Just a further note with respect to English. While some would include English as a GERMANIC LANGUAGE, more correctly, it should be OLD ENGLISH which had the same sentance structure as German and many words were closer to German than the currebt English words. Widow in OLD ENGLISH was witwe, much closer to German. The evolution of Germanic dialects derived from the subtle sound shift and subsequent change of spelling. For example the transition from apfel to apple.
Arnold Weirmeir (German spelling was Wihrmeier and Wiermeyer, et al)