West Germanic languages

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West Germanic
Geographic distribution:	Originally between the Rhine, Alps, Elbe, and North Sea; today worldwide
Linguistic classification:	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic
Subdivisions:	North Sea Germanic Weser-Rhine Germanic Elbe Germanic
ISO 639-5:	gmw
Extent of Germanic languages in present day Europe North Germanic languages   Icelandic   Faroese   Norwegian   Swedish   Danish West Germanic languages   Scots   English   Frisian   Dutch   Low German   High German Dots indicate areas where multilingualism is common.

The West Germanic Languages are a branch of Germanic languages first spoken in Central Europe and the British Isles. The branch has three parts: the North Sea Germanic languages, the Weser-Rhine Germanic languages, and the Elbe Germanic languages. The most spoken languages in the branch are English, German, and Dutch.^[1]

These languages were spread around the world in the Colonial Era. English is now spoken by around 400 million people natively.^[2]

1. ↑ Hawkins, John A. (1987). "Germanic languages". In Bernard Comrie (ed.). The World's Major Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 68–76. ISBN 0-19-520521-9.
2. ↑ Crystal 2006, pp. 424–426.