German is a
West Germanic languageThe West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of languages and include languages such as English, Dutch and Afrikaans, German, the Frisian languages, and Yiddish...
, thus related to and classified alongside
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
and
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
. It is one of the world's
major languagesA world language is a language spoken internationally, which is learned by many people as a second language. A world language is not only characterized by the number of its speakers , but also by its geographical distribution, and its use in international organizations and in diplomatic relations...
and the most widely spoken
first languageA first language is the language a human being learns from birth...
in the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
. Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 105 million
native speakersA first language is the language a human being learns from birth...
and also by about 80 million non-native speakers.
Standard GermanStandard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
is widely taught in schools, universities and Goethe Institutes worldwide. It is overall the third most learned language worldwide.
Europe
German is spoken primarily in
GermanyThe official language of Germany is Standard German, with over 95% of the country speaking Standard German or German dialects as their first language...
(first language for more than 95% of the population),
AustriaThe Languages of Austria include German, the official and most widely spoken language, and several minority languages.-German:German is the only nationally official language, and the language spoken by the largest proportion of Austrians. A number of dialects are spoken...
(89%) and
SwitzerlandThe four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian, and Romansh. Only three of these languages, however, maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation: German, French, and Italian.Native speakers...
(65%). The majority of the small population of
LiechtensteinThe Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine microstate in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over 160 km² and it has an estimated population of 35,000...
also speaks German.
Other European German-speaking communities are found in
Northern ItalyNorthern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative worth, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian nation...
(in the Province of Bolzano-Bozen and in some municipalities in other provinces), in the East Cantons of
BelgiumThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
, in the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
AlsaceAlsace is the fourth-smallest of the 26 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the sixth-most densely populated region in France , with 222 inhabitants per km²...
region which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former
South Jutland CountySouth Jutland County is a former county on the south-central portion of the Jutland Peninsula in southern Denmark....
(in German,
Nordschleswig, in Danish,
Sønderjylland) of
DenmarkDenmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe and the senior member of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries; southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and it is bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark borders both the Baltic and the North Sea...
.
Some German-speaking communities can still be found in parts of the
Czech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a country in Central Europe that is sometimes considered to be Eastern European. The country borders Poland to the northeast, Germany to the west and northwest, Austria to the south and Slovakia to the east. The capital and largest city is Prague...
,
HungaryHungary , in English officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its capital is Budapest. Hungary is a member of OECD, NATO, EU, V4 and is a Schengen state...
,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
,
RomaniaRomania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory...
, and above all
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and
KazakhstanKazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country situated in Eurasia that is ranked as the ninth largest country in the world. It is also the world's largest landlocked country. Its territory of 2,727,300 km² is greater than Western Europe...
, although forced expulsions after
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in
BulgariaBulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a country in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe. Bulgaria borders five other countries: Romania to the north , Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia to the west, and Greece and Turkey to the south...
,
CyprusCyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country situated in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria and Lebanon....
,
EgyptEgypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia...
,
GreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , is a country in southeastern Europe, situated on the southern end of the Balkan Peninsula....
,
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
,
ItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic , is a country located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe and on the two largest islands in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily and Sardinia. Italy shares its northern, Alpine boundary with France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia...
,
MoroccoMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
,
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
,
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
,
ScandinaviaScandinavia is a geographical region in northern Europe that includes, and is named after, the Scanian Province. It consists of the kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark...
,
SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
,
TurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey
, is a Eurasian country that stretches across the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia and Thrace in the Balkan region of southeastern Europe...
,
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
, and the former
YugoslaviaYugoslavia is a term that describes three political entities that existed successively on the Balkan Peninsula in Europe, during most of the 20th century.The first country to be known by this...
(
BosniaBosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( or (Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian Latin: Bosna i Hercegovina; Serbian Cyrillic: Босна и Херцеговина) is a country in Southeast Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula...
,
SerbiaSerbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a country located in both Central and Southeastern Europe. Its territory covers the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and central part of the Balkans...
,
MacedoniaMacedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country in the central Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...
,
CroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a country in southeast Europe, at the crossroads of the Pannonian Plain, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean Sea. Its capital is Zagreb...
and
SloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central Europe bordering Italy to the west, the Adriatic Sea to the southwest, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north...
).
Overseas
Outside of Europe and the former
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
and in
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German.
German AmericanGerman Americans are Americans of German descent. They form the largest self-reported ancestry group in the United States, outnumbering the Irish and English. They account for 50 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population...
s form the largest self-reported ancestry group in the United States, outnumbering the
IrishIrish Americans are citizens of the United States who trace their ancestry to Ireland. A total of 36,495,800 Americans reported Irish ancestry in the 2006 American Community Survey. The only self-reported ancestral group larger than Irish Americans are German Americans...
and
EnglishEnglish Americans are citizens of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England. According to 2000 U.S census data, Americans reporting English ancestry made up an estimated 9.4% of the total U.S...
. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former
German colony of
NamibiaNamibia, officially the Republic of Namibia , is a country in Southern Africa whose western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares borders with Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east, and South Africa to the south and east...
independent from
South AfricaThe Republic of South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa, with a coastline on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. To the north lie Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, to the east are Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an independent country surrounded by South Africa.Modern...
since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
MexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
,
Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are occupied by two countries...
,
ParaguayParaguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay , is one of the two landlocked countries which lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere, the other being Bolivia, both in South America....
,
UruguayUruguay , is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.1 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area. An estimated 88–94% of the population are of mostly European and/or mixed descent.Uruguay's only land border is...
,
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
,
PeruPeru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean.Peruvian territory was home to the Norte Chico...
,
VenezuelaVenezuela , officially titled Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It is a continental mainland with numerous islands located off its coastline in the Caribbean Sea...
(where the dialect
Alemán ColonieroAlemán Coloniero, spoken in Colonia Tovar, Venezuela, is a dialect that belongs to the Low Alemannic branch of German.-Characteristics:The language, like other Alemannic dialects, is not mutually intelligible with Standard German. It is spoken by descendants of Germans from the Black Forest region...
developed), South Africa and
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. In Namibia,
German NamibiansGerman Namibians are a community of people descended from ethnic German colonists who settled in present-day Namibia. In 1883, a German trader, Adolf Lüderitz, bought what would become the southern coast of Namibia and founded the city of Lüderitz...
retain German educational institutions.
South America
In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in
Rio Grande do SulRio Grande do Sul is the southernmost State of Brazil, and the State with the fourth highest Human Development Index in the country. In Rio Grande do Sul we can find the most southern city of the country, Chuí, on the border with Uruguay...
(where
Riograndenser HunsrückischRiograndenser Hunsrückisch is a Brazilian variation of the German dialect Hunsrückisch, which is originally from the Hunsrück region of Germany...
was developed),
Santa Catarinais a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in the country. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighboring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean,...
,
ParanáParaná is one of the states of Brazil, located in the South of the country, bordered on the north by São Paulo state, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the south by Santa Catarina state and the Misiones Province of Argentina, and on the west by Mato Grosso do Sul and the republic of Paraguay,...
,
São PauloSão Paulo is the largest city in Brazil and the world's 7th largest metropolitan area. The city is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous Brazilian state. It is also the richest city in Brazil. The name of the city honors Saint Paul. São Paulo exerts strong regional influence in...
and
Espírito SantoEspírito Santo is one of the states of southeastern Brazil, often referred to by the abbreviation "ES". Its capital is Vitória and the largest city is Vila Velha. Those who are born in the state are known as "Capixabas", although the precise word is "espiritossantenses". The name means literally...
. There are also German-speaking descendant communities in
ArgentinaArgentina, officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America, constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires. It is the eighth largest country in the world by land area and the largest among Spanish-speaking nations, though Mexico,...
,
ParaguayParaguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay , is one of the two landlocked countries which lie entirely within the Western Hemisphere, the other being Bolivia, both in South America....
and
ChileChile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German
political refugeesUnder the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of their nationality,...
and invited entrepreneurs settled in
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish, Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,501 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
, in countries such as
Costa RicaCosta Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the east and south, the Pacific Ocean to the west and south and the Caribbean Sea to the east.Costa Rica, which translates literally as "Rich Coast", constitutionally...
,
PanamaPanama, officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of both Central America and, in turn, North America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the...
, Venezuela, and the Dominican Republic, to establish German-speaking enclaves, and reportedly there is a small
German immigration to Puerto RicoGerman immigration to Puerto Rico began when German businessmen immigrated to Puerto Rico during the early part of the 18th century. However, it was the economic and political situation in Europe during the early 19th century plus, the fact that the Spanish Crown issued the Royal Decree of Graces ...
. Nearly all inhabitants of the city of
PomerodePomerode is a Brazilian city in the state of Santa Catarina, in Southern Brazil. It is located in the valley of the Itajaí-Açu river, not very far from the city of Blumenau, one of the largest cities in the state....
in the state of
Santa Catarinais a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in the country. Its capital is Florianópolis, which mostly lies on the Santa Catarina Island. Neighboring states are Rio Grande do Sul to the south and Paraná to the north. It is bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean,...
in
BrazilBrazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is a country in South America. It is the fifth largest country by geographical area, occupying nearly half of South America, the fifth most populous country, and the fourth most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean...
can speak German.
North America
German in the United StatesBefore World War I, more than 6% of American schoolchildren received their primary education only in German. Although more than 49 million Americans claim they have German ancestors, according to the 2005 American Community Survey, more than 96% of them speak English at home and in total only 1.38...
is the fifth most spoken language at home (~ 1.4 million) after
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
,
SpanishSpanish or Castilian is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that originated in northern Spain and gradually spread in the Kingdom of Castile, evolving into the principal language of government and trade in the Iberian peninsula...
,
ChineseChinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of languages mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
, and
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
according to the 2000 U.S. Census. The United States, therefore, has one of the largest concentrations of German speakers outside Europe. The states of
North DakotaNorth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America; on the Canadian border halfway between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. North Dakota is the 19th largest state by area in the U.S.; it is the 3
rd least populous, with just over 641,481 residents as...
and
South DakotaSouth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota was carved out of the southern half of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889...
are the only states where German is the most common language spoken at home after English (the second most spoken language in other states is either Spanish or French). An indication of the German presence can be found in the names of such places as
BismarckBismarck is the capital of the U.S. state of North Dakota, the county seat of Burleigh County, and the second most populous city in North Dakota after Fargo. Its population was 55,532 at the 2000 census. Its metropolitan population was 94,719 in 2000, but was estimated in 2008 to have grown to...
(state capital),
MunichMunich is a city in Cavalier County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 268 at the 2000 census. Munich was founded in 1904 and is named after the German city.-Geography:Munich is located at ....
,
KarlsruheKarlsruhe is a city in McHenry County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 119 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Minot Micropolitan Statistical Area...
, and
StrasburgStrasburg is a city in Emmons County, North Dakota in the United States. The population was 549 at the 2000 census. Strasburg was founded in 1902.-Geography:Strasburg is located at ....
in North Dakota; New Braunfels and Muenster in Texas; and Kiel,
BerlinBerlin is a city in Green Lake and Waushara Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The population was 5,305 at the 2000 census. The city is located mostly within the Town of Berlin in Green Lake County; only a small portion of the city extends into the Town of Aurora in Waushara...
and
GermantownGermantown is a village in Washington County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 18,260 at the 2000 census. The village surrounds the Town of Germantown...
in Wisconsin. Over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th- and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, but small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in
PennsylvaniaThe Commonwealth of Pennsylvania , often colloquially referred to as PA by natives and Northeasterners, is a state located in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States...
(
AmishThe various Amish or Amish Mennonite church fellowships are Christian religious denominations that form a very traditional subgrouping of Mennonite churches. They are best known for their simple living, plain dress and resistance to the adoption of many modern conveniences...
, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke
Hutterite GermanHutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States...
and a
West Central GermanWest Central German belongs to the Central, High German dialect family in the German language. Its dialects are thoroughly Franconian including the following sub-families:* Central Franconian...
variety of
Pennsylvania DutchThe Pennsylvania German language is a variety of West Central German possibly spoken by more than 250,000 people in North America...
),
KansasKansas is a state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa tribe, who inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south wind," although this was...
(Mennonites and
Volga GermanThe Volga Germans were ethnic Germans living along the River Volga in the region of southern European Russia around Saratov and to the south. They maintained German culture, language, traditions and churches: Lutherans, Reformed, Roman Catholics, and Mennonites...
s), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites,
Russian GermanThe German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves. The 1914 census puts the number of Germans living in Russian Empire at 2,416,290. In 1989, the German population of the Soviet Union was roughly 2 million. In the 2002 Russian census, 597,212...
s, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans),
South DakotaSouth Dakota is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. It is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux American Indian tribes. South Dakota was carved out of the southern half of the Dakota Territory and admitted to the Union on November 2, 1889...
,
MontanaMontana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of the state contains numerous mountain ranges; other 'island' ranges are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...
,
TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
(
Texas GermanTexas German is a dialect of the German language that is spoken by descendants of German immigrants who settled in the Texas Hill Country region in the mid-19th century. These immigrants founded the towns of New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Schulenburg, Weimar, and Comfort...
),
WisconsinWisconsin is one of the fifty U.S. states. Located in the north-central United States, Wisconsin is considered part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the...
,
IndianaIndiana is a U.S. state, the 19
th admitted to the Union. It is located in the Great Lakes region, and with approximately 6.3 million residents, is ranked 16
th in population and 17
th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38
th in land area, and is the...
,
OregonOregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
,
LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
and
OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
. A significant group of German Pietists in
IowaIowa is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland." It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of...
formed the
Amana ColoniesThe Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of radical German Pietists in Iowa, USA, comprising seven villages. Calling themselves the Ebenezer Society or the Community of True Inspiration, die Gemeinde der wahren Inspiration, they first settled in New York state near Buffalo in what is now the...
and continue to practice speaking their heritage language. Early twentieth century immigration was often to
St. LouisSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
,
ChicagoChicago is the largest city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and with more than 2.8 million people, the 3rd largest city in the United States...
,
New YorkNew York is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous. The state is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.
In
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, there are 622,650 speakers of German according to the most recent census in 2006, while people of German ancestry (German Canadians) are found throughout the country. German-speaking communities are particularly found in
British ColumbiaBritish Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is famed for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . In 1871, it became the sixth province of Canada.The capital of British Columbia is Victoria, the 15th largest metropolitan region in Canada...
(118,035) and
OntarioOntario is a province located in east-central Canada, the largest by population and second largest, after Quebec, in total area. Ontario is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba to the west and Quebec to the east, and 5 U.S...
(230,330). There is a large and vibrant community in the city of
Kitchener, OntarioThe City of Kitchener is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada. It was the Town of Berlin from 1854 until 1912 and the City of Berlin from 1912 until 1916. The city had a population of 204,668 in the Canada 2006 Census...
, which was at one point named Berlin. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas:
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
,
TorontoToronto is the most populous city in Canada and the provincial capital of Ontario. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. With over 2.5 million residents, it is the fifth most populous municipality in North America...
, and
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
; while post-Second World War immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20ᵗʰ century, over a million
German-CanadianGerman Canadians are Canadians of ethnic German ancestry. The 2006 Canadian census put the number of Canadians of German ethnicity at 3,179,425. Only a small fraction of German Canadians are descendants of immigrants from what is today Germany...
s made the language Canada's third most spoken after
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
and
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
.
In Mexico there are also large populations of
German ancestryA German Mexican is a Mexican citizen of German descent or origin....
, mainly in the cities of:
Mexico CityMexico City is the capital city of Mexico. It is the economic, industrial, and cultural center in the country, and the most populous city, with about 8,836,045 inhabitants in 2008...
,
PueblaPuebla is a Mexican state located in the south-central part of the country, to the east of Mexico City. The state borders Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo, Mexico State, Tlaxcala, and Morelos to the west, and Guerrero and Oaxaca to the south. The state's largest cities are Puebla and Tehuacan, it has...
,
MazatlánMazatlán is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa; the surrounding municipio for which the city serves as the municipal seat is also called Mazatlán. It is located at on the Pacific coast, just across from the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula.Mazatlán is a Nahuatl word meaning...
,
TapachulaTapachula is a municipio and city with a hot, humid climate in the Mexican state of Chiapas. It is located in southern part of the state on the Soconusco coastal plain, near the border with Guatemala, at 14.91° N 92.27° W...
, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua,
DurangoDurango is one of the constituent states of Mexico, with a population of 1,509,118. It has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja California Sur...
, and
ZacatecasZacatecas state of Mexico is located in the north-central region and it is bounded to the northwest by Durango, to the north by Coahuila, to the east by San Luis Potosí, to the south by Aguascalientes and Guanajuato and to the southwest by Jalisco and Nayarit...
. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around
Guadalajara, JaliscoGuadalajara is the capital city of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality of Guadalajara. The city is located in the central region of the state and in the western-Pacific area of Mexico. With a population of 1,579,174 it is Mexico's second most populous municipality...
and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City,
Nuevo LeónNuevo León is a state located in northeastern Mexico. It borders the states of Tamaulipas to the north and east and San Luis Potosí to the south, and Coahuila to the west. To the north, Nuevo León accounts for a 15 kilometer stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border adjacent to the U.S...
,
San Luis PotosíThe Mexican state of San Luis Potosí has an area of .It is in the central part of the Mexican republic, It borders Coahuila to the north, Nuevo Leon to the north-east, Tamaulipas to the east, Veracruz to the east, Hidalgo, Queretaro, and Guanajuato to the south, and Zacatecas to the north-west...
and
Quintana RooQuintana Roo is a state of Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula. It borders the States of Yucatán and Campeche to the north and west, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the nation of Belize to the south...
.
Dialects in North America
The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies or communities founded by German-speaking people resemble the dialects of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German resembles
Palatinate GermanPalatine German is a West Franconian dialect of German which is spoken in the Rhine Valley roughly in an area between the cities of Zweibrücken, Kaiserslautern, Alzey, Worms, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Speyer, Wörth am Rhein and the border to the Alsace region in but also beyond...
dialects, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of
CarinthiaCarinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes....
.
Texas GermanTexas German is a dialect of the German language that is spoken by descendants of German immigrants who settled in the Texas Hill Country region in the mid-19th century. These immigrants founded the towns of New Braunfels, Fredericksburg, Boerne, Schulenburg, Weimar, and Comfort...
is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the
AdelsvereinAdelsverein, the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, organized on April 20, 1842, was a colonial attempt to establish a new Germany within the borders of Texas.-History:...
, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. In the
Amana ColoniesThe Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of radical German Pietists in Iowa, USA, comprising seven villages. Calling themselves the Ebenezer Society or the Community of True Inspiration, die Gemeinde der wahren Inspiration, they first settled in New York state near Buffalo in what is now the...
in the state of Iowa, Amana German is spoken.
PlautdietschPlautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence, that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries in the Vistula delta area of Royal Prussia, today Polish territory. The word is etymologically cognate with Plattdeutsch, or Low German...
is a large
minority languageA minority language is a language spoken by a minority of the population of a territory. Such people are termed linguistic minorities or language minorities.-International politics:...
spoken in Northern Mexico by the
MennoniteThe Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico.
Pennsylvania DutchThe Pennsylvania German language is a variety of West Central German possibly spoken by more than 250,000 people in North America...
is a dialect of German spoken by the
AmishThe various Amish or Amish Mennonite church fellowships are Christian religious denominations that form a very traditional subgrouping of Mennonite churches. They are best known for their simple living, plain dress and resistance to the adoption of many modern conveniences...
population of Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Ohio.
Hutterite GermanHutterite German is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States...
is an Upper German dialect of the
Austro-BavarianAustro-Bavarian or Bavarian is a major group of Upper German varieties. Like standard German, Austro-Bavarian is a High German language, but they are not the same language...
variety of the German language, which is spoken by Hutterite communities in Canada and the United States. Hutterite is spoken in the U.S. states of
WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Washington was carved out of the western part of Washington Territory which had been ceded by Britain in 1846 by the Oregon Treaty as settlement of the Oregon Boundary Dispute. It was admitted to the Union as the...
, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and
MinnesotaMinnesota is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. The twelfth largest state by area in the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.2 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the...
; and in the Canadian provinces of
AlbertaAlberta is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1, 1905.Alberta is located in western Canada, bounded by the provinces of British Columbia to the west and Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Territories to the north, and the U.S. state of Montana to the south....
,
SaskatchewanSaskatchewan is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of and a population of 1,023,810 , mostly living in the southern half of the province. Of these, 233,923 live in the province's largest city, Saskatoon, while 194,971 live in the provincial capital, Regina...
and
ManitobaManitoba is a prairie province in Canada and has an area of . Manitoba is bordered by the provinces of Ontario to the east and Saskatchewan to the west, the territory of Nunavut to the north, and the U.S. states of North Dakota and Minnesota to the south...
. Its speakers belong to some Schmiedleit, Lehrerleit, and Dariusleit Hutterite groups, but there are also speakers among the older generations of Prairieleit (the descendants of those Hutterites who chose not to settle in colonies). Hutterite children who grow up in the colonies learn and speak first Hutterite German before learning English in the public school, the standard language of the surrounding areas. Many colonies, though, continue with German Grammar School, separate from the public school, throughout a student's elementary education.
Oceania
In
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, the state of
South AustraliaSouth Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories....
experienced a pronounced wave of Germans arriving in the 1840s from Prussia (particularly the
SilesiaSilesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in present-day Poland, with parts in the Czech Republic and Germany....
region). With the prolonged isolation and contact with
Australian EnglishAustralian English is the form of the English language spoken in Australia.-Socio-historical linguistic context:...
some have suggested a unique dialect formed known as
Barossa GermanBarossa German refers to a dialect of German, which was once common in South Australia. The prominent South Australian writer, Colin Thiele , whose grandparents were German immigrants, referred to "Barossa Deutsch" as: "that quaintly inbred and hybrid language evolved from a century of linguistic...
spoken predominantly in the
Barossa ValleyThe Barossa Valley is a major wine-producing region and tourist destination of South Australia, located 60 km northeast of Adelaide. It is the valley formed by the North Para River, and the Barossa Valley Way is the main road through the valley, connecting the main towns on the valley floor of...
near
AdelaideAdelaide is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of South Australia, and is the fifth-largest city in Australia, with a population of more than 1.1 million. It is a coastal city situated on the eastern shores of Gulf St. Vincent, on the Adelaide Plains, north of the Fleurieu...
. Usage sharply declined with the advent of
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
, the prevailing anti-German sentiment in the population and related government action. It continued to be used as a first language into the twentieth century but now its use is limited to a few older speakers.
There is also an important German
creoleA German creole, more properly a German-based creole language, is a creole language with a significant influence from the German language....
being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of
Papua New GuineaPapua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...
, across
MicronesiaMicronesia is a subregion of Oceania, comprising hundreds of small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is distinct from Melanesia to the south, and Polynesia to the east. The Philippines and Indonesia lie to the west....
and in northern Australia (i.e. coastal parts of
QueenslandQueensland is a state of Australia that occupies the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory to the west, South Australia to the south-west and New South Wales to the south. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
and
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
), by a few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars.
Internet
According to
Global ReachGlobal Reach is a business initiative to increase the access between a company and their current and potential customers through the use of the Internet. The Internet allows the company to market themselves and attract new customers to their website where they can provide product information and...
(2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is German. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German, making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface.
Some older statistics included in 1998 Babel found somewhat similar demographics. FUNREDES (1998) and Vilaweb (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese.
Origins
The history of the language begins with the
High German consonant shiftIn historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
during the
migration periodThe Migration Period, also called the Barbarian Invasions or Völkerwanderung , was a period of human migration that occurred roughly between the years 300 to 700 CE in Europe, marking the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages...
, separating
Old High GermanThe term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...
dialects from
Old SaxonOld Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in Denmark by Saxon peoples...
. The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered
Elder FutharkThe Elder Futhark is the oldest form of the runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes for Northwest Germanic and Migration period Germanic dialects of the 2nd to 8th centuries for inscriptions on artifacts such as jewellery, amulets, tools, weapons and runestones...
inscriptions, especially in
AlemannicAlemannic may refer to:* Alamanni, a Germanic tribe of the first millennium* Alemannic German, a dialect family in the Upper German branch of the German language and its speakers...
, from the 6th century AD; the earliest glosses (
AbrogansThe Abrogans, or Codex Abrogans , is probably the oldest extant book written in the German language. It is a manuscript dictionary of synonyms from Latin into Old High German dating from the 8th century . Several copies were made, but only one has survived to the present, that in the library of St...
) date to the 8th; and the oldest coherent texts (the
Hildebrandslied, the
MuspilliMuspilli is one of but two surviving pieces of Old High German epic poetry , dating to around 870. One large fragment of the text has survived in the margins and empty pages of a codex marked as the possession of Louis the German and now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek . The beginning and end of...
and the
Merseburg IncantationsThe Merseburg Incantations are two medieval magic spells, charms or incantations, written in Old High German. They are the only known examples of Germanic pagan belief preserved in this language...
) to the 9th century.
Old SaxonOld Saxon, also known as Old Low German, is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 8th century until the 12th century, when it evolved into Middle Low German. It was spoken on the north-west coast of Germany and in Denmark by Saxon peoples...
at this time belongs to the
North Sea GermanicIngvaeonic, also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that would fork into Old Frisian, Old English and Old Saxon and according to some the local dialect of West-Flanders...
cultural sphere, and
Low SaxonLow Saxon may refer to:*In political of territorial respect:**Of or relating to Lower Saxony**Of or relating to Saxe-Lauenburg**Of or relating to Lower Saxon Circle*In linguistic respect:**Any West Low German speech variety...
should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the
Holy Roman EmpireThe Holy Roman Empire was a union of territories in Central Europe during the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period under a Holy Roman Emperor. The first emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was Otto I, crowned in 962. The last was Francis II, who abdicated and dissolved the Empire in 1806 during...
.
As Germany was divided into many different
statesGermany is a Federal Republic consisting of sixteen states, known in German as . Since is also the German word for "country", the term is commonly used colloquially, as it is more specific, though technically incorrect within the corpus of German law.The citizens of the states form the nation...
, the only force working for a unification or
standardizationA standard language is a particular variety of a language that has been given either legal or quasi-legal status...
of German during a period of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible area.
Modern German
When
Martin LutherMartin Luther changed the course of Western civilization by initiating the Protestant Reformation. As a priest and theology professor, he confronted indulgence salesmen with his The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517. Luther strongly disputed their claim that freedom from God's punishment of sin could...
translated the
BibleThe Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic...
(the
New TestamentThe New Testament is the name given to the second major division of the Christian Bible, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament, both terms being associated with Supersessionism...
in 1522 and the
Old TestamentIn Christianity, the Old Testament is the collection of books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are known as the Septuagint, from the...
, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based his translation mainly on the bureaucratic standard language used in Saxony (
sächsische Kanzleisprache) also known as
Meißner-Deutsch (Meißner-German, i.e. of Meissen, founded 929 AD). This language was based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at that time began to lose the
genitive caseIn grammar, the genitive case is the case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
and the preterite tense). In the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region, which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and tried to create their own Catholic standard (
gemeines Deutsch) — which, however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details. It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that was widely accepted, thus ending the period of
Early New High GermanEarly New High German is a term for the period in the history of the German language, generally defined, following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 to 1650.Alternative periodisations take the period to begin later; e.g...
. In 1901 the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a complete standardization of German language in written form while the
Deutsche Bühnensprache (literally:
German stage-language) had already established spelling rules for German three years earlier which were later to become obligatory for general German pronunciation.
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-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a
merchantA merchant is a businessman who trades in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some cities, such as
PraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Nicknames for Prague have included "the mother of cities" , "city of a hundred spires", or Stověžatá Praha in Czech and "the golden city" or Zlaté město in Czech.Situated on the River Vltava in central Bohemia, Prague has been the...
(German:
Prag) and
BudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it serves as the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation center and is considered an important hub in Central Europe. In 2009, Budapest had 1,712,210 inhabitants, down from a mid-1980s...
(
BudaBuda is the western part of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the west bank of the Danube. The name Buda takes its name from the name of Bleda the Hun ruler, whose name is also Buda in Hungarian. Roman name for Buda was Aquincum Buda comprises about one-third of Budapest's complete territory and...
, German:
Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as
BratislavaBratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River...
(German:
Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. A few cities such as
MilanMilan in Italy, is the capital of the region of Lombardia and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while the urban area is the fifth largest in the E.U. with an estimated population of 4.3 million...
(German:
Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German:
Pressburg),
ZagrebZagreb is the capital and the largest city of Croatia. Zagreb is the cultural, scientific, economic and governmental center of Croatia, and a global city. According to the city government, the population of Zagreb in 2008 was 804,200...
(German:
Agram), and
LjubljanaLjubljana is the capital of Slovenia and its largest city. It is located in the centre of the country, historically part of the Inner Carniola, and is a mid-sized city of some 280,000 inhabitants. Ljubljana is regarded as the cultural, scientific, economic, political and administrative centre of...
(German:
Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages.
Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban
northern GermanyNorthern Germany is the geographic area in the north of Germany. The native German concept of northern Germany is called Norddeutschland.- Geography :...
, who spoke dialects very different from Standard German, learned it almost like a foreign language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern
German pronunciationThis article is about the phonology of the German language based on the standard dialect. It deals with current phonology and phonetics as well as with historical developments thereof, including geographical variants .Since German is a pluricentric language, there are a number of different...
to be the standard. However, the actual pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region.
Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German (often called
Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas where German is spoken.
The first dictionary of the
Brothers GrimmThe Brothers Grimm , Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics who were best known for publishing collections of folk tales and fairy tales and for their work in linguistics, relating to how the sounds in words shift over time .They are among the best known story...
, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the
Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the
German spelling reform of 1996The German orthography reform of 1996 is based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, the last-named being a quadrilingual country with a majority of German speakers...
was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period during which the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See
German spelling reform of 1996The German orthography reform of 1996 is based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, the last-named being a quadrilingual country with a majority of German speakers...
for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform, with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it.
Reform of 1996 and beyond
The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy and considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (Bundesländer) would not accept it (
North Rhine WestphaliaNorth Rhine-Westphalia is the westernmost and—in terms of population and economic output—the largest Federal State of Germany. North Rhine-Westphalia has over 18 million inhabitants, contributes about 22% of Germany's gross domestic product and comprises a land area of 34,083 km²...
and Bavaria). The dispute landed at one point in the highest court, which made a short issue of it, claiming that the states had to decide for themselves and that only in schools could the reform be made the official rule—everybody else could continue writing as they had learned it. After 10 years, without any intervention by the federal parliament, a major yet incomplete revision was installed in 2006, just in time for the coming school year. In 2007, some traditional spellings were finally invalidated even though they caused little or no trouble. The only sure and easily recognizable symptom of a text's being in compliance with the reform is the -ss at the end of words, such as
dass and
muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using
daß and
muß.
The cause of the controversy evolved around the question of whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth.
Standard German
Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a
written languageA written language is the representation of a language by means of a writing system. Written language is an invention in that it must be taught to children, who will instinctively learn or create spoken or gestural languages....
. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of
Northern GermanyNorthern Germany is the geographic area in the north of Germany. The native German concept of northern Germany is called Norddeutschland.- Geography :...
, but also in major cities in other parts of the country.
Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in
vocabularyA person's vocabulary is the set of words they are familiar with in a language. A vocabulary usually grows and evolves with age, and serves as a useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring knowledge.- Knowing and using a word :...
and some instances of
pronunciation"Pronunciation" refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If someone is said to have "correct pronunciation," then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
, and even
grammarIn linguistics, grammar is the set of logical and structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology and syntax, often complemented by phonetics, phonology,...
and
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional varieties of standard German are only to a certain degree influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a
pluricentric languageA pluricentric language is a language with several standard versions, both in spoken and in written forms. This situation usually arises when language and the national identity of its native speakers do not, or did not, coincide.-English:...
.
In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties according to situation.
In the German-speaking parts of
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, mixtures of dialect and standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation has been called a
medial diglossiaIn linguistics, diglossia is a situation where a given language community uses two languages or dialects: the first being the community's present day vernacular and the second being either an ancestral version of the same vernacular from centuries earlier , a distinct yet closely related present...
.
Swiss Standard GermanSwiss Standard German, referred to by the Swiss as Schriftdeutsch, or Hochdeutsch, is one of four official languages in Switzerland, besides French, Italian and Romansh...
is used in the Swiss, Austrian Standard German officially in the Austrian education system.
Official status
Standard German is the only
official languageAn official language is a language that is given a special legal status in a particular country, state, or other territory. Typically a nation's official language will be the one used in that nation's courts, parliament and administration. However, official status can also be used to give a...
in Liechtenstein; it shares official status in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
(with
DanishDanish is one of the North Germanic languages , a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages. It is spoken by around 6 million people, mainly in Denmark; the language is also used by the 50,000 Danes in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany where it holds the...
, Frisian and
SorbianThe Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. They are the native languages of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in eastern Germany. Historically the language has also been known as Wendish or Lusatian...
as minority languages), in Austria (with Slovene,
CroatianCroatian is a South Slavic language which is used primarily in Croatia, by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Croatian minorities in some neighbouring countries, in the Italian region of Molise, and parts of the Croatian diaspora....
, and
HungarianHungarian is a Uralic language unrelated to most other languages in Europe. It is mainly spoken in Hungary and by the Hungarian minorities in the seven neighbouring countries...
), Switzerland (with
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
,
ItalianItalian is a Romance language spoken by about 60 million people in Italy, and by a total of around 70 million in the world. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four official languages. It is also the official language of San Marino, as well as the primary language of Vatican City...
and Romansh), Belgium (with
DutchDutch is a West Germanic language spoken by over 22 million people as a native language, and over 5 million people as a second language.
"1% of the EU population claims to speak Dutch well enough in order to have a conversation." Outside the European Union the number of second language...
and French) and Luxembourg (with French and
LuxembourgishLuxembourgish , is a Moselle Franconian language spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 390,000 people worldwide speak Luxembourgish.-Language family:...
). It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of
SopronSopron ; , , Latin: Scarbantia) is a city in Hungary on the Austrian border, near the Neusiedler/Lake Fertő.- Ancient times-13th century :...
(Hungary), Krahule (
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
) and several cities in Romania. It is the official language (with Italian) of the
VaticanVatican City , officially the State of the Vatican City , is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, the capital city of Italy...
Swiss GuardSwiss Guards is the name given to the Swiss soldiers who have served as bodyguards, ceremonial guards, and palace guards at foreign European courts since the late 15th century. In contemporary usage it refers to the Pontifical Swiss Guard of Vatican City. They have generally had a high reputation...
.
German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (
South JutlandSouth Jutland is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland, Denmark. The region north of the Kongeå is called Nørrejylland . Both territories had their own ting assemblies in the Middle Ages . South Jutland is mentioned for the first time in the Knýtlinga saga.In the 13th century...
region), France (Alsace and
MoselleMoselle is a department in the east of France named after the river Moselle.- History :Moselle is one of the original 83 departments created during the French Revolution on March 4, 1790...
regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia,
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
(
OpoleThe bilingual status of gminas in Poland is regulated by the Act of 6 January 2005 on National and Ethnic Minorities and on the Regional Languages, which permits certain gminas with significant linguistic minorities to introduce a second, auxiliary language to be used in official contexts...
region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt).
German is one of the 23 official
languages of the European UnionThe languages of the European Union are languages used by people within the member states of the European Union. They include the twenty-three official languages of the European Union along with a range of others...
. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the
European UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 Member States, located primarily in Europe. Committed to regional integration, the EU was established by the Treaty of Maastricht on 1 November 1993 upon the foundations of the pre-existing European Economic Community...
, and, just behind English and ahead of French, the second-most spoken language in Europe.
German as a foreign language
German is the third most taught
foreign languageA foreign language is a language not spoken by the people of a certain place: for example, not only English but also Late Old Japanese is a foreign language in Japan. It is also a language not spoken in the native country of the person referred to, i.e. an English speaker living in Japan can say...
in the English speaking world after French and Spanish.
German is the main language of about 90–95 million people in Europe (as of 2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native language in Europe after
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
, above French (66.5 million speakers in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). It is therefore the most spoken first language in the EU. It is the second most known foreign language in the EU. It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three
working languageA working language is a language that is given a unique legal status in a supra-national company, society, state or other body or organization as its primary mean of communication...
s of
the European CommissionThe European Commission acts as an executive of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union.The Commission operates in the method of cabinet government, with 27...
, along with English and French. Thirty-two percent of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second or foreign language). This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable or satellite.
German was once, and still remains to some extent, a
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
in Central, Eastern, and
Northern EuropeNorthern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as including the following countries and dependent regions:** ** ** Ireland** Svalbard and Jan Mayen** ** Channel Islands: and...
.
Dialects
German is a member of the western branch of the
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
family of languagesA language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with biological families, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics...
, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into
High GermanThe High German languages or the High German dialects are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Yiddish, as well as the local German dialects spoken in central and southern Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Luxembourg and in neighbouring portions of Belgium,...
and Low German.
The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighboring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low Saxon languages.
Low German
Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian varieties are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII.
Middle Low GermanMiddle Low German is a language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. It served as the international lingua franca of the Hanseatic League...
was the
lingua francaA lingua franca is a language systematically used to communicate between persons not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both persons' mother tongues.Lingua franca is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic history or...
of the
Hanseatic LeagueThe Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading cities and their guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly along the coast of Northern Europe, from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland, during the Late Middle Ages and early modern period...
. It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the
Luther BibleThe Luther Bible is a German Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534. This translation is considered to be largely responsible for the evolution of the modern German language....
by Martin Luther was printed. This translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample audience and was based mainly on Central and
Upper GermanUpper German is a family of High German dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and northern Italy.- Family tree :Upper German can be generally classified as Alemannic or Austro-Bavarian...
varieties. The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as new trade routes to
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
and the
AmericasThe Americas, or America, are lands in the Western hemisphere or New World, comprising the continents of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions. America may be ambiguous in English, as it is more commonly used to refer to the United States of America...
were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany.
The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass
educationEducation in its broadest sense is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character or physical ability of an individual...
, the language of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated and at home. Today Low Saxon can be divided in two groups: Low Saxon varieties with a reasonable standard German influx and varieties of Standard German with a Low Saxon influence known as
MissingschMissingsch is a type of Low-German-coloured dialect or sociolect of German. It is characterised by Low-German-type structures and the presence of numerous loanwords from Low German in German ....
.
High German
High German is divided into
Central GermanCentral German is a group of High German dialects spread from the Rhineland to Thuringia, south of Low German and Low Franconian and north of Upper German. In older books, Central German is sometimes called Middle German.Central German divides into two subgroups, West Central German and East...
and Upper German. Central German dialects include Ripuarian,
Moselle FranconianMoselle Franconian is a group of High German dialects spoken in parts of the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, in the south of the German-speaking Community of Belgium, in the neighbouring département of Moselle in France, as well as in Romania, because of the...
,
Rhine FranconianRhine Franconian , or Rhenish Franconian, is a dialect family of West Central German. It comprises the German dialects spoken across the western regions of the states of Saarland, Rhineland-Palatinate, and Hesse in Germany...
, Central Hessian, East Hessian, Lower Hessian, Thuringian,
SilesianSilesian or Upper Silesian is a Slavic language spoken in the region of Silesia. The ISO 639-3 language code is szl.- Distribution :...
, High Franconian,
Lorraine FranconianLorraine Franconian is a designation, in practice ambiguous, for dialects of German spoken in the north-eastern part of the French region of Lorraine. These dialects all belong to the Western Central High German group of German dialects. The term Lorraine Franconian has multiple denotations...
, Mittelalemannisch, North Upper Saxon,
High PrussianHigh Prussian is a dialect of East Central German that developed in the region of East Prussia. The dialect developed from High German, brought in by Silesian German settlers in the 13th—15th centuries, and was influenced by the Baltic Old Prussian language...
, South Markish and Upper Saxon. It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and parts of Germany approximately between the River
MainThe Main is a river in Germany, 524 km long , and it is one of the more significant tributaries of the Rhine. The Main flows through the German states of Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Hesse...
and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is
Hochdeutsch, that is,
High German.
The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually considered a separate language known as
LuxembourgishLuxembourgish , is a Moselle Franconian language spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 390,000 people worldwide speak Luxembourgish.-Language family:...
.
Upper German dialects include
Northern Austro-BavarianNorthern Austro-Bavarian is a dialect of the Upper German language, mostly spoken in the Upper Palatinate and the adjacent parts of Upper and Middle Franconia. Its most prominent characteristics are the reversed diphthongs . It is the northern branch of Austro-Bavarian....
,
Central Austro-BavarianThe Central Austro-Bavarian Germanic dialects forming a subgroup of the Austro-Bavarian dialects. The subgroup covers all dialects spoken along the rivers Isar and Danube, on the northern side of the Alps....
,
Southern Austro-BavarianSouthern Austro-Bavarian is a term describing Germanic dialects which are part of the Austro-Bavarian group.They are primarily spoken in the Austrian federal-states of Tyrol, Carinthia and Styria, in the southern parts of Salzburg and Burgenland as well as in the Italian province of Bolzano-Bozen...
,
SwabianSwabian is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German, spoken in the region of Swabia. Swabia covers much of Germany's southwestern Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg and the southwest of the Bundesland Bavaria...
,
East FranconianEast Franconian is a dialect which is spoken in northern Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Bamberg, Coburg, Würzburg, Hof, Bayreuth and Suhl. The major subgroup is Main-Franconian...
,
High Alemannic GermanHigh Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and is considered a German dialect, even though they are only partly intelligible to non-Alemannic German speakers....
,
Highest Alemannic GermanHighest Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though mutual intelligibility with Standard German and other non-Alemannic German dialects is very limited....
,
AlsatianAlsatian means "from Alsace".It can refer to:* Alsatian language, the language or dialect of the Alsace region of Northeast France* A person from the Alsace region from France , or a speaker of the Alsatian language...
and
Low Alemannic GermanLow Alemannic is a branch of Alemannic dialects and belongs to the German language, even though they are only partly intelligible to German speakers.Variants:*dialects of Baden-Württemberg in Germany, and Alemán Coloniero spoken in Venezuela...
. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.
Wymysorys is a High German dialect of Poland, and
SathmarischSathmarisch is a dialect of High German. Sathmarisch is or was spoken in Romania in Satu Mare by persons of Swabian speaking German origin. Most speakers have emigrated into Western Germany.-External links:*...
and
SiebenbürgischSiebenbürgisch is a dialect of High German. Siebenbürgisch is spoken in Romania in Transylvania by persons of mainly Western German origin. Most speakers have emigrated to Western Germany....
are High German dialects of Romania. The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. It is the only Germanic language that does not use the
Latin alphabetThe Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, and was initially developed by the ancient Romans to write the Latin language.During the...
as its
standard scriptAn official script is a script that is specifically designated to be official in the constitutions or other applicable laws of countries, states, and other territories....
.
German dialects versus varieties of standard German
In German
linguisticsLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
, German
dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s are distinguished from
varietiesIn sociolinguistics a variety, also called a lect, is a form of a language used by speakers of that language. This may include dialects, accents, registers, styles or other sociolinguistic variation, as well as the standard language variety itself...
of
standard GermanStandard German is the standard variety of the German language used as a written language, in formal contexts, and for communication between different dialect areas...
.
- The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon
In linguistics, the lexicon of a language is its vocabulary, including its words and expressions. More formally, it is a language's inventory of lexemes....
, phonologyPhonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system...
and syntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages...
. If a narrow definition of languageA language is a system for encoding and decoding information. In its most common use, the term refers to so-called "natural languages" — the forms of communication considered peculiar to humankind. In linguistics the term is extended to refer to the human cognitive facility of creating and using...
based on mutual intelligibilityIn linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand each other without intentional study or extraordinary effort...
is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the EthnologueEthnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, primarily to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language.The Ethnologue contains statistics for 7,358 languages...
). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics.
- The varieties of standard German refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric
A pluricentric language is a language with several standard versions, both in spoken and in written forms. This situation usually arises when language and the national identity of its native speakers do not, or did not, coincide.-English:...
standard German. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany.
Grammar
German is an
inflected languageA fusional language is a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by its tendency to overlay many morphemes in a way which can be difficult to segment....
with three
grammatical genderIn linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
s; as such, there can be a large number of words derived from the same root, albeit there are other languages that are much more inflected. Written texts in German are easily recognisable as such by distinguishing features such as
umlautsIn linguistics, umlaut is a process whereby a vowel is pronounced more like a vowel or semivowel in a following syllable....
and a unique
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example for Kurdish, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is derived from Greek ὀρθός orthós and γράφειν...
—German is the only major language that capitalises all nouns—and the frequent occurrence of long compounds (the
longest German wordRinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz is a law of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern of 2000, dealing with the supervision of the labeling of beef.The name is an example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is...
is made of 63 characters).
Noun inflection
German nounsA German noun has one of three specific grammatical genders and belongs to one of three declension classes, only partly dependent of gender. A fourth declension is used for plural declension. These features remain unaltered by inflection but must be considered in this process. The grammatical...
inflect into:
- one of four case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. Usually a language is said to "have cases" only if nouns change their form to reflect their case. Others indicate cases in...
s: nominative, genitive, dativeThe dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. For example, in "John gave Mary a book"....
, and accusativeThe accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
.
- one of three genders
In linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once....
: masculine, feminine, or neutral. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender; for instance, nouns ending in ...ung (-ing), ...schaft (-ship), ...keit or ...heit (-hood) are feminine, while nouns ending in ...chen or ...lein (diminutiveIn language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form, is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
forms) are neuter and nouns ending in ...ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as ...er (-erIn English, the -er suffix can signify:*an agent noun, e.g., "singer".*a degree of comparison, e.g., "noisier"....
), e.g. Feier (feminine), Eng. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), Eng. labourer.
- two numbers: singular and plural
Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly inflected language, the degree of inflection is considerably less than in
Old GermanOld German could refer to:*Old High German*Old Low German *brands of beer produced by brewing companies, including Pittsburgh Brewing Company and Yuengling...
or in other old
Indo-European languagesThe Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major languages of Europe, Iran, and northern India, and historically also predominant in Anatolia and Central Asia...
such as
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
,
Ancient GreekAncient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic , Classical , and Hellenistic periods of ancient Greece and the ancient world. It is predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...
, or
SanskritSanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India. It is also declared as a classical language by the government of India....
, or, for instance, in modern
IcelandicIcelandic is a North Germanic language, the language of Iceland. Its closest relatives are Faroese and certain Norwegian dialects such as Telemark dialect and Sognamål....
or
RussianRussian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe...
. The three genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically, somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the
definite articleAn article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun, and may also specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference. there are only three articles, a, an and and. The articles in the English language are the and a...
used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases are losing way to substitutes in
informal speechIn the philosophy of language, a natural language is any language which arises in an unpremeditated fashion as the result of the innate facility for language possessed by the human intellect. A natural language is typically used for communication, and may be spoken, signed, or written...
. The dative ending is considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped, but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive, dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist in German:
-s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e.
In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence (
Am Freitag bin ich einkaufen gegangen. — "On Friday I went shopping.";
Eines Tages war er endlich da. — "One day he finally showed up".) This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language and several insular dialects of the
North Frisian languageNorth Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. There are two main dialectal divisions: those of the mainland and the insular dialects. There is no standard variety, although some have suggested the mainland Mooring dialect...
), although it was historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish and English), too.
Like most Germanic languages, German forms noun
compoundIn linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word-formation that creates compound lexemes...
s where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example:
Hundehütte (Eng.
dog hut; specifically:
doghouse). Unlike English, where newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in
open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German languages) nearly always uses the
closed form without spaces, for example: Baumhaus (Eng.
tree house). Like English, German allows arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (
See also English compounds.)
The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is
RindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetzRinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz is a law of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern of 2000, dealing with the supervision of the labeling of beef.The name is an example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is...
.
[which, literally translated, breaks up into: Rind (cattle) - Fleisch (meat) - Etikettierung(s) (labelling) - Überwachung(s) (supervision) - Aufgaben (duties) - Übertragung(s) (assignment) - Gesetz (law), so "Beef labelling supervision duty assignment law".]
Verb inflection
Standard German verbs inflect into:
- one of two conjugation classes, weak
In Germanic languages, including English, weak verbs are by far the largest group of verbs, which are therefore often regarded as the norm, though historically they are not the oldest or most original group.-General description:...
and strongIn the Germanic languages, a strong verb is one which marks its past tense by means of ablaut. In English, these are verbs like sing, sang, sung...
(like English).
(There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.)
- three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
- two numbers: singular and plural
- three mood
Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive verb forms that are used to signal modality.It is distinct from grammatical tense or grammatical aspect, although these concepts are conflated to some degree in many languages, including English and most other modern Indo-European languages, insofar...
s: indicative, imperative, subjunctive
- two voices: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic.
- two non-composed tenses (present
The present tense is the tense that may be used to express:* action at the present* a state of being;* an occurrence in the near future; or* an action that occurred in the past and continues up to the present....
, preteriteThe preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place in the past.-English:...
) and four composed tenses (perfectIn linguistics, the perfect tense is the past tense used to describe completed actions in the past.The perfect can be contrasted to the imperfect tense, which describes incomplete actions in the past...
, pluperfect, futureIn grammar, the future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:Languages can employ various...
and future perfectThe future perfect tense is used to describe an event that has not yet happened but is expected or planned to happen before another stated occurrence.- Formation of the future perfect in English :In English, this tense is formed as such:...
)
- distinction between grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow in the described event or state...
s is rendered by combined use of subjunctive and/or preterite marking; thus: neither of both is plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand information, subjunctive plus preterite marking forms the conditional state, and sole preterite is either plain indicative (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either second-hand-information or the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise.
- distinction between perfect and progressive aspect
The continuous and progressive aspects are grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time: they are non-habitual, imperfective aspects. It is a verb category with two principal meaning components: duration and incompletion...
is and has at every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but, strangely enough, is nowadays 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 - to see]).
Verb prefixes
There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the meaning of a base verb through a relatively small number of prefixes. Some of those prefixes have a meaning themselves (Example: zer- refers to the destruction of things, as in zerreißen = to tear apart, zerbrechen = to break apart, zerschneiden = to cut apart), others do not have more than the vaguest meaning in and of themselves (Example: ver- , as in versuchen = to try, vernehmen = to interrogate, verteilen = to distribute, verstehen = to understand). More examples: haften = to stick, verhaften = to imprison; kaufen = to buy, verkaufen = to sell; hören = to hear, aufhören = to cease; fahren = to drive, erfahren = to get to know, to hear about something.
Separable prefixes
Many
German verbsGerman verbs may be classified as either weak, with a dental consonant inflection, or strong, showing a vowel gradation . Both of these are regular systems. Most verbs of both types are regular, though various subgroups and anomalies do arise. The only completely irregular verb in the language...
have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. In
finite verbA finite verb is a verb that is inflected for person and for tense according to the rules and categories of the languages in which it occurs. Finite verbs can form independent clauses, which can stand by their own as complete sentences....
forms this 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 with" would be split, giving
Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?; a closer equivalent in colloquial English would be "Are you coming with?").
Indeed, several parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement; e.g.
- 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 literal translation of this example might look like this:
- He -rived on Friday evening, after a hard day at work and the usual annoyances that had been repeatedly troubling him for years now at his workplace, with questionable joy, to a meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already served him, finally ar- at home.
Word order
Word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common
word orderIn linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders...
s: one is for main
clauseIn grammar, a clause is a pair or group of words that consist of a subject and a predicate, although in some languages and some types of clauses, the subject may not appear explicitly as a noun phrase. It may instead be marked on the verb...
s and another for subordinate clauses. In normal affirmative sentences the
inflected verb always has position 2. In polar questions, exclamations and wishes it always has position 1. In subordinate clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the very end, but in speech this rule is often disregarded.
German requires that a verbal element (main verb or
auxiliary verbIn linguistics, an auxiliary is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it...
) appear second in the sentence. The verb is preceded by the
topicTopic can refer to:* An area of interest, also called a subject*What a composition is about; what is described by the main ideas and supporting details** The focus of an article in a publication** The focus of a discussion or debate; see On-topic...
of the sentence. The element in focus appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary this gives, amongst other options:
- (The old man gave me the book yesterday; normal order)
- (The book was given to me yesterday by the old man)
- (The book was given to me by the old man yesterday)
- (Yesterday I got the book from the old man, normal order)
- (As for me, the old man gave me the book yesterday (entailing: as for you, 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 sentenceIn linguistics, a sentence is an expression in natural language—a grammatical and lexical unit consisting of one or more words, representing distinct and differentiated concepts, and combined to form a meaningful statement, question, request and command....
in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. This is not the case in German.
Auxiliary verbs
When an
auxiliary verbIn linguistics, an auxiliary is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it...
is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. This occurs notably in the creation of the
perfect tenseIn linguistics, the perfect tense is the past tense used to describe completed actions in the past.The perfect can be contrasted to the imperfect tense, which describes incomplete actions in the past...
. Many word orders are still possible, e.g.:
- (The old man has given me the book today.)
- (The book, the old man has given it to me today.)
- (Today the old man has given me the book.)
Modal verbs
Sentences using modal verbs place the infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in Modern English "Should he go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he (to) home go?" (
). 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 English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't 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
futureThe future is a time period commonly understood to contain all events that have yet to occur. It is the opposite of the past, and is the time after the present. In the Occidental view, which uses a linear conception of time, the future is the portion of the projected time line that is anticipated...
,
passivePassive is the opposite of active. It has several specific meanings:* Passive voice of a verb* Passivation is the formation of a non-reactive surface film that inhibits further corrosion of a metal* Passive language, a kind of metalanguage...
,
modality- Humanities :* In law: the basis of legal argumentation in United States constitutional law* In theology: Modality : the organization and structure of the church, as distinct from sodality or parachurch organizations....
, and the
perfect tenseIn linguistics, the perfect tense is the past tense used to describe completed actions in the past.The perfect can be contrasted to the imperfect tense, which describes incomplete actions in the past...
, this can lead to very long chains of verbs at the end of the sentence. In these constructions, the past participle in
ge- is often replaced by the infinitive.
Man nimmt an, dass der Deserteur wohl erschossenV wordenpsv seinperf solltemod
One suspects that the deserter probably shot became be should
"It is suspected that the deserter has probably been shot"
The order at the end of such strings is subject to variation.
Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel hatte machen lassen
He knew not that the agent a picklock had made let
Er wusste nicht, dass der Agent einen Nachschlüssel machen lassen hatte
He knew not that the agent a picklock made let had
("He did not know that the agent had had a picklock made")
Vocabulary
Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Latin and
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
, and a smaller amount from French and most recently English. At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language in forming equivalents for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem repertory is great. Thus,
Notker LabeoNotker Labeo, also known as Notker Teutonicus i.e. "the German", Notker the German, or Notker III was a Benedictine monk and the first commentator on Aristotle active in the Middle Ages. "Labeo" means "the thick lipped". Later he was named Teutonicus in recognition of his services to the...
was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Overall, German has fewer Romance-language loanwords than English.
The coining of new, autochthonous words gave German a vocabulary of an estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century. In comparison, Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words today.
Even today, many low-key non-academic movements try to promote the
ErsatzErsatz is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement. Although it is used as an adjective in English, Ersatz can only function in German as a noun on its own, or as a part in compound nouns such as Ersatzteile or Ersatzspieler...
(substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or
neologousA neologism ; from Greek νές is a newly coined word that may be in the process of entering common use, but has not yet been accepted into mainstream language. Neologisms are often directly attributable to a specific person, publication, period, or event...
German alternatives. It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too.
The modern German scientific vocabulary has 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).
Present
German is written in the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with
UmlautThe word umlaut is the name of a type of sound shift in spoken language and of the diacritic mark used to represent it orthographically. The diacritic mark comprises a pair of dots or lines placed over the letter that represents the affected vowel sound. When the letter is an i, the diacritic...
, namely
ä,
ö and
ü, as well as the Eszett or
scharfes s (sharp s),
ßThe letter ß is a ligature in the German alphabet typically used to replace a double "s" in a word. Its German name is Eszett or scharfes S , and is pronounced as an unvoiced s .- Adelung versus Heyse :There are two ways to determine where to use ss and where to use ß...
.
Before the
German spelling reform of 1996The German orthography reform of 1996 is based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German-speaking countries of Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, the last-named being a quadrilingual country with a majority of German speakers...
,
ß replaced
ss after
long vowelsIn linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English...
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
capital ßCapital sharp s is the contestable majuscule of ß. Sharp s is nearly unique among the letters of the Latin alphabet in that it has no traditional upper case form...
, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For example,
Maßband (tape measure) is capitalized
MASSBAND. An exception is the use of ß in legal documents and forms when capitalizing names. To avoid confusion with similar names, a "ß" is to be used instead of "SS". (So: "KREßLEIN" instead of "KRESSLEIN".) A capital ß has been proposed and included in
UnicodeUnicode is a computing industry standard allowing computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
, ß is not used at all.
Umlaut vowels (ä, ö, ü) are commonly transcribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner ß can be transcribed as ss. German readers understand those transcriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if the regular umlauts are available because they are considered a makeshift, 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 these umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e, whereas dictionaries sort each umlauted vowel as a separate letter after the base vowel. As an example in a
telephone bookA telephone directory is a listing of telephone subscribers in a geographical area or subscribers to services provided by the organization that publishes the directory.-Content:...
Ärzte occurs after
Adressenverlage but before
Anlagenbauer (because Ä is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary
Ärzte and all other words starting with "Ä" occur after
Arzt and all other 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.
Past
Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in
blackletterBlackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of faces is...
typefaces (mostly in
FrakturThe German word Fraktur refers to a specific sub-group of blackletter typefaces. The word derives from the past participle fractus of Latin frangere...
, but also in
SchwabacherThe German word Schwabacher refers to a specific blackletter typeface. The term derives from the town of Schwabach.-Characteristics:The small-letter g and the capital-letter H have particularly distinctive forms.-History:...
) and written in corresponding
handwritingPenmanship or handwriting is the art of writing with the hand and a writing instrument. Styles of handwriting are also called hands or scripts.-History:...
(for example
KurrentKurrent is an old form of German handwriting based on late medieval cursive writing. It is known in full as Kurrentschrift or Alte Deutsche Schrift . In American English, its name has been seen shortened to Schrift. A well-known, although very late form of it, is Sütterlin...
and
SütterlinSütterlinschrift , or Sütterlin for short, is the last widely used form of the old German blackletter handwriting . In Germany, the old German cursive script developed in the 16th century replacing the Gothic handwriting at the same time that bookletters developed into the Fraktur typeface...
). These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or
sans serifIn typography, a sans-serif or sans serif typeface is one that does not have the small features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. The term comes from the Latin word sans, meaning "without"....
AntiquaAntiqua typefaces are those designed between about 1470 and 1600, specifically those by Nicolas Jenson and the Aldine roman commissioned by Aldus Manutius and cut by Francesco Griffo. Antiqua letterforms were modelled on a synthesis of Roman inscriptional capitals and Carolingian writing...
typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed forms however were claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages. The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered
AryanAryan is an English language loanword denoting variously*in historical or dated usage,**the Indo-Iranian languages and their speakers, viz. the Iranian and Indo-Aryan peoples**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers,...
, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. The Fraktur script remains present in everyday life through road signs, pub signs, beer brands and other forms of advertisement, where it is used to convey a certain rusticality and oldness.
A proper use of the
long sThe long, medial or descending s is a form of the minuscule letter 's' formerly used where 's' occurred in the middle or at the beginning of a word, for example ſinfulneſs...
, (
langes s),
ſThe long, medial or descending s is a form of the minuscule letter 's' formerly used where 's' occurred in the middle or at the beginning of a word, for example ſinfulneſs...
, is essential to write German text in Fraktur typefaces. Many Antiqua typefaces include the
long sThe long, medial or descending s is a form of the minuscule letter 's' formerly used where 's' occurred in the middle or at the beginning of a word, for example ſinfulneſs...
, also. A specific set of rules applies for the use of long s in German text, but it is rarely used in Antiqua typesetting, recently. 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 floor polish). One can decide which "s" to use by appropriate hyphenation, easily ("Wach-ſtube" vs. "Wachs-tube"). The long s only appears in lower case.
Vowels
German vowels (excluding diphthongs; see below) come in
short and
long varieties, as detailed in the following table:
| | A | Ä | E | I | O | Ö | U | Ü |
|---|
| short |
/a/ |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| long |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Short is realised as in stressed syllables (including
secondary stressSecondary stress is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the pronunciation of a word; the stronger degree of stress is called 'primary'. The International Phonetic Alphabet symbol for secondary stress is a short vertical line preceding and at the foot of the stressed syllable: the nun in...
), but as in unstressed syllables. Note that stressed short can be spelled either with
e or with
ä (
hätte 'would have' and
Kette 'chain', for instance, rhyme). In general, the short vowels are open and the long vowels are closed. The one exception is the open sound of long Ä; in some varieties of standard German, and have merged into , removing this anomaly. In that case, pairs like
Bären/Beeren 'bears/berries' or
Ähre/Ehre 'spike/honour' become homophonous).
In many varieties of standard German, an unstressed is not pronounced , but vocalised to .
Whether any particular vowel letter represents the long or short phoneme is not completely predictable, although the following regularities exist:
- If a vowel (other than i) is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single consonant, it is usually pronounced long (e.g. Hof ).
- If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e.g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word splits....
(e.g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e.g. hoffen ). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preceding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled, in other words this is not a feeding orderIn phonology, if two rules are in feeding order, rule A creates new phonological contexts in which rule B can apply. It would not have been possible for rule B to apply otherwise....
of geminationIn phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant.Consonant length is distinctive in some languages, for instance Arabic, Estonian, Finnish, Russian, Classical Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, and Luganda....
and then vowel shortening.
Both of these rules have exceptions (e.g.
hat 'has' is short despite the first rule;
Mond , '
moonThe Moon is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System. The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is , about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The common centre of mass of the system is located at about —a quarter the Earth's...
' is long despite the second rule). For an
i that is neither in the combination
ie (making it long) nor followed by a double consonant or cluster (making it short), there is no general rule. In some cases, there are regional differences: In central Germany (Hessen), the
o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is pronounced long while most other Germans would pronounce it short; the same applies to the
e in the geographical name "Mecklenburg" for people in that region. The word
Städte 'cities', is pronounced with a short vowel by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by
ch can be short (
Fach 'compartment',
Küche 'kitchen') or long (
Suche 'search',
Bücher 'books') almost at random. Thus,
Lache is homographous: (Lache) 'puddle' and (lache) 'manner of laughing' (coll.), 'laugh!' (Imp.).
German vowels can form the following digraphs (in writing) and diphthongs (in pronunciation); note that the pronunciation of some of them (ei, äu, eu) is very different from what one would expect when considering the component letters:
| spelling |
ai, ei, ay, ey |
au |
äu, eu |
| pronunciation |
|
|
|
Additionally, the digraph
ie generally represents the phoneme , which is not a diphthong. In many varieties, a /r/ at the end of a syllable is vocalised. However, a sequence of a vowel followed by such a vocalised /r/ is not considered a diphthong: Bär 'bear', er 'he', wir 'we', Tor 'gate', kurz 'short', Wörter 'words'.
In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a
glottal stopThe glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English the feature is represented for example by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those attempting an authentic pronunciation of...
[ʔ].
Consonants
- c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [t͡s] (before ä, äu, e, i, ö, ü, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, and consonants). The combination ck is, as in English, used to indicate that the preceding vowel is short.
- ch occurs most often and is pronounced either [ç] (after ä, ai, äu, e, ei, eu, i, ö, ü and consonants; in the diminutive suffix -chen; and at the beginning of a word) or [x] (after a, au, o, u). Ch never occurs at the beginning of an originally German word. In borrowed words with initial Ch there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. For example, the word "Chemie" (chemistry) can be pronounced [keːˈmiː], [çeːˈmiː] or [ʃeːˈmiː] depending on dialect.
- dsch is pronounced d͡ʒ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only.
- f is pronounced [f] as in "father".
- h is pronounced [h] as in "home" at the beginning of a syllable. After a vowel it is silent and only lengthens the vowel (e.g. "Reh" = roe deer
The European Roe Deer is a deer species of Europe, Asia Minor, and Caspian coastal regions. There is a separate species known as the Siberian Roe Deer that is found from the Ural Mountains to as far east as China and Siberia...
).
- j is pronounced [j] in Germanic words ("Jahr" [jaːɐ]). In younger loanwords, it follows more or less the respective languages' pronunciations.
- l is always pronounced [l], never [ɫ] (the English "dark L").
- q only exists in combination with u and appears in both Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "Qualität"). It is pronounced [kv].
- r is usually pronounced in a guttural
In linguistics, guttural R refers to pronunciation of a rhotic consonant as a guttural consonant. These consonants are usually uvular, but can also be realized as a velar, pharyngeal, or glottal rhotic...
fashion (a voiced uvular fricativeThe voiced uvular fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is R...
[ʁ] or uvular trillThe uvular trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a small capital R. The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is R\. This consonant is one of several collectively called guttural R...
[ʀ]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" ['ʁaːzən]; "Burg" [buʁk]). In spoken German, however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ɛɐ]—"Burg" [buɐk]). In some varieties, the r is pronounced as a "tongue-tip" r (the alveolar trillThe alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is informally and commonly called the rolling R or...
[r]).
- s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset
In phonetics and phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a syllable that precedes the syllable nucleus.-Syllable structure:The segmental structure of a syllable begins with an onset, followed by a rime or final....
(e.g. Sohn [zoːn]), otherwise [s] (e.g. Bus [bʊs]). In Austria and Switzerland, it is always pronounced [s]. A ss [s] indicates that the preceding vowel is short. st and sp at the beginning of words of German origin are pronounced [ʃt] and [ʃp], respectively.
- ß (a letter unique to German called "scharfes S" or "Eszett") was a ligature of a double s and of a sz and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter
Blackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to 1500. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of faces is...
typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e.g. "ich muss" → "ich muß"; "ich müsste" → "ich müßte"); within a word it contrasts with ss [s] in indicating that the preceding vowel is long (compare "in Maßen" [in 'maːsən] "with moderation" and "in Massen" [in 'masən] "in loads"). The use of ß has recently been limited by the latest German spelling reform and is no longer used for ss at the end of a syllable; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934.
- sch is pronounced [ʃ] (like "sh" in "Shine").
- tion in Latin loanwords is pronounced tsion.
- v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e.g. "Vater" [ˈfaːtɐ]) and [v] in most other words (e.g. "Vase" [ˈvaːzǝ]).
- w is pronounced [v] as in "vacation" (e.g. "was" [vas]).
- y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel.
- z is always pronounced [t͡s] (e.g. "zog" [t͡soːk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short.
Consonant shifts
German does not have any
dental fricativeDental fricative or interdental fricative - non-sibilant coronal fricative.There are two basic types: - voiced dental fricative - voiceless dental fricativeA thibilant is a term occasionally found for an dental fricative....
s (as English
th). The
th sounds, which the English language still has, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th centuries. 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", "
thouThe word thou is a second person singular pronoun in English. It is now largely archaic, having been replaced in almost all contexts by you. It is still used in parts of Northern England, the far north of Scotland, and a handful of US towns...
" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) → "du", "think" → "denken", "thirsty" → "durstig" and many other examples.
Likewise, the
gh in
GermanicThe Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European language family. The common ancestor of all the languages in this branch is Proto-Germanic, spoken in approximately the mid-1st millennium BC in Iron Age northern Europe...
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" and "thorough" → "durch", "high" → "hoch", "naught" → "nichts", etc.
Cognates with English
A sizable fraction of English vocabulary is
cognateCognates in linguistics are words that have a common etymological origin.An example of cognates within the same language would be English shirt and skirt, the former from Old English scyrte, the latter loaned from Old Norse skyrta, both from the same Common Germanic *skurtjōn-. Words with this type...
with German words, although the common ancestry may be somewhat obscured by various shifts in phonetics (e.g. the
High German consonant shiftIn historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift is a phonological development that took place in the southern parts of the West Germanic dialect continuum in several phases, probably beginning between the 3rd and 5th centuries AD, and was almost...
), meaning and orthography.
For example:
- the High German consonant shift *p→ff led to such cognates as Ger. Schiff with Eng. ship.
- Ger. Baum (meaning "tree") is cognate with Eng. beam as may be seen in the name of trees such as the hornbeam
Plants in the genus Carpinus are commonly called Hornbeams. They are relatively small hardwood trees. Many botanists place the hornbeams in the birch family Betulaceae, though some group them with the hazels and hop-hornbeams in a segregate family, Corylaceae...
and the whitebeamThe whitebeams are members of the Rosaceae family, in genus Sorbus subgenus Aria. They are deciduous trees with simple or lobed leaves, arranged alternately. They are related to the rowans , and many of the endemic restricted-range apomictic microspecies of whitebeam in Europe are thought to derive...
.
Words borrowed by English
- For a list of German loanwords in English, see :Category:German loanwords
English has taken many
loanwordA loanword is a word borrowed from one language and incorporated into another.-General:By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept, whereby it is the meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself.The word loanword is itself a calque of the German...
s from German, often without any change of spelling:
| German word |
English loanword |
Meaning of German word |
| Abseilen |
abseil |
to descend by rope |
| Angst |
angst Angst is a German, Danish, Norwegian and Dutch word for fear or anxiety. It is used in English to describe an intense feeling of strife...
|
fear |
| Ansatz |
ansatz Ansatz is a German noun with several meanings in the English language. The term "Ansatz" is used in describing solution methods for differential equations.-Definition:...
|
onset / entry |
| Anschluss |
anschluss The ' , also known as the ', was the 1938 de facto annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi regime....
|
connection / access |
| Automat |
automat An Automat is a fast food restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated vending machines.-Concept:...
|
automation / machine |
| Bildungsroman |
bildungsroman A bildungsroman is a coming-of-age kind of novel. It arose during the German Enlightenment, and in it, the author presents the psychological, moral and social shaping of the personality of a usually young main character...
|
novel of personal development |
| Blitz |
BlitzThe Blitz was the sustained bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, in World War II. While the Blitz hit many towns and cities across the country, it began with the bombing of London for 57 consecutive nights...
|
flash / lightning |
| Delikatessen |
delikatessen/delicatessen |
delicate / delicious food items |
| Doppelgänger |
doppelgänger A doppelgänger is the ghostly double of a living person, a sinister form of bilocation.In the vernacular, the word "doppelgänger" has come to refer to any double or look-alike of a person. The word is also used to describe the sensation of having glimpsed oneself in peripheral vision, in a...
|
look-alike of somebody |
| Edelweiß |
edelweissEdelweiss , is one of the best-known European mountain flowers, belonging to the sunflower family . The name comes from German edel and weiss...
|
edelweiss flower |
| Fest |
fest |
feast / celebration |
| Gedankenexperiment |
Gedankenexperiment |
thought experiment |
| Geländesprung |
gelandesprung |
ski jumping for distance on alpine equipment |
| Gemütlichkeit |
gemuetlichkeit |
snug feeling, cosiness, good nature, geniality |
| Gestalt |
Gestalt |
form or shape The shape of an object located in some space is the part of that space occupied by the object, as determined by its external boundary – abstracting from other properties such as colour, content, and material composition, as well as from the object's other spatial properties The shape (from...
; refers to a concept of 'wholeness' |
| Gesundheit! |
Gesundheit! (Amer.) |
health / bless you! (when someone sneezes) |
| Hinterland |
hinterland The hinterland is the land or district behind the borders of a coast or river. Specifically, by the doctrine of the hinterland, the word is applied to the inland region lying behind a port, claimed by the state that owns the coast...
|
interior / backwoods |
| kaputt |
kaput |
out of order, not working |
| Katzenjammer |
katzenjammer Katzenjammer are a British piano musical comedy duo comprising Steven Worbey and Kevin Farrell. The word Katzenjammer is German, meaning or "discordant sound" and is also sometimes used to indicate a general state of depression or bewilderment. It's sometimes used in reference to a hangover...
|
hangover |
| Kindergarten |
kindergartenis a form of education for young children which serves as a transition from home to the commencement of more formal schooling. Children are taught to develop basic skills through creative play and social interaction. In most countries kindergarten is part of the preschool system of early childhood...
|
literally "children garden" - nursery or preschool |
| Kraut |
kraut The German word Kraut when standing alone in English is used most frequently as a colloquial term for German people and is usually derogatory. Kraut is also used as an abbreviation for the traditional German and central European food, Sauerkraut....
|
cabbage |
| Poltergeist |
poltergeist , or recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis denotes an ostensibly paranormal phenomenon attributed to an an invisible spirit or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects, generally in a particular location such as a house or room or place within a...
|
noisy ghost |
| Realpolitik |
realpolitik Realpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on practical considerations, rather than ideological notions. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism...
|
diplomacy based on practical objectives rather than ideals |
| Rucksack |
rucksack |
backpack |
| Schadenfreude |
schadenfreudeSchadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, including Dutch, Danish and Swedish. -Spelling and etymology:...
|
taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune |
| Sprachraum |
sprachraum Sprachraum is a linguistic term used to designate a geographical area where a language, dialect, group or family of languages is spoken. The German word Sprachraum literally means "language space"....
|
area where a certain language is spoken |
| Übermensch |
ubermenschThe Übermensch is a concept in the Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nietzsche posited the Übermensch as a goal for humanity to set for itself in his 1883 book Thus Spoke Zarathustra ....
|
superhuman |
| verklemmt |
verklemmt |
inhibited |
| Waldsterben |
waldsterben |
dying floral environment (literally: "forest dying") |
| Wanderlust |
wanderlust Wanderlust is a loanword from German to English that designates a strong desire for or impulse to wander, or, in modern usage, to travel and to explore the world.-Etymology:...
|
desire, pleasure, or inclination to travel or walk |
| Weltanschauung |
weltanschauung |
worldview |
| Zeitgeist |
zeitgeist Zeitgeist is a German language expression referring to "the spirit of the times" and/or "the spirit of the age." The word Zeitgeist is used to describe the general cultural, intellectual, ethical, spiritual, and/or political climate within a nation or even specific groups, along with the general...
|
the spirit of the age; the trend at that time |
Promotion of the German language
The use and learning of the German language are promoted by a number of organisations. The government-backed
Goethe Institut (named after the famous German author
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheJohann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer and polymath. Goethe's works span the fields of poetry, drama, literature, theology, philosophy, humanism and science. Goethe's magnum opus, lauded as one of the peaks of world literature, is the two-part drama Faust...
) aims to enhance the knowledge of German culture and language within Europe and the rest of the world. This is done by holding exhibitions and conferences with German-related themes, and providing training and guidance in the learning and use of the German language. For example the Goethe Institut teaches the Goethe-Zertifikat German language qualification.
The German state broadcaster
Deutsche WelleDeutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio in 29 languages . It has a satellite television service, , that is available in four languages, and there is also an online news site...
is the equivalent of the British
BBC World ServiceThe BBC World Service is one of the most widely-recognised international broadcasters, currently broadcasting in 32 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays. It is politically independent, non-profit and...
and provides radio and television broadcasts in German and a variety of other languages across the globe. Its German language services are tailored for German language learners by being spoken at slow speed.
General references
- Michael Clyne
Michael George Clyne AM is an Australian linguist and academic.Educated at Caulfield Grammar School, Clyne studied for his Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees the University of Melbourne, focusing on Germanic and French languages...
, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704
- George O. Curme
George Oliver Curme, Sr. was an American grammarian and philologist. He is best known for his Grammar of the German Language , andA Grammar of the English Language ....
, A Grammar of the German Language (1904, 1922) — the most complete and authoritative work in English
- Anthony Fox, The Structure of German (2005) ISBN 0199273995
- W.B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505
External links