The Prehistory of Plautdietsch

• One of the groups which diverged from Indo-European was Germanic:

• • Thought to have split off from Indo-European into the area of Denmark and southern Sweden before 500 B.C.
  • Subsequently spread across northern and central Europe, from the Alps to Scandinavia and from the Netherlands (and Britain) to the Vistula River in Poland
  • Western branch of this language group: English, Dutch, Frisian, Low German, High German, Yiddish, and Afrikaans -- all “cousins” within the Germanic family tree