Proto-Germanic (abbreviated PGmc; also called Common Germanic) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Germanic languages.
A defining feature of Proto-Germanic is the completion of the process described by Grimm's law, a set of sound changes that occurred between its status as a dialect of Proto-Indo-European and its gradual divergence into a separate language. The end of the Common Germanic period is reached with the beginning of the Migration Period in the fourth century AD.
Proto-Germanic paganism was the beliefs of the speakers of Proto-Germanic and includes topics such as the Germanic mythology, legendry, and folk beliefs of early Germanic culture. By way of the comparative method, Germanic philologists, a variety of historical linguist, have proposed reconstructions of entities, locations, and concepts with various levels of security in early Germanic folklore (reconstructions are indicated by the presence of an asterisk). The present article includes both reconstructed forms and proposed motifs from the early Germanic period.
Linguistic reconstructions can be obtained via comparison between the various Germanic languages, comparison with related words in other Indo-European languages, especially Celtic and Baltic, comparison with borrowings into neighbouring language families such as Uralic, or via a combination of those methods. This allows linguists to project some terms back to the Proto-Germanic period despite their attestation in only one Germanic language; for instance, *saidaz ('magic') is only attested in Old Norse seiðr, but has parallels in Proto-Celtic *soytos and Lithuanian saitas.
Although English is classed as a Germanic language, it has been strongly influenced by Latin—primarily in its lexicon. Though the grammar and core vocabulary of English are inherited from Proto-Germanic, a great deal of English vocabulary comes from Romance and Latinate sources. The vast majority of these borrowings come either direct from Latin or indirectly from French; there are also a few borrowings from Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Other borrowings have come from Gothic or Frankish via French or Greek via Latin.
A solar deity or sun deity is a deity who represents the Sun or an aspect thereof. Such deities are usually associated with power and strength. Solar deities and Sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in various forms. The English word sun derives from Proto-Germanic *sunnǭ. The Sun is sometimes referred to by its Latin name Sol or by its Greek name Helios.
Grimm's law, also known as the First Germanic Consonant Shift or First Germanic Sound Shift, is a set of sound laws describing the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) stop consonants as they developed in Proto-Germanic in the first millennium BC, first discovered by Rasmus Rask but systematically put forward by Jacob Grimm. It establishes a set of regular correspondences between early Germanic stops and fricatives and stop consonants of certain other Indo-European languages.
A fish hook or fishhook, formerly also called an angle (from Old English angol and Proto-Germanic *angulaz), is a hook used to catch fish either by piercing and embedding onto the inside of the fish mouth (angling) or, more rarely, by impaling and snagging the external fish body. Fish hooks are normally attached to a line, which tethers the target fish to the angler for retrieval, and are typically dressed with some form of bait or lure that entices the fish to swallow the hook out of its own natural instinct to forage or hunt.
Fish hooks have been employed for millennia by fishermen to catch freshwater and saltwater fish. There is an enormous variety of fish hooks in the world of fishing. Sizes, designs, shapes, and materials are all variable depending on the intended purpose of the hook. Fish hooks are manufactured for a range of purposes from general fishing to extremely limited and specialized applications. Fish hooks are designed to hold various types of artificial, processed, dead or live baits (bait fishing); to act as the foundation for artificial representations of invertebrate prey (e.g. fly fishing); or to be attached to or integrated into other devices that mimic prey (lure fishing). In 2005, the fish hook was chosen by Forbes as one of the Top 20 tools in human history.
The Spree (/ʃpreɪ, spreɪ/ S(H)PRAY, German: [ʃpʁeː] ; Sorbian languages: Sprjewja, Lower Sorbian: [ˈsprʲɛwʲa], Upper Sorbian: [ˈspʁʲɛwʲa]; in Lower Sorbian also called Rěka) is a river in Germany and the Czech Republic. With a length of approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi), it is the main tributary of the Havel River. The Spree is much longer than the Havel, which it flows into at Berlin-Spandau; the Havel then flows into the Elbe at Havelberg. The river rises in the Lusatian Highlands, in the Lusatian part of Saxony, where it has three sources: the historical one called Spreeborn in the village of Spreedorf, the water-richest one in Neugersdorf, and the highest elevated one in Eibau. The Spree then flows northwards through Upper and Lower Lusatia, where it crosses the border between Saxony and Brandenburg. After passing through Cottbus, it forms the Spree Forest (German: Spreewald), a large inland delta and biosphere reserve. It then flows through Lake Schwielochsee before entering Berlin, as Müggelspree (pronounced [ˈmʏɡl̩ˌʃpʁeː] ).
The Spree is the main river of Berlin, Brandenburg, Lusatia, and the settlement area of the Sorbs, who call the river Sprjewja; the name derives ultimately from Proto-Germanic *spreutaną "to spring forth". For a very short distance close to its sources, the Spree constitutes, as Spréva, the border between Germany and the Czech Republic. The Spree's longest tributaries are Dahme (confluence in Berlin-Köpenick) and Schwarzer Schöps (Čorny Šepc; confluence in Boxberg/O.L.-Sprey), other well-known tributaries (since they are Berlin rivers) are Panke and Wuhle.
As the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) broke up, its sound system diverged as well, as evidenced in various sound laws associated with the daughter Indo-European languages.Especially notable is the palatalization that produced the satem languages, along with the associated ruki sound law. Other notable changes include:
Bartholomae's law in Indo-Iranian, and Sievers's law in Proto-Germanic and (to some extent) various other branches, may or may not have been common Indo-European features. A number of innovations, both phonological and morphological, represent areal features common to the Italic and Celtic languages; among them the development of labiovelars to labial consonants in some Italic and Celtic branches, producing "p-Celtic" and "q-Celtic" languages (likewise "p-Italic" and "q-Italic", although these terms are less used). Another grouping with many shared areal innovations comprises Greek, Indo-Iranian, and Armenian; among its common phonological innovations are Grassmann's law in Greek and Indo-Iranian, and weakening of pre-vocalic /s/ to /h/ in Greek, Iranian and Armenian.