistic group of Northern European origin, identified by their use of the Germanic languages which diversified out of Proto-Germanic starting during the Pre-Roman Iron Age.
The term "Germanic" originated in classical times, when groups of tribes were referred to using this term by Roman authors. For them, the term was not necessarily based upon language, but rather referred to tribal groups and alliances who were considered less civilized, and more physically hardened, than the Celtic Gauls living in the region of modern France. Tribes referred to as Germanic in that period lived generally to the north and east of the Gauls.
By extension, in modern times the term has also occasionally been used to refer to ethnic groups who claim ancestral and cultural connections to the ancient Germanic peoples, and speak a Germanic language.
Read more about West Germanic Tribes: Ethnonym, Classification, Genetics, Germanic Antiquity in Later Historiography, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words west and/or tribes:
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—Samuel Fuller, U.S. screenwriter. Zab (Robert Carradine)
“Now a Jew, in the dictionary, is one who is descended from the ancient tribes of Judea, or one who is regarded as descended from that tribe. That’s what it says in the dictionary; but you and I know what a Jew is—One Who Killed Our Lord.... And although there should be a statute of limitations for that crime, it seems that those who neither have the actions nor the gait of Christians, pagan or not, will bust us out, unrelenting dues, for another deuce.”
—Lenny Bruce (1925–1966)