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Wikipedia

German language

German (Deutsch [dɔʏtʃ]) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a co-official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by German communities in France (Bas-Rhin), Czech Republic (North Bohemia), Poland (Upper Silesia), Slovakia (Bratislava Region), and Hungary (Sopron).

German
Deutsch
Pronunciation[dɔʏtʃ]
RegionGerman-speaking Europe
EthnicityGermans
Native speakers
95 million (2014)[1]
L2 speakers: 80-85 million (2014)[1]
Early forms
Standard forms
Signed German
Official status
Official language in
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Germany
  • Liechtenstein
  • Luxembourg
  • Switzerland


Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byNo official regulation
(Orthography regulated by the Council for German Orthography)[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-1de
ISO 639-2ger (B)
deu (T)
ISO 639-3Variously:
deu – German
gmh – Middle High German
goh – Old High German
gct – Colonia Tovar German
bar – Bavarian
cim – Cimbrian
geh – Hutterite German
ksh – Kölsch
nds – Low German[note 1]
sli – Lower Silesian
ltz – Luxembourgish[note 2]
vmf – Mainfränkisch
mhn – Mòcheno
pfl – Palatinate German
pdc – Pennsylvania Dutch
pdt – Plautdietsch[note 3]
swg – Swabian German
gsw – Swiss German
uln – Unserdeutsch
sxu – Upper Saxon
wae – Walser German
wep – Westphalian
hrx – Riograndenser Hunsrückisch
yec – Yenish
Glottologhigh1289  High German
fran1268  Middle German
high1286  Upper German
Linguasphere52-ACB–dl (Standard German)
52-AC (Continental West Germanic)
52-ACB (Deutsch & Dutch)
52-ACB-d (Central German)
52-ACB-e & -f (Upper and Swiss German)
52-ACB-h (émigré German varieties, including 52-ACB-hc (Hutterite German) & 52-ACB-he (Pennsylvania Dutch)
52-ACB-i (Yenish)
Totalling 285 varieties: 52-ACB-daa to 52-ACB-i
  (Co)official majority language
  Co-official minority language
  Statutory minority/cultural language
  Non-statutory minority language
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

German is most similar to other languages within the West Germanic language branch, including Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German, Luxembourgish, Scots, and Yiddish. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group, such as Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language after English, which is also a West Germanic language.

German is one of the major languages of the world. It is the most spoken native language within the European Union. German is also widely taught as a foreign language, especially in continental Europe, where it is the third most taught foreign language (after English and French), and the United States. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used scientific language and among the most widely used languages on websites. The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in German.

German is an inflected language, with four cases for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative); three genders (masculine, feminine, neuter); and two numbers (singular, plural). It has strong and weak verbs. The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, while a smaller share is partly derived from Latin and Greek, along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English.

German is a pluricentric language; the three standardized variants are German, Austrian, and Swiss Standard High German. It is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world. Some of these non-standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments.

Since 2004, meetings of German-speaking countries have been held annually with six participants: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Switzerland.[4]

Participants of Meetings of German-speaking countries

Classification

 
Anglic languages
  English
  Scots
Anglo-Frisian languages
Anglic and North Sea Germanic languages Anglo-Frisian and West Germanic languages
North Sea Germanic and
  Dutch; in Africa: Afrikaans
...... German (High):
  Upper
...... Yiddish
 
The Germanic languages in contemporary Europe

German is an Indo-European language and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages. The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches, North Germanic, East Germanic, and West Germanic. The first of these branches survives in modern Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese, and Icelandic, all of which are descended from Old Norse. The East Germanic languages are now extinct, and Gothic is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts. The West Germanic languages, however, have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English, German, Dutch, Yiddish, Afrikaans, and others.[5]

Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum, the Benrath and Uerdingen lines (running through Düsseldorf-Benrath and Krefeld-Uerdingen, respectively) serve to distinguish the Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift (south of Benrath) from those that were not (north of Uerdingen). The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects, while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German/Low Saxon and Low Franconian dialects. As members of the West Germanic language family, High German, Low German, and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic, Ingvaeonic, and Istvaeonic, respectively. This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by the Irminones (also known as the Elbe group), Ingvaeones (or North Sea Germanic group), and Istvaeones (or Weser-Rhine group).[5]

Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian-Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects, which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group. German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects, such as Luxembourgish (based on Central Franconian dialects) and Yiddish. Also closely related to Standard German are the Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German-speaking countries, such as Swiss German (Alemannic dialects) and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est, such as Alsatian (mainly Alemannic, but also Central–and Upper Franconian dialects) and Lorraine Franconian (Central Franconian).

After these High German dialects, standard German is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects (e.g., Dutch and Afrikaans), Low German or Low Saxon dialects (spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark), neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift. As has been noted, the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic, whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic; the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable. Also related to German are the Frisian languages—North Frisian (spoken in Nordfriesland), Saterland Frisian (spoken in Saterland), and West Frisian (spoken in Friesland)—as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots. These Anglo-Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift.

History

Old High German

The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period, which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants (b, d, g, and p, t, k, respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below.

  • Voiceless stops became long (geminated) voiceless fricatives following a vowel;
  • Voiceless stops became affricates in word-initial position, or following certain consonants;
  • Voiced stops became voiceless in certain phonetic settings.[6]
Voiceless stop
following a vowel
Word-initial
voiceless stop
Voiced stop
/p/→/ff/ /p/→/pf/ /b/→/p/
/t/→/ss/ /t/→/ts/ /d/→/t/
/k/→/xx/ /k/→/kx/ /g/→/k/
 
The approximate extent of Germanic languages in the early 10th century:
  Continental West Germanic languages (Old Frisian, Old Saxon, Old Dutch, Old High German).

While there is written evidence of the Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD (such as the Pforzen buckle), the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765–775), a Latin-German glossary supplying over 3,000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents. After the Abrogans, the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in the ninth century, chief among them being the Muspilli, the Merseburg Charms, and the Hildebrandslied, and other religious texts (the Georgslied, the Ludwigslied, the Evangelienbuch, and translated hymns and prayers).[7] The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment, and the Merseburg Charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from the pagan Germanic tradition. Of particular interest to scholars, however, has been the Hildebrandslied, a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle. Linguistically this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition. The written works of this period stem mainly from the Alamanni, Bavarian, and Thuringian groups, all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group (Irminones), which had settled in what is now southern-central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries, during the great migration.[6]

In general, the surviving texts of OHG show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity. The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals; as a result, the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence, particularly in vocabulary.[6] At this point monasteries, where most written works were produced, were dominated by Latin, and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing.

The German language through the OHG period was still predominantly a spoken language, with a wide range of dialects and a much more extensive oral tradition than a written one. Having just emerged from the High German consonant shift, OHG was also a relatively new and volatile language still undergoing a number of phonetic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic changes. The scarcity of written work, instability of the language, and widespread illiteracy of the time explain the lack of standardization up to the end of the OHG period in 1050.

Middle High German

While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German (MHG) period, it is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350.[8] This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes, and consequently of the number of German speakers. Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers, the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory (known as the Ostsiedlung). With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature.[8] A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra-dialectal written language. While these efforts were still regionally bound, German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes, leading to a greater need for regularity in written conventions.

While the major changes of the MHG period were socio-cultural, High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax, phonetics, and morphology as well (e. g. diphthongization of certain vowel sounds: hus (OHG & MHG "house")→haus (regionally in later MHG)→Haus (NHG), and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa [ə]: taga (OHG "days")→tage (MHG)).[9]

A great wealth of texts survives from the MHG period. Significantly, these texts include a number of impressive secular works, such as the Nibelungenlied, an epic poem telling the story of the dragon-slayer Siegfried (c. thirteenth century), and the Iwein, an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue (c. 1203), lyric poems, and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan. Also noteworthy is the Sachsenspiegel, the first book of laws written in Middle Low German (c. 1220). The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German, as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra-dialectal terms.

The Middle High German period is generally seen as ending when the 1346 – 53 Black Death decimated Europe's population.[10]

Early New High German

 
German language area and major dialectal divisions around 1900.[11]

Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which the influential German philologist Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350–1650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War.[10] This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in the German states. While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire, and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout the German states; the invention of the printing press c. 1440 and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language.

The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross-regional forms of chancery German, one being gemeine tiutsch, used in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, and the other being Meißner Deutsch, used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe-Wittenberg.[12]

Alongside these courtly written standards, the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers' languages (Druckersprachen) aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible.[13] The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardization in the written form of German.

 
The widespread popularity of the Bible translated into High German by Martin Luther helped establish modern Standard High German.

One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the Meißner Deutsch of Saxony, spending much time among the population of Saxony researching the dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method:

One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it; he must ask the mother in the home, the children on the streets, the common man in the market-place and note carefully how they talk, then translate accordingly. They will then understand what is said to them because it is German. When Christ says 'ex abundantia cordis os loquitur,' I would translate, if I followed the papists, aus dem Überflusz des Herzens redet der Mund. But tell me is this talking German? What German understands such stuff? No, the mother in the home and the plain man would say, Wesz das Herz voll ist, des gehet der Mund über.[14]

With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy.[15] Nevertheless, even with the influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century.[16]

Austrian Empire

 
Ethnolinguistic map of Austria-Hungary, 1910, with German-speaking areas shown in red

German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-nineteenth century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality.

Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain; others, like Pressburg (Pozsony, now Bratislava), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, and cities like Zagreb (German: Agram) or Ljubljana (German: Laibach), contained significant German minorities.

In the eastern provinces of Banat, Bukovina, and Transylvania (German: Banat, Buchenland, Siebenbürgen), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns – like Temeschburg (Timișoara), Hermannstadt (Sibiu) and Kronstadt (Brașov) – but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas.[17]

Standardization

In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a complete standardization of the Standard High German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition.[18]

The Deutsche Bühnensprache (lit.'German stage language') had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres,[19] three years earlier; however, this was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of Standard High German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today – especially the pronunciation of the ending -ig as [ɪk] instead of [ɪç]. In Northern Germany, Standard German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of Standard High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century.

Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German-speaking countries.[20] Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard High German which is understood in all areas where German is spoken.

Geographical distribution

Approximate distribution of native German speakers (assuming a rounded total of 95 million) worldwide:

  Germany (78.3%)
  Austria (8.4%)
  Switzerland (5.6%)
  Brazil (3.2%)
  Italy (South Tyrol) (0.4%)
  Other (4.1%)

As a result of the German diaspora, as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language,[21][22] the geographical distribution of German speakers (or "Germanophones") spans all inhabited continents.

However, an exact, global number of native German speakers is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German.[3] With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 90–95 million people speak German as a first language,[23][page needed][24] 10–25 million speak it as a second language,[23][page needed] and 75–100 million as a foreign language.[1] This would imply the existence of approximately 175–220 million German speakers worldwide.[25]

Europe

 
The German language in Europe:
  German Sprachraum: German is the official language (de jure or de facto) and first language of the majority of the population
  German is a co-official language but not the first language of the majority of the population
  German (or a German dialect) is a legally recognized minority language (squares: geographic distribution too dispersed/small for map scale)
  German (or a variety of German) is spoken by a sizeable minority but has no legal recognition
 
  Most of Austria lies in the Bavarian dialect area; only the very west of the country is
  Alemannic-speaking.
Map shows Austria and South Tyrol, Italy.
 
  (Swiss) German is one of the four national languages of Switzerland.
 
  Luxembourg lies in the Moselle Franconian dialect area.
 
  In Belgium, German is spoken in the country's German-speaking Community, in the very east of the country.

As of 2012, about 90 million people, or 16% of the European Union's population, spoke German as their mother tongue, making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers (after English), as well as the most spoken native language.[1]

German Sprachraum

The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language is called the "German Sprachraum". German is the official language of the following countries:

German is a co-official language of the following countries:

Outside the German Sprachraum

Although expulsions and (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum.

Within Europe, German is a recognized minority language in the following countries:[26]

In France, the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as "regional languages", but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government.[29]

Africa

Cameroon

Cameroon was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916. German has nowadays almost entirely yielded to its two successors, French and English. However, as a foreign language subject German still enjoys huge popularity among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries with the highest number of people with knowledge of German.[30]

Namibia

 
Bilingual German-English sign at a bakery in Namibia, where German is a national language

Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire, from 1884 to 1915. About 30,000 people still speak German as a native tongue today, mostly descendants of German colonial settlers.[31] The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German-based pidgin language called "Namibian Black German", which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population. Although it is nearly extinct today, some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it.[32]

German remained a de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans, and had de jure co-official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990. However, the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism, and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence, stating that it was a "neutral" language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time.[31] German, Afrikaans, and several indigenous languages thus became "national languages" by law, identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country.

Today, Namibia is considered to be the only German-speaking country outside of the Sprachraum in Europe.[33] German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country, especially in business, tourism, and public signage, as well as in education, churches (most notably the German-speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (GELK)), other cultural spheres such as music, and media (such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation). The Allgemeine Zeitung is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German-language daily in Africa.[31]

South Africa

An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries.[34] One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch",[35] a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg. The South African constitution identifies German as a "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it.[36]

North America

In the United States, German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English, Spanish, French, and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined), with over 1 million total speakers.[37] In the states of North Dakota and South Dakota, German is the most common language spoken at home after English.[38] As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country, German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region, such as New Ulm and Bismarck (North Dakota's state capital), plus many other regions.[39]

A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today, such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German.

South America

In Brazil, the largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch developed), Santa Catarina, and Espírito Santo.[40]

German dialects (namely Hunsrik and East Pomeranian) are recognized languages in the following municipalities in Brazil:

Small concentrations of German-speakers and their descendants are also found in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Venezuela, and Bolivia.[34]

Oceania

In Australia, the state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Prussian immigration in the 1840s (particularly from Silesia region). With the prolonged isolation from other German speakers and contact with Australian English, a unique dialect known as Barossa German developed, spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide. Usage of German sharply declined with the advent of World War I, due to the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the 20th century, but its use is now limited to a few older speakers.[45]

As of the 2013 census, 36,642 people in New Zealand spoke German, mostly descendants of a small wave of 19th century German immigrants, making it the third most spoken European language after English and French and overall the ninth most spoken language.[46]

A German creole named Unserdeutsch was historically spoken in the former German colony of German New Guinea, modern day Papua New Guinea. It is at a high risk of extinction, with only about 100 speakers remaining, and a topic of interest among linguists seeking to revive interest in the language.[47]

As a foreign language

 
Self reported knowledge of German as a foreign language in the EU member states (+Turkey), in per cent of the adult population (+15), 2005

Like English, French, and Spanish, German has become a standard foreign language throughout the world, especially in the Western World.[1][48] German ranks second on par with French among the best known foreign languages in the European Union (EU) after English,[1] as well as in Russia,[49] and Turkey.[1] In terms of student numbers across all levels of education, German ranks third in the EU (after English and French)[22] and in the United States (after Spanish and French).[21][50] In 2020, approximately 15.4 million people were enrolled in learning German across all levels of education worldwide. This number has decreased from a peak of 20.1 million in 2000.[51] Within the EU, not counting countries where it is an official language, German as a foreign language is most popular in Eastern and Northern Europe, namely the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, Poland, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.[1][52] German was once, and to some extent still is, a lingua franca in those parts of Europe.[53]

Phonology

Consonants

With around 22 to 26 phonemes, the German consonant system has an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages. One of the more noteworthy ones is the unusual affricate /pf/.[54]

Vowels

Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
short long short long short long short long
Close ɪ ʏ ʊ
Close-mid øː ə
Open-mid ɛ ɛː œ ɐ ɔ
Open a

With 15 monophthongal vowel phonemes in stressed syllables, the vowel system is unusually large. The vowels /ə/ and /ɐ/ (occurring in unstressed syllables only) are not seen as vowel phonemes by all scholars. Diphthongs /aɪ, aʊ, ɔʏ/ are also often listed as vowel phonemes.

Standard High German

 
Selfreported knowledge of German within the nations of the European Union

The basis of Standard High German developed with the Luther Bible and the chancery language spoken by the Saxon court.[55] However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by new vernaculars based on Standard High German; that is the case in large stretches of Northern Germany but also in major cities in other parts of the country. It is important to note, however, that the colloquial Standard High German differs from the formal written language, especially in grammar and syntax, in which it has been influenced by dialectal speech.

Standard High German differs regionally among German-speaking countries in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of Standard High German are only somewhat influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. Standard High German is thus considered a pluricentric language.

In most regions, the speakers use a continuum from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties depending on the circumstances.

Varieties

 
The national and regional standard varieties of German[56]

In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of Standard High German. The varieties of Standard High German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric Standard High German. They differ only slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany.

In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of Standard High German is largely restricted to the written language. About 11% of the Swiss residents speak Standard High German at home, but this is mainly due to German immigrants.[57] This situation has been called a medial diglossia. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss education system, while Austrian German is officially used in the Austrian education system.

Dialects

The German dialects are the traditional local varieties of the language; many of them are not mutually intelligible with standard German, and they have great differences in lexicon, phonology, and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics.

The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German, also called Low Saxon. However, historically, High German dialects and Low Saxon/Low German dialects do not belong to the same language. Nevertheless, in today's Germany, Low Saxon/Low German is often perceived as a dialectal variation of Standard German on a functional level even by many native speakers.

The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with often only neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who know only Standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon.

Low German or Low Saxon

Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany until the 16th century. In 1534, the Luther Bible was published. It aimed to be understandable to a broad audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low German and became the language of science and literature. Around the same time, the Hanseatic League, a confederation of northern ports, lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany.

The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education in Standard German in schools. Gradually, Low German came to be politically viewed as a mere dialect spoken by the uneducated. The proportion of the population who can understand and speak it has decreased continuously since World War II. The major cities in the Low German area are Hamburg, Hanover, Bremen and Dortmund.

Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift.

Low Franconian

In Germany, Low Franconian dialects are spoken in the northwest of North Rhine-Westphalia, along the Lower Rhine. The Low Franconian dialects spoken in Germany are referred to as Low Rhenish. In the north of the German Low Franconian language area, North Low Franconian dialects (also referred to as Cleverlands or as dialects of South Guelderish) are spoken. The South Low Franconian and Bergish dialects, which are spoken in the south of the German Low Franconian language area, are transitional dialects between Low Franconian and Ripuarian dialects.

The Low Franconian dialects fall within a linguistic category used to classify a number of historical and contemporary West Germanic varieties most closely related to, and including, the Dutch language. Consequently, the vast majority of the Low Franconian dialects are spoken outside of the German language area, in the Netherlands and Belgium. During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, the Low Franconian dialects now spoken in Germany, used Middle Dutch or Early Modern Dutch as their literary language and Dachsprache. Following a 19th-century change in Prussian language policy, use of Dutch as an official and public language was forbidden; resulting in Standard German taking its place as the region's official language.[58][59] As a result, these dialects are now considered German dialects from a socio-linguistic point of view.[60] Nevertheless, topologically these dialects are structurally and phonologically far more similar to Dutch, than to German and form both the smallest and most divergent dialect cluster within the contemporary German language area.[61]

High German

 
The Central German dialects

The High German dialects consist of the Central German, High Franconian and Upper German dialects. The High Franconian dialects are transitional dialects between Central and Upper German. The High German varieties spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews have several unique features and are considered as a separate language, Yiddish, written with the Hebrew alphabet.

Central German

The Central German dialects are spoken in Central Germany, from Aachen in the west to Görlitz in the east. They consist of Franconian dialects in the west (West Central German) and non-Franconian dialects in the east (East Central German). Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German dialects.

The Franconian, West Central German dialects are the Central Franconian dialects (Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian) and the Rhine Franconian dialects (Hessian and Palatine). These dialects are considered as

Luxembourgish as well as the Transylvanian Saxon dialect spoken in Transylvania are based on Moselle Franconian dialects. The major cities in the Franconian Central German area are Cologne and Frankfurt.

Further east, the non-Franconian, East Central German dialects are spoken (Thuringian, Upper Saxon and North Upper Saxon-South Markish, and earlier, in the then German-speaking parts of Silesia also Silesian, and in then German southern East Prussia also High Prussian). The major cities in the East Central German area are Berlin and Leipzig.

High Franconian

The High Franconian dialects are transitional dialects between Central and Upper German. They consist of the East and South Franconian dialects.

The East Franconian dialect branch is one of the most spoken dialect branches in Germany. These dialects are spoken in the region of Franconia and in the central parts of Saxon Vogtland. Franconia consists of the Bavarian districts of Upper, Middle, and Lower Franconia, the region of South Thuringia (Thuringia), and the eastern parts of the region of Heilbronn-Franken (Tauber Franconia and Hohenlohe) in Baden-Württemberg. The major cities in the East Franconian area are Nuremberg and Würzburg.

South Franconian is mainly spoken in northern Baden-Württemberg in Germany, but also in the northeasternmost part of the region of Alsace in France. In Baden-Württemberg, they are considered as dialects of German. The major cities in the South Franconian area are Karlsruhe and Heilbronn.

Upper German

 
The Upper German and High Franconian (transitional between Central and Upper German)

The Upper German dialects are the Alemannic and Swabian dialects in the west and the Bavarian dialects in the east.

Alemannic and Swabian

Alemannic dialects are spoken in Switzerland (High Alemannic in the densely populated Swiss Plateau, in the south also Highest Alemannic, and Low Alemannic in Basel), Baden-Württemberg (Swabian and Low Alemannic, in the southwest also High Alemannic), Bavarian Swabia (Swabian, in the southwesternmost part also Low Alemannic), Vorarlberg (Low, High, and Highest Alemannic), Alsace (Low Alemannic, in the southernmost part also High Alemannic), Liechtenstein (High and Highest Alemannic), and in the Tyrolean district of Reutte (Swabian). The Alemannic dialects are considered as Alsatian in Alsace. The major cities in the Alemannic area are Stuttgart, Freiburg, Basel, Zürich, Lucerne and Bern.

Bavarian

Bavarian dialects are spoken in Austria (Vienna, Lower and Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg, Burgenland, and in most parts of Tyrol), Bavaria (Upper and Lower Bavaria as well as Upper Palatinate), South Tyrol, southwesternmost Saxony (Southern Vogtländisch), and in the Swiss village of Samnaun. The major cities in the Bavarian area are Vienna, Munich, Salzburg, Regensburg, Graz and Bolzano.

Regiolects

Grammar

German is a fusional language with a moderate degree of inflection, with three grammatical genders; as such, there can be a large number of words derived from the same root.

Noun inflection

Declension of the Standard High German definite article
Masc. Neu. Fem. Plural
NOM der das die die
ACC den das die die
DAT dem dem der den
GEN des des der der

German nouns inflect by case, gender, and number:

  • four cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, and dative.
  • three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender: for instance, nouns ending in -ung (-ing), -schaft (-ship), -keit or heit (-hood, -ness) are feminine, nouns ending in -chen or -lein (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in -ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are more variable, sometimes depending on the region in which the language is spoken. And some endings are not restricted to one gender, for example: -er (-er), such as Feier (feminine), celebration, party; Arbeiter (masculine), labourer; and Gewitter (neuter), thunderstorm.
  • two numbers: singular and plural.

This degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old High German and other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, and Sanskrit, and it is also somewhat less than, for instance, Old English, modern Icelandic, or Russian. The three genders have collapsed in the plural. With four cases and three genders plus plural, there are 16 permutations of case and gender/number of the article (not the nouns), but there are only six forms of the definite article, which together cover all 16 permutations. In nouns, inflection for case is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns only in the genitive and in the dative (only in fixed or archaic expressions), and even this is losing ground to substitutes in informal speech.[62] Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative, and accusative in the singular. Feminine nouns are not declined in the singular. The plural has an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e.

Like the other Germanic languages, German forms noun compounds in which the first noun modifies the category given by the second: Hundehütte ("dog hut"; specifically: "dog kennel"). Unlike English, whose newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written "open" with separating spaces, German (like some other Germanic languages) nearly always uses the "closed" form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus ("tree house"). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds in theory (see also English compounds). The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, which, literally translated, is "beef labelling supervision duties assignment law" [from Rind (cattle), Fleisch (meat), Etikettierung(s) (labelling), Überwachung(s) (supervision), Aufgaben (duties), Übertragung(s) (assignment), Gesetz (law)]. However, examples like this are perceived by native speakers as excessively bureaucratic, stylistically awkward, or even satirical.

Verb inflection

The inflection of standard German verbs includes:

  • two main conjugation classes: weak and strong (as in English). Additionally, there is a third class, known as mixed verbs, whose conjugation combines features of both the strong and weak patterns.
  • three persons: first, second and third.
  • two numbers: singular and plural.
  • three moods: indicative, imperative and subjunctive (in addition to infinitive).
  • two voices: active and passive. The passive voice uses auxiliary verbs and is divisible into static and dynamic. Static forms show a constant state and use the verb to be (sein). Dynamic forms show an action and use the verb to become (werden).
  • two tenses without auxiliary verbs (present and preterite) and four tenses constructed with auxiliary verbs (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect).
  • the distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of the subjunctive or preterite marking so the plain indicative voice uses neither of those two markers; the subjunctive by itself often conveys reported speech; subjunctive plus preterite marks the conditional state; and the preterite alone shows either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either reported speech or the conditional state of the verb, when necessary for clarity.
  • the distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has, at every stage of development, been a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but strangely enough it is now rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form.
  • disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken [to look], erblicken [to see – unrelated form: sehen]).

Verb prefixes

The meaning of basic verbs can be expanded and sometimes radically changed through the use of a number of prefixes. Some prefixes have a specific meaning; the prefix zer- refers to destruction, as in zerreißen (to tear apart), zerbrechen (to break apart), zerschneiden (to cut apart). Other prefixes have only the vaguest meaning in themselves; ver- is found in a number of verbs with a large variety of meanings, as in versuchen (to try) from suchen (to seek), vernehmen (to interrogate) from nehmen (to take), verteilen (to distribute) from teilen (to share), verstehen (to understand) from stehen (to stand).

Other examples include the following: haften (to stick), verhaften (to detain); kaufen (to buy), verkaufen (to sell); hören (to hear), aufhören (to cease); fahren (to drive), erfahren (to experience).

Many German verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In finite verb forms, it is split off and moved to the end of the clause and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". For example, mitgehen, meaning "to go along", would be split, giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?"; Idiomatic: "Are you going along?").

Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement (ankommen = to arrive, er kam an = he arrived, er ist angekommen = he has arrived):

Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem üblichen Ärger, der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt, mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl, das seine Frau ihm, wie er hoffte, bereits aufgetischt hatte, endlich zu Hause an.

A selectively literal translation of this example to illustrate the point might look like this:

He "came" on Friday evening, after a hard day at work and the usual annoyances that had time and again been troubling him for years now at his workplace, with questionable joy, to a meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already put on the table, finally home "to".

Word order

German word order is generally with the V2 word order restriction and also with the SOV word order restriction for main clauses. For yes-no questions, exclamations, and wishes, the finite verb always has the first position. In subordinate clauses, the verb occurs at the very end.

German requires a verbal element (main verb or auxiliary verb) to appear second in the sentence. The verb is preceded by the topic of the sentence. The element in focus appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary, these are several possibilities:

Der alte Mann gab mir gestern das Buch. (The old man gave me yesterday the book; normal order)
Das Buch gab mir gestern der alte Mann. (The book gave [to] me yesterday the old man)
Das Buch gab der alte Mann mir gestern. (The book gave the old man [to] me yesterday)
Das Buch gab mir der alte Mann gestern. (The book gave [to] me the old man yesterday)
Gestern gab mir der alte Mann das Buch. (Yesterday gave [to] me the old man the book, normal order)
Mir gab der alte Mann das Buch gestern. ([To] me gave the old man the book yesterday (entailing: as for someone else, it was another date))

The position of a noun in a German sentence has no bearing on its being a subject, an object or another argument. In a declarative sentence in English, if the subject does not occur before the predicate, the sentence could well be misunderstood.

However, German's flexible word order allows one to emphasise specific words:

Normal word order:

Der Direktor betrat gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Büro.
The manager entered yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand his office.

Second variant in normal word order:

Der Direktor betrat sein Büro gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand.
The manager entered his office yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand.
This variant accentuates the time specification and that he carried an umbrella.

Object in front:

Sein Büro betrat der Direktor gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand.
His office entered the manager yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand.
The object Sein Büro (his office) is thus highlighted; it could be the topic of the next sentence.

Adverb of time in front:

Gestern betrat der Direktor um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Büro. (aber heute ohne Schirm)
Yesterday entered the manager at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand his office. (but today without umbrella)

Both time expressions in front:

Gestern um 10 Uhr betrat der Direktor mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Büro.
Yesterday at 10 o'clock entered the manager with an umbrella in the hand his office.
The full-time specification Gestern um 10 Uhr is highlighted.

Another possibility:

Gestern um 10 Uhr betrat der Direktor sein Büro mit einem Schirm in der Hand.
Yesterday at 10 o'clock entered the manager his office with an umbrella in the hand.
Both the time specification and the fact he carried an umbrella are accentuated.

Swapped adverbs:

Der Direktor betrat mit einem Schirm in der Hand gestern um 10 Uhr sein Büro.
The manager entered with an umbrella in the hand yesterday at 10 o'clock his office.
The phrase mit einem Schirm in der Hand is highlighted.

Swapped object:

Der Direktor betrat gestern um 10 Uhr sein Büro mit einem Schirm in der Hand.
The manager entered yesterday at 10 o'clock his office with an umbrella in the hand.
The time specification and the object sein Büro (his office) are lightly accentuated.

The flexible word order also allows one to use language "tools" (such as poetic meter and figures of speech) more freely.

Auxiliary verbs

When an auxiliary verb is present, it appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. Many word orders are still possible:

Der alte Mann hat mir heute das Buch gegeben. (The old man has me today the book given.)
Das Buch hat der alte Mann mir heute gegeben. (The book has the old man me today given.)
Heute hat der alte Mann mir das Buch gegeben. (Today has the old man me the book given.)

The main verb may appear in first position to put stress on the action itself. The auxiliary verb is still in second position.

Gegeben hat mir der alte Mann das Buch heute. (Given has me the old man the book today.) The bare fact that the book has been given is emphasized, as well as 'today'.

Modal verbs

Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the English sentence "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" (Soll er nach Hause gehen?). Thus, in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses, the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following (highly contrived) English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I do not like to be read to out of up for?"

Multiple infinitives

German subordinate clauses have all verbs clustered at the end. Given that auxiliaries encode future, passive, modality, and the perfect, very long chains of verbs at the end of the sentence can occur. In these constructions, the past participle formed with ge- is often replaced by the infinitive.

Man nimmt an, dass der Deserteur wohl erschossenV wordenpsv seinperf sollmod
One suspects that the deserter probably shot become be should.
("It is suspected that the deserter probably had been shot")
Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel hatte machen lassen
He knew not that the agent a picklock had make let
Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel machen lassen hatte
He knew not that the agent a picklock make let had
("He did not know that the agent had had a picklock made")

The order at the end of such strings is subject to variation, but the second one in the last example is unusual.

Vocabulary

 
Volume 1 "German Orthography" of the 25th edition of the Duden dictionary

Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family.[63] However, there is a significant amount of loanwords from other languages, in particular Latin, Greek, Italian, French, and most recently English.[64] In the early 19th century, Joachim Heinrich Campe estimated that one fifth of the total German vocabulary was of French or Latin origin.[65]

Latin words were already imported into the predecessor of the German language during the Roman Empire and underwent all the characteristic phonetic changes in German. Their origin is thus no longer recognizable for most speakers (e.g. Pforte, Tafel, Mauer, Käse, Köln from Latin porta, tabula, murus, caseus, Colonia). Borrowing from Latin continued after the fall of the Roman Empire during Christianisation, mediated by the church and monasteries. Another important influx of Latin words can be observed during Renaissance humanism. In a scholarly context, the borrowings from Latin have continued until today, in the last few decades often indirectly through borrowings from English. During the 15th to 17th centuries, the influence of Italian was great, leading to many Italian loanwords in the fields of architecture, finance and music. The influence of the French language in the 17th to 19th centuries resulted in an even greater import of French words. The English influence was already present in the 19th century, but it did not become dominant until the second half of the 20th century.

 
42nd edition of the Österreichisches Wörterbuch ("Austrian Dictionary")

Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises into pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000.[66] The tradition of loan translation was revitalized in the 17th and 18th century with poets like Philipp von Zesen or linguists like Joachim Heinrich Campe, who introduced close to 300 words that are still used in modern German. Even today, there are movements that promote the substitution of foreign words that are deemed unnecessary with German alternatives.[67]

As in English, there are many pairs of synonyms due to the enrichment of the Germanic vocabulary with loanwords from Latin and Latinized Greek. These words often have different connotations from their Germanic counterparts and are usually perceived as more scholarly.

  • Historie, historisch – "history, historical", (Geschichte, geschichtlich)
  • Humanität, human – "humaneness, humane", (Menschlichkeit, menschlich)[note 4]
  • Millennium – "millennium", (Jahrtausend)
  • Perzeption – "perception", (Wahrnehmung)
  • Vokabular – "vocabulary", (Wortschatz)
  • Diktionär – "dictionary, wordbook", (Wörterbuch)[note 5]
  • probieren – "to try", (versuchen)
  • proponieren – "to propose", (vorschlagen)
 
The Deutsches Wörterbuch (1st vol., 1854) by the Brothers Grimm

The size of the vocabulary of German is difficult to estimate. The Deutsches Wörterbuch (German Dictionary), initiated by the Brothers Grimm (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm) and the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language, already contained over 330,000 headwords in its first edition. The modern German scientific vocabulary is estimated at nine million words and word groups (based on the analysis of 35 million sentences of a corpus in Leipzig, which as of July 2003 included 500 million words in total).[68]

The Duden is the de facto official dictionary of the Standard High German language, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880. The Duden is updated regularly, with new editions appearing every four or five years. As of August 2017, it was in its 27th edition and in 12 volumes, each covering different aspects such as loanwords, etymology, pronunciation, synonyms, and so forth.
The first of these volumes, Die deutsche Rechtschreibung (German Orthography), has long been the prescriptive source for the spelling of German. The Duden had become the bible of the German language, being the definitive set of rules regarding grammar, spelling, and usage of German.[69]

The Österreichisches Wörterbuch ("Austrian Dictionary"), abbreviated ÖWB, is the official dictionary of the German language in the Republic of Austria. It is edited by a group of linguists under the authority of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (German: Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur). It is the Austrian counterpart to the German Duden and contains a number of terms unique to Austrian German or more frequently used or differently pronounced there.[70] A considerable amount of this "Austrian" vocabulary is also common in Southern Germany, especially Bavaria, and some of it is used in Switzerland as well. Since the 39th edition in 2001 the orthography of the ÖWB has been adjusted to the German spelling reform of 1996. The dictionary is also officially used in the Italian province of South Tyrol.

Orthography

 
Austria's standardized cursive
 
Germany's standardized cursive

Written texts in German are easily recognisable as such by distinguishing features such as umlauts and certain orthographical features – German is the only major language that capitalizes all nouns, a relic of a widespread practice in Northern Europe in the early modern era (including English for a while, into the 1700s) – and the frequent occurrence of long compounds. Because legibility and convenience set certain boundaries, compounds consisting of more than three or four nouns are almost exclusively found in humorous contexts. (English also can string nouns together, though it usually separates the nouns with spaces: as, for example, "toilet bowl cleaner".)

In German orthography, nouns are capitalised, which makes it easier for readers to determine the function of a word within a sentence. This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxembourgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), but it was historically common in other languages such as Danish (which abolished the capitalization of nouns in 1948) and English.

Present

Before the German orthography reform of 1996, ß replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word endings. In reformed spelling, ß replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs.

Since there is no traditional capital form of ß, it was replaced by SS (or SZ) when capitalization was required. For example, Maßband (tape measure) became MASSBAND in capitals. An exception was the use of ß in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, lower case ß was sometimes maintained (thus "KREßLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN"). Capital ß (ẞ) was ultimately adopted into German orthography in 2017, ending a long orthographic debate (thus "KREẞLEIN and KRESSLEIN").[71]

Umlaut vowels (ä, ö, ü) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard or other medium used. In the same manner, ß can be transcribed as ss. Some operating systems use key sequences to extend the set of possible characters to include, amongst other things, umlauts; in Microsoft Windows this is done using Alt codes. German readers understand these transcriptions (although they appear unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available, because they are a makeshift and not proper spelling. (In Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e.g. Raesfeld [ˈraːsfɛlt], Coesfeld [ˈkoːsfɛlt] and Itzehoe [ɪtsəˈhoː], but this use of the letter e after a/o/u does not occur in the present-day spelling of words other than proper nouns.)

There is no general agreement on where letters with umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e. Some dictionaries sort each umlauted vowel as a separate letter after the base vowel, but more commonly words with umlauts are ordered immediately after the same word without umlauts. As an example in a telephone book Ärzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ä is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ärzte comes after Arzt, but in some dictionaries Ärzte and all other words starting with Ä may occur after all words starting with A. In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S, but they are usually treated as S+C+H and S+T.

Written German also typically uses an alternative opening inverted comma (quotation mark) as in „Guten Morgen!“.

Past

 
A Russian dictionary from 1931, showing the "German alphabet" – the 3rd and 4th columns of each half are Fraktur and Kurrent respectively, with the footnote explaining ligatures used in Fraktur

Until the early 20th century, German was printed in blackletter typefaces (in Fraktur, and in Schwabacher), and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and Sütterlin). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans-serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and the handwritten forms in particular are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms, however, were claimed by some to be more readable when used for Germanic languages.[72] The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher because they were considered Aryan, but they abolished them in 1941, claiming that these letters were Jewish.[73] It is believed that this script was banned during the Nazi régime,[who?] as they realized that Fraktur would inhibit communication in the territories occupied during World War II.[74]

The Fraktur script however remains present in everyday life in pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and antiquity.

A proper use of the long s (langes s), ſ, is essential for writing German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces also include the long s. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but nowadays it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting. Any lower case "s" at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s, as opposed to a terminal s or short s (the more common variation of the letter s), which marks the end of a syllable; for example, in differentiating between the words Wachſtube (guard-house) and Wachstube (tube of polish/wax). One can easily decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, (Wach-ſtube vs. Wachs-tube). The long s only appears in lower case.

Consonant shifts

German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). The th sound, which the English language still has, disappeared on the continent in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and 10th centuries.[75] It is sometimes possible to find parallels between English and German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" → in German Dank, "this" and "that" → dies and das, "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) → du, "think" → denken, "thirsty" → durstig and many other examples.

Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" → lachen, "through" → durch, "high" → hoch, "naught" → nichts, "light" → leicht or Licht, "sight" → Sicht, "daughter" → Tochter, "neighbo(u)r" → Nachbar.

Literature

The German language is used in German literature and can be traced back to the Middle Ages, with the most notable authors of the period being Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach. The Nibelungenlied, whose author remains unknown, is also an important work of the epoch. The fairy tales collected and published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century became famous throughout the world.

Reformer and theologian Martin Luther, who translated the Bible into High German, is widely credited for having set the basis for the modern Standard High German language. Among the best-known poets and authors in German are Lessing, Goethe, Schiller, Kleist, Hoffmann, Brecht, Heine and Kafka. Fourteen German-speaking people have won the Nobel Prize in literature: Theodor Mommsen, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Paul von Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Carl Spitteler, Thomas Mann, Nelly Sachs, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Günter Grass, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller and Peter Handke, making it the second most awarded linguistic region (together with French) after English.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(1749–1832)
Friedrich Schiller
(1759–1805)
Brothers Grimm
(1785–1863)
Thomas Mann
(1875–1955)
Hermann Hesse
(1877–1962)
         

See also

Notes

  1. ^ The status of Low German as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.[3]
  2. ^ The status of Luxembourgish as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.
  3. ^ The status of Plautdietsch as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.[3]
  4. ^ Note that menschlich, and occasionally human, may also mean "human, pertaining to humans," whereas Menschlichkeit and Humanität never mean "humanity, human race," which translates to Menschheit.
  5. ^ In modern German, Diktionär is mostly considered archaic.

References

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  70. ^ Zur Definition und sprachwissenschaftlichen Abgrenzung insbesondere: Rudolf Muhr, Richard Schrodt, Peter Wiesinger (Hrsg.): Österreichisches Deutsch – Linguistische, sozialpsychologische und sprachpolitische Aspekte einer nationalen Variante des Deutschen (PDF, 407 Seiten; 1,3 MB) 14 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Verlag Hölder-Pichler-Tempsky, Wien 1995. Anm.: Diese Publikation entstand aus den Beiträgen der Tagung "Österreichisches Deutsch", die mit internationalen Sprachwissenschaftlern an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vom 22. bis 24. Mai 1995 stattfand
  71. ^ Ha, Thu-Huong (20 July 2017). "Germany has ended a century-long debate over a missing letter in its alphabet". Retrieved 5 December 2017. According to the council's 2017 spelling manual: When writing the uppercase [of ß], write SS. It's also possible to use the uppercase ẞ. Example: Straße – STRASSE – STRAẞE.
  72. ^ Reinecke 1910, p. 55.
  73. ^ Bormann, Martin (8 January 1941). "Der Bormann-Brief im Original" [The original Bormann letter] (in German). NSDAP. Retrieved 20 November 2020. Facsimile of Bormann's Memorandum
    The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua, but the NSDAP letterhead is printed in Fraktur.
    "For general attention, on behalf of the Führer, I make the following announcement:
    It is wrong to regard or to describe the so-called Gothic script as a German script. In reality, the so-called Gothic script consists of Schwabach Jew letters. Just as they later took control of the newspapers, upon the introduction of printing the Jews residing in Germany took control of the printing presses and thus in Germany the Schwabach Jew letters were forcefully introduced.
    Today the Führer, talking with Herr Reichsleiter Amann and Herr Book Publisher Adolf Müller, has decided that in the future the Antiqua script is to be described as normal script. All printed materials are to be gradually converted to this normal script. As soon as is feasible in terms of textbooks, only the normal script will be taught in village and state schools.
    The use of the Schwabach Jew letters by officials will in future cease; appointment certifications for functionaries, street signs, and so forth will in future be produced only in normal script.
    On behalf of the Führer, Herr Reichsleiter Amann will in future convert those newspapers and periodicals that already have foreign distribution, or whose foreign distribution is desired, to normal script.
  74. ^ Kapr 1993, p. 81.
  75. ^ For a history of the German consonants see Cercignani (1979).

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External links

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Not to be confused with Germanic languages or Standard German This article needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources German language news newspapers books scholar JSTOR December 2020 Learn how and when to remove this template message German Deutsch dɔʏtʃ is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe It is the most widely spoken and official or co official language in Germany Austria Switzerland Liechtenstein and the Italian province of South Tyrol It is also a co official language of Luxembourg and Belgium as well as a recognized national language in Namibia Outside Germany it is also spoken by German communities in France Bas Rhin Czech Republic North Bohemia Poland Upper Silesia Slovakia Bratislava Region and Hungary Sopron GermanDeutschPronunciation dɔʏtʃ RegionGerman speaking EuropeEthnicityGermansNative speakers95 million 2014 1 L2 speakers 80 85 million 2014 1 Language familyIndo European GermanicWest GermanicIrminonicGermanEarly formsOld High German Middle High German Early New High GermanStandard formsStandard German German Swiss Austrian Writing systemLatin script German alphabet German BrailleSigned formsSigned GermanOfficial statusOfficial language in6 countries AustriaBelgiumGermanyLiechtensteinLuxembourgSwitzerland 1 subdivision Italy South TyrolRecognised minoritylanguage in10 countries Brazil 17 municipalities Czech RepublicDenmark Syddanmark Hungary Sopron ItalyNamibiaPoland Upper Silesia RomaniaRussia Azovo German National District Slovakia Bratislava Region KazakhstanRegulated byNo official regulation Orthography regulated by the Council for German Orthography 2 Language codesISO 639 1 span class plainlinks de span ISO 639 2 span class plainlinks ger span B span class plainlinks deu span T ISO 639 3Variously a href https iso639 3 sil org code deu class extiw title iso639 3 deu deu a German a href https iso639 3 sil org code gmh class extiw title iso639 3 gmh gmh a Middle High German a href https iso639 3 sil org code goh class extiw title iso639 3 goh goh a Old High German a href https iso639 3 sil org code gct class extiw title iso639 3 gct gct a Colonia Tovar German a href https iso639 3 sil org code bar class extiw title iso639 3 bar bar a Bavarian a href https iso639 3 sil org code cim class extiw title iso639 3 cim cim a Cimbrian a href https iso639 3 sil org code geh class extiw title iso639 3 geh geh a Hutterite German a href https iso639 3 sil org code ksh class extiw title iso639 3 ksh ksh a Kolsch a href https iso639 3 sil org code nds class extiw title iso639 3 nds nds a Low German note 1 a href https iso639 3 sil org code sli class extiw title iso639 3 sli sli a Lower Silesian a href https iso639 3 sil org code ltz class extiw title iso639 3 ltz ltz a Luxembourgish note 2 a href https iso639 3 sil org code vmf class extiw title iso639 3 vmf vmf a Mainfrankisch a href https iso639 3 sil org code mhn class extiw title iso639 3 mhn mhn a Mocheno a href https iso639 3 sil org code pfl class extiw title iso639 3 pfl pfl a Palatinate German a href https iso639 3 sil org code pdc class extiw title iso639 3 pdc pdc a Pennsylvania Dutch a href https iso639 3 sil org code pdt class extiw title iso639 3 pdt pdt a Plautdietsch note 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code swg class extiw title iso639 3 swg swg a Swabian German a href https iso639 3 sil org code gsw class extiw title iso639 3 gsw gsw a Swiss German a href https iso639 3 sil org code uln class extiw title iso639 3 uln uln a Unserdeutsch a href https iso639 3 sil org code sxu class extiw title iso639 3 sxu sxu a Upper Saxon a href https iso639 3 sil org code wae class extiw title iso639 3 wae wae a Walser German a href https iso639 3 sil org code wep class extiw title iso639 3 wep wep a Westphalian a href https iso639 3 sil org code hrx class extiw title iso639 3 hrx hrx a Riograndenser Hunsruckisch a href https iso639 3 sil org code yec class extiw title iso639 3 yec yec a YenishGlottologhigh1289 High Germanfran1268 Middle Germanhigh1286 Upper GermanLinguasphere52 ACB dl a href Standard German html title Standard German Standard German a br 52 AC Continental West Germanic br 52 ACB Deutsch amp Dutch br 52 ACB d a href Central German html title Central German Central German a br 52 ACB e amp f a href Upper German html title Upper German Upper a and a href Swiss German html title Swiss German Swiss German a br 52 ACB h a href German diaspora html title German diaspora emigre German a varieties including 52 ACB hc a href Hutterite German html title Hutterite German Hutterite German a amp 52 ACB he a href Pennsylvania Dutch language html title Pennsylvania Dutch language Pennsylvania Dutch a br 52 ACB i a href Yeniche language html class mw redirect title Yeniche language Yenish a br Totalling 285 varieties 52 ACB daa to 52 ACB i Co official majority language Co official minority language Statutory minority cultural language Non statutory minority languageThis article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA German is most similar to other languages within the West Germanic language branch including Afrikaans Dutch English the Frisian languages Low German Luxembourgish Scots and Yiddish It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group such as Danish Norwegian and Swedish German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language after English which is also a West Germanic language German is one of the major languages of the world It is the most spoken native language within the European Union German is also widely taught as a foreign language especially in continental Europe where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French and the United States The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy theology science and technology It is the second most commonly used scientific language and among the most widely used languages on websites The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books with one tenth of all books including e books in the world being published in German German is an inflected language with four cases for nouns pronouns and adjectives nominative accusative genitive dative three genders masculine feminine neuter and two numbers singular plural It has strong and weak verbs The majority of its vocabulary derives from the ancient Germanic branch of the Indo European language family while a smaller share is partly derived from Latin and Greek along with fewer words borrowed from French and Modern English German is a pluricentric language the three standardized variants are German Austrian and Swiss Standard High German It is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects with many varieties existing in Europe and other parts of the world Some of these non standard varieties have become recognized and protected by regional or national governments Since 2004 meetings of German speaking countries have been held annually with six participants Germany Austria Belgium Liechtenstein Luxembourg and Switzerland 4 Participants of Meetings of German speaking countries Contents 1 Classification 2 History 2 1 Old High German 2 2 Middle High German 2 3 Early New High German 2 4 Austrian Empire 2 5 Standardization 3 Geographical distribution 3 1 Europe 3 1 1 German Sprachraum 3 1 2 Outside the German Sprachraum 3 2 Africa 3 2 1 Cameroon 3 2 2 Namibia 3 2 3 South Africa 3 3 North America 3 4 South America 3 5 Oceania 3 6 As a foreign language 4 Phonology 4 1 Consonants 4 2 Vowels 5 Standard High German 5 1 Varieties 6 Dialects 6 1 Low German or Low Saxon 6 2 Low Franconian 6 3 High German 6 3 1 Central German 6 3 2 High Franconian 6 3 3 Upper German 6 3 3 1 Alemannic and Swabian 6 3 3 2 Bavarian 7 Regiolects 8 Grammar 8 1 Noun inflection 8 2 Verb inflection 8 2 1 Verb prefixes 8 3 Word order 8 3 1 Auxiliary verbs 8 3 2 Modal verbs 8 3 3 Multiple infinitives 9 Vocabulary 10 Orthography 10 1 Present 10 2 Past 11 Consonant shifts 12 Literature 13 See also 14 Notes 15 References 16 Bibliography 17 External linksClassification Edit Anglic languages English Scots Anglo Frisian languages Anglic and Frisian West North Saterland North Sea Germanic languages Anglo Frisian and Low German Low Saxon West Germanic languages North Sea Germanic and Dutch in Africa Afrikaans German High Central in Lux Luxembourgish Upper Yiddish The West Germanic languages The Germanic languages in contemporary Europe German is an Indo European language and belongs to the West Germanic group of the Germanic languages The Germanic languages are traditionally subdivided into three branches North Germanic East Germanic and West Germanic The first of these branches survives in modern Danish Swedish Norwegian Faroese and Icelandic all of which are descended from Old Norse The East Germanic languages are now extinct and Gothic is the only language in this branch which survives in written texts The West Germanic languages however have undergone extensive dialectal subdivision and are now represented in modern languages such as English German Dutch Yiddish Afrikaans and others 5 Within the West Germanic language dialect continuum the Benrath and Uerdingen lines running through Dusseldorf Benrath and Krefeld Uerdingen respectively serve to distinguish the Germanic dialects that were affected by the High German consonant shift south of Benrath from those that were not north of Uerdingen The various regional dialects spoken south of these lines are grouped as High German dialects while those spoken to the north comprise the Low German Low Saxon and Low Franconian dialects As members of the West Germanic language family High German Low German and Low Franconian have been proposed to be further distinguished historically as Irminonic Ingvaeonic and Istvaeonic respectively This classification indicates their historical descent from dialects spoken by the Irminones also known as the Elbe group Ingvaeones or North Sea Germanic group and Istvaeones or Weser Rhine group 5 Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian Upper Saxon and Upper Franconian dialects which are Central German and Upper German dialects belonging to the High German dialect group German is therefore closely related to the other languages based on High German dialects such as Luxembourgish based on Central Franconian dialects and Yiddish Also closely related to Standard German are the Upper German dialects spoken in the southern German speaking countries such as Swiss German Alemannic dialects and the various Germanic dialects spoken in the French region of Grand Est such as Alsatian mainly Alemannic but also Central and Upper Franconian dialects and Lorraine Franconian Central Franconian After these High German dialects standard German is less closely related to languages based on Low Franconian dialects e g Dutch and Afrikaans Low German or Low Saxon dialects spoken in northern Germany and southern Denmark neither of which underwent the High German consonant shift As has been noted the former of these dialect types is Istvaeonic and the latter Ingvaeonic whereas the High German dialects are all Irminonic the differences between these languages and standard German are therefore considerable Also related to German are the Frisian languages North Frisian spoken in Nordfriesland Saterland Frisian spoken in Saterland and West Frisian spoken in Friesland as well as the Anglic languages of English and Scots These Anglo Frisian dialects did not take part in the High German consonant shift History EditMain article History of German Old High German Edit Main article Old High German The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants b d g and p t k respectively The primary effects of the shift were the following below Voiceless stops became long geminated voiceless fricatives following a vowel Voiceless stops became affricates in word initial position or following certain consonants Voiced stops became voiceless in certain phonetic settings 6 Voiceless stopfollowing a vowel Word initialvoiceless stop Voiced stop p ff p pf b p t ss t ts d t k xx k kx g k The approximate extent of Germanic languages in the early 10th century Old West Norse Old East Norse Old Gutnish Old English West Germanic Continental West Germanic languages Old Frisian Old Saxon Old Dutch Old High German Crimean Gothic East Germanic While there is written evidence of the Old High German language in several Elder Futhark inscriptions from as early as the sixth century AD such as the Pforzen buckle the Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans written c 765 775 a Latin German glossary supplying over 3 000 Old High German words with their Latin equivalents After the Abrogans the first coherent works written in Old High German appear in the ninth century chief among them being the Muspilli the Merseburg Charms and the Hildebrandslied and other religious texts the Georgslied the Ludwigslied the Evangelienbuch and translated hymns and prayers 7 The Muspilli is a Christian poem written in a Bavarian dialect offering an account of the soul after the Last Judgment and the Merseburg Charms are transcriptions of spells and charms from the pagan Germanic tradition Of particular interest to scholars however has been the Hildebrandslied a secular epic poem telling the tale of an estranged father and son unknowingly meeting each other in battle Linguistically this text is highly interesting due to the mixed use of Old Saxon and Old High German dialects in its composition The written works of this period stem mainly from the Alamanni Bavarian and Thuringian groups all belonging to the Elbe Germanic group Irminones which had settled in what is now southern central Germany and Austria between the second and sixth centuries during the great migration 6 In general the surviving texts of OHG show a wide range of dialectal diversity with very little written uniformity The early written tradition of OHG survived mostly through monasteries and scriptoria as local translations of Latin originals as a result the surviving texts are written in highly disparate regional dialects and exhibit significant Latin influence particularly in vocabulary 6 At this point monasteries where most written works were produced were dominated by Latin and German saw only occasional use in official and ecclesiastical writing The German language through the OHG period was still predominantly a spoken language with a wide range of dialects and a much more extensive oral tradition than a written one Having just emerged from the High German consonant shift OHG was also a relatively new and volatile language still undergoing a number of phonetic phonological morphological and syntactic changes The scarcity of written work instability of the language and widespread illiteracy of the time explain the lack of standardization up to the end of the OHG period in 1050 Middle High German Edit Main article Middle High German While there is no complete agreement over the dates of the Middle High German MHG period it is generally seen as lasting from 1050 to 1350 8 This was a period of significant expansion of the geographical territory occupied by Germanic tribes and consequently of the number of German speakers Whereas during the Old High German period the Germanic tribes extended only as far east as the Elbe and Saale rivers the MHG period saw a number of these tribes expanding beyond this eastern boundary into Slavic territory known as the Ostsiedlung With the increasing wealth and geographic spread of the Germanic groups came greater use of German in the courts of nobles as the standard language of official proceedings and literature 8 A clear example of this is the mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache employed in the Hohenstaufen court in Swabia as a standardized supra dialectal written language While these efforts were still regionally bound German began to be used in place of Latin for certain official purposes leading to a greater need for regularity in written conventions While the major changes of the MHG period were socio cultural High German was still undergoing significant linguistic changes in syntax phonetics and morphology as well e g diphthongization of certain vowel sounds hus OHG amp MHG house haus regionally in later MHG Haus NHG and weakening of unstressed short vowels to schwa e taga OHG days tage MHG 9 A great wealth of texts survives from the MHG period Significantly these texts include a number of impressive secular works such as the Nibelungenlied an epic poem telling the story of the dragon slayer Siegfried c thirteenth century and the Iwein an Arthurian verse poem by Hartmann von Aue c 1203 lyric poems and courtly romances such as Parzival and Tristan Also noteworthy is the Sachsenspiegel the first book of laws written in Middle Low German c 1220 The abundance and especially the secular character of the literature of the MHG period demonstrate the beginnings of a standardized written form of German as well as the desire of poets and authors to be understood by individuals on supra dialectal terms The Middle High German period is generally seen as ending when the 1346 53 Black Death decimated Europe s population 10 Early New High German Edit Main article Early New High German German language area and major dialectal divisions around 1900 11 Modern High German begins with the Early New High German ENHG period which the influential German philologist Wilhelm Scherer dates 1350 1650 terminating with the end of the Thirty Years War 10 This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and increasingly of literature in the German states While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire and far from any form of unification the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout the German states the invention of the printing press c 1440 and the publication of Luther s vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534 however had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra dialectal written language The ENHG period saw the rise of several important cross regional forms of chancery German one being gemeine tiutsch used in the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I and the other being Meissner Deutsch used in the Electorate of Saxony in the Duchy of Saxe Wittenberg 12 Alongside these courtly written standards the invention of the printing press led to the development of a number of printers languages Druckersprachen aimed at making printed material readable and understandable across as many diverse dialects of German as possible 13 The greater ease of production and increased availability of written texts brought about increased standardization in the written form of German The widespread popularity of the Bible translated into High German by Martin Luther helped establish modern Standard High German One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther s translation of the Bible into High German the New Testament was published in 1522 the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534 Luther based his translation primarily on the Meissner Deutsch of Saxony spending much time among the population of Saxony researching the dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible Copies of Luther s Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect Luther said the following concerning his translation method One who would talk German does not ask the Latin how he shall do it he must ask the mother in the home the children on the streets the common man in the market place and note carefully how they talk then translate accordingly They will then understand what is said to them because it is German When Christ says ex abundantia cordis os loquitur I would translate if I followed the papists aus dem Uberflusz des Herzens redet der Mund But tell me is this talking German What German understands such stuff No the mother in the home and the plain man would say Wesz das Herz voll ist des gehet der Mund uber 14 With Luther s rendering of the Bible in the vernacular German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly literary and now ecclesiastical subject matter His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states nearly every household possessed a copy 15 Nevertheless even with the influence of Luther s Bible as an unofficial written standard a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century 16 Austrian Empire Edit Ethnolinguistic map of Austria Hungary 1910 with German speaking areas shown in red German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe Until the mid nineteenth century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire Its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area regardless of nationality Prague German Prag and Budapest Buda German Ofen to name two examples were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain others like Pressburg Pozsony now Bratislava were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time Prague Budapest Bratislava and cities like Zagreb German Agram or Ljubljana German Laibach contained significant German minorities In the eastern provinces of Banat Bukovina and Transylvania German Banat Buchenland Siebenburgen German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns like Temeschburg Timișoara Hermannstadt Sibiu and Kronstadt Brașov but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas 17 Standardization Edit In 1901 the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a complete standardization of the Standard High German language in its written form and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition 18 The Deutsche Buhnensprache lit German stage language had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres 19 three years earlier however this was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect Rather it was based on the pronunciation of Standard High German in Northern Germany although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper German speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area today especially the pronunciation of the ending ig as ɪk instead of ɪc In Northern Germany Standard German was a foreign language to most inhabitants whose native dialects were subsets of Low German It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech in fact most of Standard High German was a written language not identical to any spoken dialect throughout the German speaking area until well into the 19th century Official revisions of some of the rules from 1901 were not issued until the controversial German orthography reform of 1996 was made the official standard by governments of all German speaking countries 20 Media and written works are now almost all produced in Standard High German which is understood in all areas where German is spoken Geographical distribution EditSee also List of countries and territories where German is an official language and Germanic speaking world Approximate distribution of native German speakers assuming a rounded total of 95 million worldwide Germany 78 3 Austria 8 4 Switzerland 5 6 Brazil 3 2 Italy South Tyrol 0 4 Other 4 1 As a result of the German diaspora as well as the popularity of German taught as a foreign language 21 22 the geographical distribution of German speakers or Germanophones spans all inhabited continents However an exact global number of native German speakers is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate languages or dialects is disputed for political and linguistic reasons including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German 3 With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties it is estimated that approximately 90 95 million people speak German as a first language 23 page needed 24 10 25 million speak it as a second language 23 page needed and 75 100 million as a foreign language 1 This would imply the existence of approximately 175 220 million German speakers worldwide 25 Europe Edit The German language in Europe German Sprachraum German is the official language de jure or de facto and first language of the majority of the population German is a co official language but not the first language of the majority of the population German or a German dialect is a legally recognized minority language squares geographic distribution too dispersed small for map scale German or a variety of German is spoken by a sizeable minority but has no legal recognition Most of Austria lies in the Bavarian dialect area only the very west of the country is Alemannic speaking Map shows Austria and South Tyrol Italy Swiss German is one of the four national languages of Switzerland Luxembourg lies in the Moselle Franconian dialect area In Belgium German is spoken in the country s German speaking Community in the very east of the country As of 2012 update about 90 million people or 16 of the European Union s population spoke German as their mother tongue making it the second most widely spoken language on the continent after Russian and the second biggest language in terms of overall speakers after English as well as the most spoken native language 1 German Sprachraum Edit The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a co official language is called the German Sprachraum German is the official language of the following countries Germany Austria 17 cantons of Switzerland LiechtensteinGerman is a co official language of the following countries Belgium as majority language only in the German speaking Community which represents 0 7 of the Belgian population Luxembourg along with French and Luxembourgish Switzerland co official at the federal level with French Italian and Romansh and at the local level in four cantons Bern with French Fribourg with French Grisons with Italian and Romansh and Valais with French Italy as majority language only in the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol which represents 0 6 of the Italian population Outside the German Sprachraum Edit Although expulsions and forced assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum Within Europe German is a recognized minority language in the following countries 26 Czech Republic see also Germans in the Czech Republic Denmark see also North Schleswig Germans Hungary see also Germans of Hungary Poland see also German minority in Poland German is an auxiliary and co official language in 31 communes 27 Romania see also Germans of Romania Russia 28 see also Germans in Russia Slovakia see also Carpathian Germans In France the High German varieties of Alsatian and Moselle Franconian are identified as regional languages but the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages of 1998 has not yet been ratified by the government 29 Africa Edit Cameroon Edit Cameroon was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1916 German has nowadays almost entirely yielded to its two successors French and English However as a foreign language subject German still enjoys huge popularity among pupils and students with 300 000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 Today Cameroon is one of the African countries with the highest number of people with knowledge of German 30 Namibia Edit Main article German language in Namibia Bilingual German English sign at a bakery in Namibia where German is a national language Namibia also was a colony of the German Empire from 1884 to 1915 About 30 000 people still speak German as a native tongue today mostly descendants of German colonial settlers 31 The period of German colonialism in Namibia also led to the evolution of a Standard German based pidgin language called Namibian Black German which became a second language for parts of the indigenous population Although it is nearly extinct today some older Namibians still have some knowledge of it 32 German remained a de facto official language of Namibia after the end of German colonial rule alongside English and Afrikaans and had de jure co official status from 1984 until its independence from South Africa in 1990 However the Namibian government perceived Afrikaans and German as symbols of apartheid and colonialism and decided English would be the sole official language upon independence stating that it was a neutral language as there were virtually no English native speakers in Namibia at that time 31 German Afrikaans and several indigenous languages thus became national languages by law identifying them as elements of the cultural heritage of the nation and ensuring that the state acknowledged and supported their presence in the country Today Namibia is considered to be the only German speaking country outside of the Sprachraum in Europe 33 German is used in a wide variety of spheres throughout the country especially in business tourism and public signage as well as in education churches most notably the German speaking Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia GELK other cultural spheres such as music and media such as German language radio programs by the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation The Allgemeine Zeitung is one of the three biggest newspapers in Namibia and the only German language daily in Africa 31 South Africa Edit An estimated 12 000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries 34 One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of Nataler Deutsch 35 a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg The South African constitution identifies German as a commonly used language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it 36 North America Edit Main articles German language in the United States Pennsylvania Dutch language Plautdietsch and Hutterite German In the United States German is the fifth most spoken language in terms of native and second language speakers after English Spanish French and Chinese with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined with over 1 million total speakers 37 In the states of North Dakota and South Dakota German is the most common language spoken at home after English 38 As a legacy of significant German immigration to the country German geographical names can be found throughout the Midwest region such as New Ulm and Bismarck North Dakota s state capital plus many other regions 39 A number of German varieties have developed in the country and are still spoken today such as Pennsylvania Dutch and Texas German South America Edit Main articles Brazilian German and Colonia Tovar dialect In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in the states of Rio Grande do Sul where Riograndenser Hunsruckisch developed Santa Catarina and Espirito Santo 40 German dialects namely Hunsrik and East Pomeranian are recognized languages in the following municipalities in Brazil Espirito Santo statewide cultural language 41 42 43 Domingos Martins Laranja da Terra Pancas Santa Maria de Jetiba Vila Pavao Rio Grande do Sul Riograndenser Hunsruckisch German is a designated cultural language in the state 44 Santa Maria do Herval Cangucu Santa Catarina 40 Antonio Carlos Pomerode standard German recognized Small concentrations of German speakers and their descendants are also found in Argentina Chile Paraguay Venezuela and Bolivia 34 Oceania Edit In Australia the state of South Australia experienced a pronounced wave of Prussian immigration in the 1840s particularly from Silesia region With the prolonged isolation from other German speakers and contact with Australian English a unique dialect known as Barossa German developed spoken predominantly in the Barossa Valley near Adelaide Usage of German sharply declined with the advent of World War I due to the prevailing anti German sentiment in the population and related government action It continued to be used as a first language into the 20th century but its use is now limited to a few older speakers 45 As of the 2013 census 36 642 people in New Zealand spoke German mostly descendants of a small wave of 19th century German immigrants making it the third most spoken European language after English and French and overall the ninth most spoken language 46 A German creole named Unserdeutsch was historically spoken in the former German colony of German New Guinea modern day Papua New Guinea It is at a high risk of extinction with only about 100 speakers remaining and a topic of interest among linguists seeking to revive interest in the language 47 As a foreign language Edit Self reported knowledge of German as a foreign language in the EU member states Turkey in per cent of the adult population 15 2005 Like English French and Spanish German has become a standard foreign language throughout the world especially in the Western World 1 48 German ranks second on par with French among the best known foreign languages in the European Union EU after English 1 as well as in Russia 49 and Turkey 1 In terms of student numbers across all levels of education German ranks third in the EU after English and French 22 and in the United States after Spanish and French 21 50 In 2020 approximately 15 4 million people were enrolled in learning German across all levels of education worldwide This number has decreased from a peak of 20 1 million in 2000 51 Within the EU not counting countries where it is an official language German as a foreign language is most popular in Eastern and Northern Europe namely the Czech Republic Croatia Denmark the Netherlands Slovakia Hungary Slovenia Sweden Poland and Bosnia and Herzegovina 1 52 German was once and to some extent still is a lingua franca in those parts of Europe 53 Phonology EditMain article Standard German phonology Consonants Edit With around 22 to 26 phonemes the German consonant system has an average number of consonants in comparison with other languages One of the more noteworthy ones is the unusual affricate pf 54 Labial Dental Alveolar Post alveolar Palatal Velar GlottalNasal m n ŋPlosive Fortis p t k ʔ Lenis b d ɡAffricate Fortis pf ts tʃLenis dʒ Fricative Fortis f s ʃ c x hLenis v z ʒ jLiquid l ʁVowels Edit Front Central Backunrounded roundedshort long short long short long short longClose ɪ iː ʏ yː ʊ uːClose mid eː oː e oːOpen mid ɛ ɛː œ ɐ ɔOpen a aːWith 15 monophthongal vowel phonemes in stressed syllables the vowel system is unusually large The vowels e and ɐ occurring in unstressed syllables only are not seen as vowel phonemes by all scholars Diphthongs aɪ aʊ ɔʏ are also often listed as vowel phonemes Standard High German EditMain article Standard German Selfreported knowledge of German within the nations of the European Union The basis of Standard High German developed with the Luther Bible and the chancery language spoken by the Saxon court 55 However there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by new vernaculars based on Standard High German that is the case in large stretches of Northern Germany but also in major cities in other parts of the country It is important to note however that the colloquial Standard High German differs from the formal written language especially in grammar and syntax in which it has been influenced by dialectal speech Standard High German differs regionally among German speaking countries in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation and even grammar and orthography This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects Even though the regional varieties of Standard High German are only somewhat influenced by the local dialects they are very distinct Standard High German is thus considered a pluricentric language In most regions the speakers use a continuum from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties depending on the circumstances Varieties Edit The national and regional standard varieties of German 56 In German linguistics German dialects are distinguished from varieties of Standard High German The varieties of Standard High German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric Standard High German They differ only slightly in lexicon and phonology In certain regions they have replaced the traditional German dialects especially in Northern Germany German Standard German Austrian Standard German Swiss Standard GermanIn the German speaking parts of Switzerland mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used and the use of Standard High German is largely restricted to the written language About 11 of the Swiss residents speak Standard High German at home but this is mainly due to German immigrants 57 This situation has been called a medial diglossia Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss education system while Austrian German is officially used in the Austrian education system Dialects EditMain article German dialects The German dialects are the traditional local varieties of the language many of them are not mutually intelligible with standard German and they have great differences in lexicon phonology and syntax If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used many German dialects are considered to be separate languages for instance in the Ethnologue However such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German also called Low Saxon However historically High German dialects and Low Saxon Low German dialects do not belong to the same language Nevertheless in today s Germany Low Saxon Low German is often perceived as a dialectal variation of Standard German on a functional level even by many native speakers The variation among the German dialects is considerable with often only neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible Some dialects are not intelligible to people who know only Standard German However all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon Low German or Low Saxon Edit Main article Low German Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League It was the predominant language in Northern Germany until the 16th century In 1534 the Luther Bible was published It aimed to be understandable to a broad audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low German and became the language of science and literature Around the same time the Hanseatic League a confederation of northern ports lost its importance as new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established and the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education in Standard German in schools Gradually Low German came to be politically viewed as a mere dialect spoken by the uneducated The proportion of the population who can understand and speak it has decreased continuously since World War II The major cities in the Low German area are Hamburg Hanover Bremen and Dortmund Sometimes Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift Low Franconian Edit Further information Low Franconian The Low Franconian dialects In Germany Low Franconian dialects are spoken in the northwest of North Rhine Westphalia along the Lower Rhine The Low Franconian dialects spoken in Germany are referred to as Low Rhenish In the north of the German Low Franconian language area North Low Franconian dialects also referred to as Cleverlands or as dialects of South Guelderish are spoken The South Low Franconian and Bergish dialects which are spoken in the south of the German Low Franconian language area are transitional dialects between Low Franconian and Ripuarian dialects The Low Franconian dialects fall within a linguistic category used to classify a number of historical and contemporary West Germanic varieties most closely related to and including the Dutch language Consequently the vast majority of the Low Franconian dialects are spoken outside of the German language area in the Netherlands and Belgium During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period the Low Franconian dialects now spoken in Germany used Middle Dutch or Early Modern Dutch as their literary language and Dachsprache Following a 19th century change in Prussian language policy use of Dutch as an official and public language was forbidden resulting in Standard German taking its place as the region s official language 58 59 As a result these dialects are now considered German dialects from a socio linguistic point of view 60 Nevertheless topologically these dialects are structurally and phonologically far more similar to Dutch than to German and form both the smallest and most divergent dialect cluster within the contemporary German language area 61 High German Edit Main article High German languages The Central German dialects The Franconian dialects Low Franconian Central and Rhine Franconian and High Franconian The High German dialects consist of the Central German High Franconian and Upper German dialects The High Franconian dialects are transitional dialects between Central and Upper German The High German varieties spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews have several unique features and are considered as a separate language Yiddish written with the Hebrew alphabet Central German Edit The Central German dialects are spoken in Central Germany from Aachen in the west to Gorlitz in the east They consist of Franconian dialects in the west West Central German and non Franconian dialects in the east East Central German Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German dialects The Franconian West Central German dialects are the Central Franconian dialects Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian and the Rhine Franconian dialects Hessian and Palatine These dialects are considered as German in Germany and Belgium Luxembourgish in Luxembourg Lorraine Franconian spoken in Moselle and as a Rhine Franconian variant of Alsatian spoken in Alsace bossue only in France Limburgish or Kerkrade dialect in the Netherlands Luxembourgish as well as the Transylvanian Saxon dialect spoken in Transylvania are based on Moselle Franconian dialects The major cities in the Franconian Central German area are Cologne and Frankfurt Further east the non Franconian East Central German dialects are spoken Thuringian Upper Saxon and North Upper Saxon South Markish and earlier in the then German speaking parts of Silesia also Silesian and in then German southern East Prussia also High Prussian The major cities in the East Central German area are Berlin and Leipzig High Franconian Edit The High Franconian dialects are transitional dialects between Central and Upper German They consist of the East and South Franconian dialects The East Franconian dialect branch is one of the most spoken dialect branches in Germany These dialects are spoken in the region of Franconia and in the central parts of Saxon Vogtland Franconia consists of the Bavarian districts of Upper Middle and Lower Franconia the region of South Thuringia Thuringia and the eastern parts of the region of Heilbronn Franken Tauber Franconia and Hohenlohe in Baden Wurttemberg The major cities in the East Franconian area are Nuremberg and Wurzburg South Franconian is mainly spoken in northern Baden Wurttemberg in Germany but also in the northeasternmost part of the region of Alsace in France In Baden Wurttemberg they are considered as dialects of German The major cities in the South Franconian area are Karlsruhe and Heilbronn Upper German Edit The Upper German and High Franconian transitional between Central and Upper German The Upper German dialects are the Alemannic and Swabian dialects in the west and the Bavarian dialects in the east Alemannic and Swabian Edit Alemannic dialects are spoken in Switzerland High Alemannic in the densely populated Swiss Plateau in the south also Highest Alemannic and Low Alemannic in Basel Baden Wurttemberg Swabian and Low Alemannic in the southwest also High Alemannic Bavarian Swabia Swabian in the southwesternmost part also Low Alemannic Vorarlberg Low High and Highest Alemannic Alsace Low Alemannic in the southernmost part also High Alemannic Liechtenstein High and Highest Alemannic and in the Tyrolean district of Reutte Swabian The Alemannic dialects are considered as Alsatian in Alsace The major cities in the Alemannic area are Stuttgart Freiburg Basel Zurich Lucerne and Bern Bavarian Edit Bavarian dialects are spoken in Austria Vienna Lower and Upper Austria Styria Carinthia Salzburg Burgenland and in most parts of Tyrol Bavaria Upper and Lower Bavaria as well as Upper Palatinate South Tyrol southwesternmost Saxony Southern Vogtlandisch and in the Swiss village of Samnaun The major cities in the Bavarian area are Vienna Munich Salzburg Regensburg Graz and Bolzano Regiolects EditBerlinian the High German regiolect or dialect of Berlin with Low German substrate Missingsch a Low German coloured variety of High German Ruhrdeutsch Ruhr German the High German regiolect of the Ruhr area Grammar EditMain article German grammar German is a fusional language with a moderate degree of inflection with three grammatical genders as such there can be a large number of words derived from the same root Noun inflection Edit Declension of the Standard High German definite article Masc Neu Fem PluralNOM der das die dieACC den das die dieDAT dem dem der denGEN des des der derFurther information Grammatical gender in German German nouns inflect by case gender and number four cases nominative accusative genitive and dative three genders masculine feminine and neuter Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender for instance nouns ending in ung ing schaft ship keit or heit hood ness are feminine nouns ending in chen or lein diminutive forms are neuter and nouns ending in ismus ism are masculine Others are more variable sometimes depending on the region in which the language is spoken And some endings are not restricted to one gender for example er er such as Feier feminine celebration party Arbeiter masculine labourer and Gewitter neuter thunderstorm two numbers singular and plural This degree of inflection is considerably less than in Old High German and other old Indo European languages such as Latin Ancient Greek and Sanskrit and it is also somewhat less than for instance Old English modern Icelandic or Russian The three genders have collapsed in the plural With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 permutations of case and gender number of the article not the nouns but there are only six forms of the definite article which together cover all 16 permutations In nouns inflection for case is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns only in the genitive and in the dative only in fixed or archaic expressions and even this is losing ground to substitutes in informal speech 62 Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive dative and accusative in the singular Feminine nouns are not declined in the singular The plural has an inflection for the dative In total seven inflectional endings not counting plural markers exist in German s es n ns en ens e Like the other Germanic languages German forms noun compounds in which the first noun modifies the category given by the second Hundehutte dog hut specifically dog kennel Unlike English whose newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written open with separating spaces German like some other Germanic languages nearly always uses the closed form without spaces for example Baumhaus tree house Like English German allows arbitrarily long compounds in theory see also English compounds The longest German word verified to be actually in albeit very limited use is Rindfleischetikettierungsuberwachungsaufgabenubertragungsgesetz which literally translated is beef labelling supervision duties assignment law from Rind cattle Fleisch meat Etikettierung s labelling Uberwachung s supervision Aufgaben duties Ubertragung s assignment Gesetz law However examples like this are perceived by native speakers as excessively bureaucratic stylistically awkward or even satirical Verb inflection Edit Main article German verbs The inflection of standard German verbs includes two main conjugation classes weak and strong as in English Additionally there is a third class known as mixed verbs whose conjugation combines features of both the strong and weak patterns three persons first second and third two numbers singular and plural three moods indicative imperative and subjunctive in addition to infinitive two voices active and passive The passive voice uses auxiliary verbs and is divisible into static and dynamic Static forms show a constant state and use the verb to be sein Dynamic forms show an action and use the verb to become werden two tenses without auxiliary verbs present and preterite and four tenses constructed with auxiliary verbs perfect pluperfect future and future perfect the distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use of the subjunctive or preterite marking so the plain indicative voice uses neither of those two markers the subjunctive by itself often conveys reported speech subjunctive plus preterite marks the conditional state and the preterite alone shows either plain indicative in the past or functions as a literal alternative for either reported speech or the conditional state of the verb when necessary for clarity the distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at every stage of development been a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects but strangely enough it is now rigorously excluded from written usage in its present normalised form disambiguation of completed vs uncompleted forms is widely observed and regularly generated by common prefixes blicken to look erblicken to see unrelated form sehen Verb prefixes Edit The meaning of basic verbs can be expanded and sometimes radically changed through the use of a number of prefixes Some prefixes have a specific meaning the prefix zer refers to destruction as in zerreissen to tear apart zerbrechen to break apart zerschneiden to cut apart Other prefixes have only the vaguest meaning in themselves ver is found in a number of verbs with a large variety of meanings as in versuchen to try from suchen to seek vernehmen to interrogate from nehmen to take verteilen to distribute from teilen to share verstehen to understand from stehen to stand Other examples include the following haften to stick verhaften to detain kaufen to buy verkaufen to sell horen to hear aufhoren to cease fahren to drive erfahren to experience Many German verbs have a separable prefix often with an adverbial function In finite verb forms it is split off and moved to the end of the clause and is hence considered by some to be a resultative particle For example mitgehen meaning to go along would be split giving Gehen Sie mit Literal Go you with Idiomatic Are you going along Indeed several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement ankommen to arrive er kam an he arrived er ist angekommen he has arrived Er kam am Freitagabend nach einem harten Arbeitstag und dem ublichen Arger der ihn schon seit Jahren immer wieder an seinem Arbeitsplatz plagt mit fraglicher Freude auf ein Mahl das seine Frau ihm wie er hoffte bereits aufgetischt hatte endlich zu Hause an A selectively literal translation of this example to illustrate the point might look like this He came on Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual annoyances that had time and again been troubling him for years now at his workplace with questionable joy to a meal which as he hoped his wife had already put on the table finally home to Word order Edit German word order is generally with the V2 word order restriction and also with the SOV word order restriction for main clauses For yes no questions exclamations and wishes the finite verb always has the first position In subordinate clauses the verb occurs at the very end German requires a verbal element main verb or auxiliary verb to appear second in the sentence The verb is preceded by the topic of the sentence The element in focus appears at the end of the sentence For a sentence without an auxiliary these are several possibilities Der alte Mann gab mir gestern das Buch The old man gave me yesterday the book normal order Das Buch gab mir gestern der alte Mann The book gave to me yesterday the old man Das Buch gab der alte Mann mir gestern The book gave the old man to me yesterday Das Buch gab mir der alte Mann gestern The book gave to me the old man yesterday Gestern gab mir der alte Mann das Buch Yesterday gave to me the old man the book normal order Mir gab der alte Mann das Buch gestern To me gave the old man the book yesterday entailing as for someone else it was another date The position of a noun in a German sentence has no bearing on its being a subject an object or another argument In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood However German s flexible word order allows one to emphasise specific words Normal word order Der Direktor betrat gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Buro The manager entered yesterday at 10 o clock with an umbrella in the hand his office dd Second variant in normal word order Der Direktor betrat sein Buro gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand The manager entered his office yesterday at 10 o clock with an umbrella in the hand dd This variant accentuates the time specification and that he carried an umbrella Object in front Sein Buro betrat der Direktor gestern um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand His office entered the manager yesterday at 10 o clock with an umbrella in the hand dd The object Sein Buro his office is thus highlighted it could be the topic of the next sentence Adverb of time in front Gestern betrat der Direktor um 10 Uhr mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Buro aber heute ohne Schirm Yesterday entered the manager at 10 o clock with an umbrella in the hand his office but today without umbrella dd Both time expressions in front Gestern um 10 Uhr betrat der Direktor mit einem Schirm in der Hand sein Buro Yesterday at 10 o clock entered the manager with an umbrella in the hand his office dd The full time specification Gestern um 10 Uhr is highlighted Another possibility Gestern um 10 Uhr betrat der Direktor sein Buro mit einem Schirm in der Hand Yesterday at 10 o clock entered the manager his office with an umbrella in the hand dd Both the time specification and the fact he carried an umbrella are accentuated Swapped adverbs Der Direktor betrat mit einem Schirm in der Hand gestern um 10 Uhr sein Buro The manager entered with an umbrella in the hand yesterday at 10 o clock his office dd The phrase mit einem Schirm in der Hand is highlighted Swapped object Der Direktor betrat gestern um 10 Uhr sein Buro mit einem Schirm in der Hand The manager entered yesterday at 10 o clock his office with an umbrella in the hand dd The time specification and the object sein Buro his office are lightly accentuated The flexible word order also allows one to use language tools such as poetic meter and figures of speech more freely Auxiliary verbs Edit When an auxiliary verb is present it appears in second position and the main verb appears at the end This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense Many word orders are still possible Der alte Mann hat mir heute das Buch gegeben The old man has me today the book given Das Buch hat der alte Mann mir heute gegeben The book has the old man me today given Heute hat der alte Mann mir das Buch gegeben Today has the old man me the book given The main verb may appear in first position to put stress on the action itself The auxiliary verb is still in second position Gegeben hat mir der alte Mann das Buch heute Given has me the old man the book today The bare fact that the book has been given is emphasized as well as today Modal verbs Edit Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end For example the English sentence Should he go home would be rearranged in German to say Should he to home go Soll er nach Hause gehen Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following highly contrived English sentence What did you bring that book that I do not like to be read to out of up for Multiple infinitives Edit German subordinate clauses have all verbs clustered at the end Given that auxiliaries encode future passive modality and the perfect very long chains of verbs at the end of the sentence can occur In these constructions the past participle formed with ge is often replaced by the infinitive Man nimmt an dass der Deserteur wohl erschossen V worden psv sein perf soll mod One suspects that the deserter probably shot become be should It is suspected that the deserter probably had been shot Er wusste nicht dass der Agent einen Nachschlussel hatte machen lassen He knew not that the agent a picklock had make let Er wusste nicht dass der Agent einen Nachschlussel machen lassen hatte He knew not that the agent a picklock make let had He did not know that the agent had had a picklock made The order at the end of such strings is subject to variation but the second one in the last example is unusual Vocabulary Edit Volume 1 German Orthography of the 25th edition of the Duden dictionary Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo European language family 63 However there is a significant amount of loanwords from other languages in particular Latin Greek Italian French and most recently English 64 In the early 19th century Joachim Heinrich Campe estimated that one fifth of the total German vocabulary was of French or Latin origin 65 Latin words were already imported into the predecessor of the German language during the Roman Empire and underwent all the characteristic phonetic changes in German Their origin is thus no longer recognizable for most speakers e g Pforte Tafel Mauer Kase Koln from Latin porta tabula murus caseus Colonia Borrowing from Latin continued after the fall of the Roman Empire during Christianisation mediated by the church and monasteries Another important influx of Latin words can be observed during Renaissance humanism In a scholarly context the borrowings from Latin have continued until today in the last few decades often indirectly through borrowings from English During the 15th to 17th centuries the influence of Italian was great leading to many Italian loanwords in the fields of architecture finance and music The influence of the French language in the 17th to 19th centuries resulted in an even greater import of French words The English influence was already present in the 19th century but it did not become dominant until the second half of the 20th century 42nd edition of the Osterreichisches Worterbuch Austrian Dictionary Thus Notker Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises into pure Old High German in the decades after the year 1000 66 The tradition of loan translation was revitalized in the 17th and 18th century with poets like Philipp von Zesen or linguists like Joachim Heinrich Campe who introduced close to 300 words that are still used in modern German Even today there are movements that promote the substitution of foreign words that are deemed unnecessary with German alternatives 67 As in English there are many pairs of synonyms due to the enrichment of the Germanic vocabulary with loanwords from Latin and Latinized Greek These words often have different connotations from their Germanic counterparts and are usually perceived as more scholarly Historie historisch history historical Geschichte geschichtlich Humanitat human humaneness humane Menschlichkeit menschlich note 4 Millennium millennium Jahrtausend Perzeption perception Wahrnehmung Vokabular vocabulary Wortschatz Diktionar dictionary wordbook Worterbuch note 5 probieren to try versuchen proponieren to propose vorschlagen The Deutsches Worterbuch 1st vol 1854 by the Brothers Grimm The size of the vocabulary of German is difficult to estimate The Deutsches Worterbuch German Dictionary initiated by the Brothers Grimm Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm and the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language already contained over 330 000 headwords in its first edition The modern German scientific vocabulary is estimated at nine million words and word groups based on the analysis of 35 million sentences of a corpus in Leipzig which as of July 2003 included 500 million words in total 68 The Duden is the de facto official dictionary of the Standard High German language first published by Konrad Duden in 1880 The Duden is updated regularly with new editions appearing every four or five years As of August 2017 update it was in its 27th edition and in 12 volumes each covering different aspects such as loanwords etymology pronunciation synonyms and so forth The first of these volumes Die deutsche Rechtschreibung German Orthography has long been the prescriptive source for the spelling of German The Duden had become the bible of the German language being the definitive set of rules regarding grammar spelling and usage of German 69 The Osterreichisches Worterbuch Austrian Dictionary abbreviated OWB is the official dictionary of the German language in the Republic of Austria It is edited by a group of linguists under the authority of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education Arts and Culture German Bundesministerium fur Unterricht Kunst und Kultur It is the Austrian counterpart to the German Duden and contains a number of terms unique to Austrian German or more frequently used or differently pronounced there 70 A considerable amount of this Austrian vocabulary is also common in Southern Germany especially Bavaria and some of it is used in Switzerland as well Since the 39th edition in 2001 the orthography of the OWB has been adjusted to the German spelling reform of 1996 The dictionary is also officially used in the Italian province of South Tyrol Orthography EditMain articles German orthography and German braille Austria s standardized cursive Germany s standardized cursive Written texts in German are easily recognisable as such by distinguishing features such as umlauts and certain orthographical features German is the only major language that capitalizes all nouns a relic of a widespread practice in Northern Europe in the early modern era including English for a while into the 1700s and the frequent occurrence of long compounds Because legibility and convenience set certain boundaries compounds consisting of more than three or four nouns are almost exclusively found in humorous contexts English also can string nouns together though it usually separates the nouns with spaces as for example toilet bowl cleaner In German orthography nouns are capitalised which makes it easier for readers to determine the function of a word within a sentence This convention is almost unique to German today shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxembourgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language but it was historically common in other languages such as Danish which abolished the capitalization of nouns in 1948 and English Present Edit Before the German orthography reform of 1996 ss replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants word or partial word endings In reformed spelling ss replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs Since there is no traditional capital form of ss it was replaced by SS or SZ when capitalization was required For example Massband tape measure became MASSBAND in capitals An exception was the use of ss in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names To avoid confusion with similar names lower case ss was sometimes maintained thus KREssLEIN instead of KRESSLEIN Capital ss ẞ was ultimately adopted into German orthography in 2017 ending a long orthographic debate thus KREẞLEIN and KRESSLEIN 71 Umlaut vowels a o u are commonly transcribed with ae oe and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard or other medium used In the same manner ss can be transcribed as ss Some operating systems use key sequences to extend the set of possible characters to include amongst other things umlauts in Microsoft Windows this is done using Alt codes German readers understand these transcriptions although they appear unusual but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are a makeshift and not proper spelling In Westphalia and Schleswig Holstein city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect e g Raesfeld ˈraːsfɛlt Coesfeld ˈkoːsfɛlt and Itzehoe ɪtseˈhoː but this use of the letter e after a o u does not occur in the present day spelling of words other than proper nouns German alphabet source source track Listen to a German speaker recite the alphabet in German Problems playing this file See media help There is no general agreement on where letters with umlauts occur in the sorting sequence Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e Some dictionaries sort each umlauted vowel as a separate letter after the base vowel but more commonly words with umlauts are ordered immediately after the same word without umlauts As an example in a telephone book Arzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer because A is replaced by Ae In a dictionary Arzte comes after Arzt but in some dictionaries Arzte and all other words starting with A may occur after all words starting with A In some older dictionaries or indexes initial Sch and St are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after S but they are usually treated as S C H and S T Written German also typically uses an alternative opening inverted comma quotation mark as in Guten Morgen Past Edit A Russian dictionary from 1931 showing the German alphabet the 3rd and 4th columns of each half are Fraktur and Kurrent respectively with the footnote explaining ligatures used in Fraktur Further information 2nd Orthographic Conference German Antiqua Fraktur dispute and German orthography reform of 1944 Until the early 20th century German was printed in blackletter typefaces in Fraktur and in Schwabacher and written in corresponding handwriting for example Kurrent and Sutterlin These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today and the handwritten forms in particular are difficult for the untrained to read The printed forms however were claimed by some to be more readable when used for Germanic languages 72 The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher because they were considered Aryan but they abolished them in 1941 claiming that these letters were Jewish 73 It is believed that this script was banned during the Nazi regime who as they realized that Fraktur would inhibit communication in the territories occupied during World War II 74 The Fraktur script however remains present in everyday life in pub signs beer brands and other forms of advertisement where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and antiquity A proper use of the long s langes s ſ is essential for writing German text in Fraktur typefaces Many Antiqua typefaces also include the long s A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text but nowadays it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting Any lower case s at the beginning of a syllable would be a long s as opposed to a terminal s or short s the more common variation of the letter s which marks the end of a syllable for example in differentiating between the words Wachſtube guard house and Wachstube tube of polish wax One can easily decide which s to use by appropriate hyphenation Wach ſtube vs Wachs tube The long s only appears in lower case Consonant shifts EditFurther information High German consonant shift German does not have any dental fricatives as English th The th sound which the English language still has disappeared on the continent in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and 10th centuries 75 It is sometimes possible to find parallels between English and German by replacing the English th with d in German Thank in German Dank this and that dies and das thou old 2nd person singular pronoun du think denken thirsty durstig and many other examples Likewise the gh in Germanic English words pronounced in several different ways in modern English as an f or not at all can often be linked to German ch to laugh lachen through durch high hoch naught nichts light leicht or Licht sight Sicht daughter Tochter neighbo u r Nachbar Literature EditMain article German literature The German language is used in German literature and can be traced back to the Middle Ages with the most notable authors of the period being Walther von der Vogelweide and Wolfram von Eschenbach The Nibelungenlied whose author remains unknown is also an important work of the epoch The fairy tales collected and published by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in the 19th century became famous throughout the world Reformer and theologian Martin Luther who translated the Bible into High German is widely credited for having set the basis for the modern Standard High German language Among the best known poets and authors in German are Lessing Goethe Schiller Kleist Hoffmann Brecht Heine and Kafka Fourteen German speaking people have won the Nobel Prize in literature Theodor Mommsen Rudolf Christoph Eucken Paul von Heyse Gerhart Hauptmann Carl Spitteler Thomas Mann Nelly Sachs Hermann Hesse Heinrich Boll Elias Canetti Gunter Grass Elfriede Jelinek Herta Muller and Peter Handke making it the second most awarded linguistic region together with French after English Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 1832 Friedrich Schiller 1759 1805 Brothers Grimm 1785 1863 Thomas Mann 1875 1955 Hermann Hesse 1877 1962 See also Edit Language portal Germany portal Switzerland portal Austria portal Luxembourg portal Belgium portalOutline of German language Denglisch Deutsch disambiguation German family name etymology German toponymy Germanism linguistics German exonyms List of German expressions in English List of German words of French origin List of pseudo German words in English List of terms used for Germans List of countries and territories where German is an official language Names for the German language DDR GermanNotes Edit The status of Low German as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion 3 The status of Luxembourgish as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion The status of Plautdietsch as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion 3 Note that menschlich and occasionally human may also mean human pertaining to humans whereas Menschlichkeit and Humanitat never mean humanity human race which translates to Menschheit In modern German Diktionar is mostly considered archaic References Edit a b c d e f g h Special Eurobarometer 386 Europeans and their languages PDF report European Commission June 2012 Archived from the original PDF on 6 January 2016 Retrieved 24 July 2015 Uber den Rat Institute for the German Language Retrieved 11 October 2010 a b c Goossens 1983 p 27 d Letzebuerger Land Beim Deutschen Bund in Eupen 02 September 2016 a b Robinson 1992 p 16 a b c Robinson 1992 pp 239 42 Robinson 1992 pp 239 42 Thomas 1992 pp 5 6 a b Waterman 1976 p 83 Salmons 2012 p 195 a b Scherer amp Jankowsky 1995 p 11 Goossens 1977 p 48 Wiesinger 1982 pp 807 900 Heeringa 2004 pp 232 34 Giesbers 2008 p 233 Konig amp Paul 2019 p 230 Keller 1978 pp 365 68 Bach 1965 p 254 Super 1893 p 81 Dickens 1974 p 134 Scherer 1868 p Rothaug 1910 Nerius 2000 pp 30 54 Siebs 2000 p 20 Upward 1997 pp 22 24 36 a b Goldberg David Looney Dennis Lusin Natalia 1 February 2015 Enrollments in Languages Other Than English in United States Institutions of Higher Education Fall 2013 PDF www mla org New York City Archived PDF from the original on 27 February 2015 Retrieved 7 July 2015 a b Foreign language learning statistics Statistics Explained ec europa eu 17 March 2016 Retrieved 18 July 2016 a b Lewis Simons amp Fennig 2015 Marten amp Sauer 2005 p 7 The most spoken languages worldwide speakers and native speaker in millions New York City Statista The Statistics Portal Retrieved 11 July 2015 Native speakers 105 total speakers 185 Bureau des Traites Recherches sur les traites Conventions coe int Retrieved 18 July 2016 Map on page of Polish Commission on Standardization of Geographical Names PDF Archived from the original PDF on 1 May 2021 Retrieved 20 June 2015 Ustav azovskogo rajonnogo soveta ot 21 May 2002 N 5 09 ustav municipalnogo Charter of the Azov District Council of 05 21 2002 N 5 09 Charter of the municipal russia bestpravo com in Russian Archived from the original on 8 August 2016 Retrieved 18 July 2016 Charte europeenne des langues regionales Hollande nourrit la guerre contre le francais European Charter for Regional Languages Hollande fuels the war against French lefigaro fr 5 June 2015 Retrieved 18 July 2016 Bathe Dirk 29 November 2010 Wenn Deutsch gleich Zukunft heisst When German means future dw com in German a b c Fischer Stefan 18 August 2007 Anpacken fur Deutsch German in Namibia PDF Allgemeine Deutsche Zeitung in German Namibia Media Holdings Archived from the original PDF on 24 June 2008 Deumert 2003 pp 561 613 Deutsch in Namibia PDF Beilage der Allgemeinen Zeitung 18 July 2007 Archived from the original PDF on 24 June 2008 Retrieved 23 June 2008 a b German L1 speakers outside Europe Schubert Joachim Natal Germans www safrika org Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 Chapter 1 Founding Provisions South African Government gov za Retrieved 18 July 2016 Detailed List of Languages Spoken at Home for the Population 5 Years and Over by State 2000 pdf census gov United States Census Bureau Archived from the original PDF on 17 January 2010 Retrieved 15 March 2010 Blatt Ben 13 May 2014 Tagalog in California Cherokee in Arkansas What language does your state speak Retrieved 13 May 2014 Germans from Russia Heritage Collection library ndsu edu Archived from the original on 19 July 2010 Retrieved 18 July 2016 a b IPOL realizara formacao de recenseadores para o censo linguistico do municipio de Antonio Carlos SC IPOL will carry out training of enumerators for the linguistic census of the municipality of Antonio Carlos SC e ipol org Archived from the original on 26 June 2015 Retrieved 18 July 2016 Legislative Assembly of the state of Espirito Santo Commissioner for Culture and Social Communication Addition to the constitutional amendment number 11 2009 establishing the East Pomeranian dialect as well as German as cultural heritage of the state PDF Claudiovereza files wordpress com February 2011 Archived PDF from the original on 6 January 2012 Retrieved 18 July 2016 Gippert Jost TITUS Didactica German Dialects map titus uni frankfurt de Szczocarz Roma 2017 Pommern in Brasilien Pomerania in Brazil www lerncafe de ViLE Netzwerk Retrieved 27 July 2017 Lei N º 14 061 de 23 de julho de 2012 Archived from the original on 30 March 2019 Retrieved 30 March 2019 Keeping SA s Barossa Deutsch alive over kaffee und kuchen ABC News 26 March 2017 Retrieved 23 February 2020 Top 25 Languages in New Zealand ethniccommunities govt nz Retrieved 21 September 2022 Holm 1989 p 616 Deutsch als Fremdsprache weltweit Datenerhebung 2015 Worldwide survey of people learning German conducted by the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs and the Goethe Institute PDF Goethe de Archived PDF from the original on 23 June 2015 Retrieved 18 July 2016 Znanie inostrannyh yazykov v Rossii Knowledge of foreign languages in Russia in Russian Levada Centre 16 September 2008 Archived from the original on 10 May 2015 Retrieved 10 May 2015 Foreign Language Enrollments in K 12 Public Schools PDF American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages ACTFL February 2011 Archived from the original PDF on 8 April 2016 Retrieved 17 October 2015 Hamann Greta 4 June 2020 15 4 million people are learning German as a foreign language dw com More than 80 of primary school pupils in the EU were studying a foreign language in 2013 Eurostat 24 September 2015 Retrieved 3 May 2016 Von Polenz 1999 pp 192 94 96 For a detailed discussion of the German consonants from a synchronic and diachronic point of view see Cercignani 1979 Swadesh 1971 p 53 Ammon et al 2004 Die am haufigsten ublicherweise zu Hause gesprochenen Sprachen der standigen Wohnbevolkerung ab 15 Jahren 2012 2014 2013 2015 2014 2016 XLS official site in German French and Italian Neuchatel Switzerland Federal Statistical Office FSO 28 March 2018 Retrieved 1 December 2018 Werner Besch Sprachgeschichte ein Handbuch zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache 3 Teilband De Gruyter 2003 p 2636 Georg Cornelissen Das Niederlandische im preussischen Gelderland und seine Ablosung durch das Deutsche Rohrscheid 1986 p 93 Jan Goossens Niederdeutsche Sprache Versuch einer Definition In Jan Goossens Hrsg Niederdeutsch Sprache und Literatur Karl Wachholtz Neumunster 1973 p 9 27 Niebaum 2011 p 98 Barbour amp Stevenson 1990 pp 160 3 Leao 2011 p 25 Foreign Words Fremdworter dartmouth edu Retrieved 23 February 2020 Uwe Porksen German Academy for Language and Literature s Jahrbuch Yearbook 2007 Wallstein Verlag Gottingen 2008 pp 121 130 Hattemer 1849 p 5 Verein Deutsche Sprache e V Der Anglizismen Index vds ev de Walter Kramer Archived from the original on 10 March 2010 Retrieved 15 March 2010 Ein Hinweis in eigener Sache wortschatz informatik uni leipzig de 7 January 2003 Archived from the original on 15 May 2011 Retrieved 15 March 2010 Gerhard Weiss 1995 Up to Date and with a Past The Duden and Its History Die Unterrichtspraxis Teaching German 6 1 The Publisher as Teacher 7 21 doi 10 2307 3531328 JSTOR 3531328 Zur Definition und sprachwissenschaftlichen Abgrenzung insbesondere Rudolf Muhr Richard Schrodt Peter Wiesinger Hrsg Osterreichisches Deutsch Linguistische sozialpsychologische und sprachpolitische Aspekte einer nationalen Variante des Deutschen PDF 407 Seiten 1 3 MB Archived 14 May 2014 at the Wayback Machine Verlag Holder Pichler Tempsky Wien 1995 Anm Diese Publikation entstand aus den Beitragen der Tagung Osterreichisches Deutsch die mit internationalen Sprachwissenschaftlern an der Karl Franzens Universitat Graz vom 22 bis 24 Mai 1995 stattfand Ha Thu Huong 20 July 2017 Germany has ended a century long debate over a missing letter in its alphabet Retrieved 5 December 2017 According to the council s 2017 spelling manual When writing the uppercase of ss write SS It s also possible to use the uppercase ẞ Example Strasse STRASSE STRAẞE Reinecke 1910 p 55 Bormann Martin 8 January 1941 Der Bormann Brief im Original The original Bormann letter in German NSDAP Retrieved 20 November 2020 Facsimile of Bormann s Memorandum The memorandum itself is typed in Antiqua but the NSDAP letterhead is printed in Fraktur For general attention on behalf of the Fuhrer I make the following announcement It is wrong to regard or to describe the so called Gothic script as a German script In reality the so called Gothic script consists of Schwabach Jew letters Just as they later took control of the newspapers upon the introduction of printing the Jews residing in Germany took control of the printing presses and thus in Germany the Schwabach Jew letters were forcefully introduced Today the Fuhrer talking with Herr Reichsleiter Amann and Herr Book Publisher Adolf Muller has decided that in the future the Antiqua script is to be described as normal script All printed materials are to be gradually converted to this normal script As soon as is feasible in terms of textbooks only the normal script will be taught in village and state schools The use of the Schwabach Jew letters by officials will in future cease appointment certifications for functionaries street signs and so forth will in future be produced only in normal script On behalf of the Fuhrer Herr Reichsleiter Amann will in future convert those newspapers and periodicals that already have foreign distribution or whose foreign distribution is desired to normal script Kapr 1993 p 81 For a history of the German consonants see Cercignani 1979 Bibliography EditAmmon Ulrich Bickel Hans Ebner Jakob Gasser Markus Esterhammer Ruth 2004 Variantenworterbuch des Deutschen Die Standardsprache in Osterreich der Schweiz und Deutschland sowie in Liechtenstein Luxemburg Ostbelgien und Sudtirol German variant dictionary The standard language in Austria Switzerland and Germany as well as in Liechtenstein Luxembourg East Belgium and South Tyrol in German Berlin W de Gruyter ISBN 978 3 11 016575 3 Bach Adolf 1965 Geschichte der deutschen Sprache Heidelberg Quelle amp Meyer Barbour Stephen Stevenson Patrick 1990 Variation in German Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 35704 3 Cercignani Fausto 1979 The Consonants of German Synchrony and Diachrony Milano Cisalpino Clyne Michael 1995 The German Language in a Changing Europe ISBN 978 0 521 49970 5 Curme George O 1922 1904 A Grammar of the German Language Deumert Ama 2003 Markedness and salience in language contact and second language acquisition evidence from a non canonical contact language Language Sciences Vol 25 Elsevier Ltd pp 561 613 doi 10 1016 S0388 0001 03 00033 0 Dickens A G 1974 The German Nation and Martin Luther New York Harper amp Row Durrell M 2006 Germanic Languages In Brown Keith ed Encyclopedia of Language amp Linguistics Elsevier pp 53 55 doi 10 1016 B0 08 044854 2 02189 1 ISBN 978 0 08 044299 0 via ScienceDirect Subscription may be required or content may be available in libraries Fox Anthony 2005 The Structure of German ISBN 978 0 19 927399 7 Giesbers Charlotte 2008 Dialecten op de grens van twee talen Een dialectologisch en sociolinguistisch onderzoek in het Kleverlands dialectgebied Dialects on the border of two languages A dialectological and sociolinguistic investigation in the Kleverland dialect area Groesbeek Reijngoudt Giesbers ISBN 978 90 813044 1 2 Goossens Jan 1977 Deutsche Dialektologie German dialectology in German 1 ed Berlin De Gruyter ISBN 3 11 007203 3 Goossens Jan 1983 Niederdeutsch Sprache und Literatur Eine Einfuhrung Low German language and literature An introduction Vol 1 2 rev and by a bibliogr supplement expd ed Neumunster Karl Wachholtz ISBN 3 529 04510 1 Harbert Wayne 2007 The Germanic Languages Cambridge Language Surveys Cambridge University Press doi 10 1017 CBO9780511755071 ISBN 978 0 521 01511 0 Archived from the original on 2 April 2015 Retrieved 26 February 2015 Hattemer Heinrich 1849 Denkmahle des Mittelalters St Gallen s altteutsche Sprachschaetze Monuments of the Middle Ages St Gallen s Old German vocabulary Vol 3 Scheitlin und Zollikofer Heeringa Wilbert Jan 2004 Measuring Dialect Pronunciation Differences using Levenshtein Distance Thesis Holm John A 1989 Pidgins and Creoles Volume 2 Reference Survey 1st ed Cambridge Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 35940 5 Kapr Albert 1993 Fraktur Form und Geschichte der gebrochenen Schriften in German Mainz H Schmidt ISBN 978 3 87439 260 0 Keller R E 1978 The German language London Faber ISBN 978 0 571 11159 6 Konig Ekkehard Van der Auwera Johan eds 1994 The Germanic Languages Routledge Language Family Descriptions Routledge ISBN 978 0 415 28079 2 Konig Werner Paul Hans Joachim 2019 1978 Dtv Atlas Deutsche Sprache in German Vol 1 19th revised ed Munich Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag ISBN 978 3 423 03025 0 Leao Pedro Macedo 2011 Germany Keys to understanding German Business Culture 1st ed USA Lulupress ISBN 9781447862956 Lewis M Paul Simons Gary F Fennig Charles D 2015 Ethnologue Languages of Africa and Europe Eighteenth Edition 18th ed Dallas SIL International ISBN 978 1 55671 391 0 Sum of Standard German Swiss German and all German dialects not listed under Standard German Lockwood W B 1987 German Today The Advanced Learner s Guide ISBN 978 0 19 815850 9 Marten Thomas Sauer Fritz Joachim eds 2005 Landerkunde Deutschland Osterreich Schweiz und Liechtenstein im Querschnitt Regional Geography An Overview of Germany Austria Switzerland and Liechtenstein in German Berlin Inform Verlag ISBN 978 3 9805843 1 9 Nerius Dieter 2000 Die Rolle der II Orthographischen Konferenz 1901 in der Geschichte der deutschen Rechtschreibung Zeitschrift fur deutsche Philologie 119 1 ISSN 0044 2496 Niebaum Hermann 2011 Wege und Schwerpunkte der deutschen Dialektologie Ways and focuses of German dialectology Einfuhrung in die Dialektologie des Deutschen Introduction to the dialectology of German in German 2nd ed Tubingen Niemeyer ISBN 978 3 11 091654 6 Reinecke Adolf 1910 Die deutsche Buchstabenschrift Ihre Entstehung und Entwicklung ihre Zweckmassigkeit und volkische Bedeutung The German letter font Its origin and development its advisability and folkish meaning in German A Hasert und C Robinson Orrin W 1992 Old English and its closest relatives a survey of the earliest Germanic languages Stanford Calif Stanford University Press ISBN 978 0 8047 2221 6 Rothaug Rudolf 1910 Geographischer Atlas zur Vaterlandskunde an den osterreichischen Mittelschulen Geographical atlas on the homeland lore at the Austrian secondary schools in German Vienna G Freytag amp Berndt Salmons Joe 2012 A history of German what the past reveals about today s language 1st ed Oxford Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 969793 9 Sanders Ruth H 2010 German Biography of a Language Oxford University Press Sanders Willy 1982 Sachsensprache Hansesprache Plattdeutsch Sprachgeschichtliche Grundzuge des Niederdeutschen Saxon language Hanseatic language Low German Linguistic historical basics of Low German in German Gottingen Vandenhoeck amp Ruprecht ISBN 3 525 01213 6 Scherer Wilhelm 1868 Zur Geschichte der deutschen Sprache On the history of the German language in German Berlin Franz Duncker Scherer Wilhelm Jankowsky Kurt R 1995 Zur Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache On the history of the German language Oxford University Amsterdam Philadelphia J Benjamins Skottsberg Carl 1911 The Wilds of Patagonia A Narrative of the Swedish Expedition to Patagonia Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Island in 1907 1909 London England Edward Arnold Siebs Theodor 2000 Deutsche Aussprache Hochsprache Buhnensprache Alltagssprache German pronunciation Pure and moderate high accent with pronunciation dictionary in German 19 umgearbeitete Auflage ed Wiesbaden ISBN 3 928127 66 7 Steinicke Ernst Walder Judith Loffler Roland Beismann Michael 20 December 1999 Autochthonous Linguistic Minorities in the Italian Alps Revue de Geographie Alpine 99 2 doi 10 4000 rga 1454 Retrieved 18 July 2016 Stellmacher Dieter 2000 Niederdeutsche Sprache Low German language in German 2nd ed Berlin ISBN 978 3 89693 326 3 Super Charles W 1893 A history of the German language University of California Libraries Columbus Ohio Hann amp Adair Thomas Calvin 1992 An Anthology of German Literature D C Heath and Company ASIN 1010180266 Swadesh Morris 1971 The Origin and Diversification of Language Transaction Publishers ISBN 978 0 20 236982 2 Upward Chris 1997 Spelling Reform in German Journal of the Simplified Spelling Society J21 Archived from the original on 23 September 2014 Von Polenz Peter 1999 6 5 Inter und ubernationale Beziehungen Deutsche Sprachgeschichte vom Spatmittelalter bis zur Gegenwart German language history from the late Middle Ages to the present de Gruyter Studienbuch in German Vol Band III 19 und 20 Jahrhundert Berlin New York de Gruyter ISBN 978 3 11 016426 8 Wagner Claudio 2000 Las areas de bocha polca y murra Contacto de lenguas en el sur de Chile The bocha polka and murra areas Language contact in southern Chile Revista de Dialectologia y Tradiciones Populares in Spanish 55 1 185 196 doi 10 3989 rdtp 2000 v55 i1 432 Waterman John 1976 A history of the German language with special reference to the cultural and social forces that shaped the standard literary language Rev ed Seattle University of Washington Press ISBN 978 0 295 73807 9 Weiss Gerhard 1995 Up to Date and with a Past The Duden and its History Die Unterrichtspraxis Teaching German 28 1 7 12 doi 10 2307 3531328 JSTOR 3531328 Wiesinger Peter 1982 Die Einteilung der deutschen Dialekte The classification of the German dialects In Besch Werner Wiegand Herbert Ernst eds Dialektologie Ein Handbuch zur deutschen und allgemeinen Dialektforschung in German 1 ed Berlin New York Walter de Gruyter ISBN 978 3 11 005977 9 External links EditGerman language at Wikipedia s sister projects Definitions from Wiktionary Media from Commons Quotations from Wikiquote Texts from Wikisource Textbooks from Wikibooks Phrasebook from Wikivoyage Resources from Wikiversity Data from Wikidata Texts on Wikisource German Language Encyclopaedia Britannica 11th ed 1911 Mark Twain The Awful German Language 1880 Carl Schurz The German Mothertongue 1897 Germany Language and Literature of The American Cyclopaedia 1879 Dissemination of the German language in Europe around 1913 map 300 dpi Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title German language amp oldid 1132584950, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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