The Origins of Germanic Languages

Germanic languages are one branch of the Indo-European languages. The consonant shifts are described by something called Grimm's law. This is why father is fata in German and vadar in Dutch. We analyse relationships like this to establish chronological splits. Linguists have created words that they believe existed as part of the Proto-Indo-European language based on the ones that they do know, even though there is absolutely no direct evidence of it.