German Deutsch
Pronunciation:	[dɔʏ̯tʃ]
Spoken in:	Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and in some border areas, Belgium, Italy and Russia as a minority language and Alsace in the form of a dialect.
Region:	Central Europe, Western Europe
Total speakers:	Native speakers: ca. Central Europe is the Region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe at its most general meaning means 'all the countries in the West of Europe ' 105 million [1][2] Non-native speakers: ca. 80 million[1] [1]
Ranking:	10
Language family:	Indo-European  Germanic   West Germanic    German
Writing system:	Latin alphabet (German variant)
Official status
Official language in:	Austria Belgium Province of Bolzano-Bozen, Italy Germany Liechtenstein Luxembourg Switzerland European Union (official and working language) Further official standings in: Krahule/Blaufuß, Slovakia (Official municipal language)[3] Namibia (National language; official language 1984–90) [4] Poland(Auxiliary language in several municipalities) [5] Vatican City (Administrative and commanding language of the Swiss Guard) [6] Recognised minority language in: Czech Republic [7] Denmark [8] Hungary [9] Romania [10] Slovakia [1],[3]
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	de
ISO 639-2:	ger (B)	deu (T)
ISO 639-3:	variously: deu – Modern German gmh – Middle High German goh – Old High German gsw – Swiss German swg – Swabian German gct – Alemán Coloniero wae – Walser German bar – Austro-Bavarian yid – Saxon-Thuringian Dialect mhn – Yiddish nds – Mócheno sxu – Low German cim – Upper Saxon sli – Cimbrian wep – Lower Silesian language pfl – Palatinate German pdt – Plautdietsch vmf – Main-Franconian ksh – Kölsch pdc – Pennsylvania German language geh – Hutterite German ltz – Luxembourgish language rip – Ripuarian (language) uln – Unserdeutsch
Major German-speaking communities
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This is a list of languages, ordered by the number of native-language speakers, with some data for second-language use List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of Languages and include languages such as English A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The German Alphabet consists of the same 26 letters as the modern Roman alphabet: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich The 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 The Province of Bolzano-Bozen (Provincia autonoma di Bolzano Autonome Provinz Bozen Ladin: Provinzia Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. The Principality of Liechtenstein (Fürstentum Liechtenstein) is a tiny doubly landlocked Alpine country in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland Luxembourg (Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg Grand-Duché de Luxembourg Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small Landlocked country in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Krahule (Blaufuß Kékellő till 1899 Blaufusz) is a Village in Žiar nad Hronom District in the Banská Bystrica Region of central Slovakia (long form Slovak Republic; Slovak:, long form, is a Landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa on the Atlantic coast Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Vatican City, officially the State of the Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano is a Landlocked sovereign City-state whose territory Swiss Guards Swiss mercenary is the name given to those soldiers who have served as Bodyguards, ceremonial guards and palace guards at foreign European courts since The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Slovakia (long form Slovak Republic; Slovak:, long form, is a Landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages New High German (NHG is the term used for the most recent period in the history of the German language. Middle High German (MHG German Mittelhochdeutsch) is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350 Swiss German ( Schweizerdeutsch, Schwyzerdütsch, Schwiizertüütsch, Schwizertitsch) is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken Swabian ( Schwäbisch) is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German, spoken in the region of Swabia. Alemán Coloniero, spoken in Colonia Tovar, Venezuela, is a dialect that belongs to the Low Alemannic branch of German. The Walser language, in German Walserdeutsch, is a group of Highest Alemannic Dialects spoken in Walser settlements in parts of Austro-Bavarian or Bavarian is a major group of Upper German varieties. Thuringian is an Central German Dialect spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia. Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High Mócheno is an Upper German Dialect spoken in three towns of the Fersina Valley ( German: Fersental, Italian: Valle Low German or Low Saxon (in Germany: Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch; in Netherlands: Nedersaksisch or Nederduuts Upper Saxon ( German: Obersächsisch or colloquially (but incorrectly Sächsisch) is a Central German Dialect spoken Cimbrian (also Tzimbrisch) refers to any of several local Upper German Dialects spoken in northeastern Italy. Westphalian is one of the major dialect groups of West Low German. Palatine German ( Pfälzisch / Pälzisch or Pfaelzisch / Paelzisch) is a West Franconian dialect of German which is spoken Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence that developed in Main-Franconian is group of German dialects being part of the East Franconian group Kölsch (Colognian is a very closely related small set of Dialects or variants of the Ripuarian Central German group of languages Hutterite German ( Hutterisch) is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Luxembourgish (lb Lëtzebuergesch Luxembourgeois Luxemburgisch Luxemburgs Lussimbordjwès also called Luxembourgian, also spelled Luxemburgish, is one of German Middle German West Middle German Ripuarian Ripuarian ( Ripoarish or Ripuarisch Platt, literally "Riverine" or "Riparian Low German" Unserdeutsch ("Our German" or Rabaul Creole German, is a German-based creole language spoken primarily in Papua New Guinea and the northeast In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

The German language (Deutsch, [dɔʏ̯tʃ] (help·info)) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of Languages and include languages such as English A world language is a language spoken internationally which is learned by many people as a Second language. German is closely related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname Around the world, German is spoken by approximately 100 million native speakers and also about 80 million non-native speakers, and Standard German is widely taught in schools, universities, and Goethe Institutes worldwide. A first language (also mother tongue, native language, arterial language, or L1) is the language a human being learns from birth Standard German ( German: Hochdeutsch) is the standard varieties of the German language used as a Written language, in formal contexts The Goethe-Institut ( Goethe Institute in English is a German cultural institution operational worldwide promoting the study of the German language

Contents 1 Geographic distribution 1.1 Europe 1.2 Overseas 1.2.1 South America 1.2.2 North America 1.2.3 Creoles 1.2.4 Internet 2 History 3 Standard German 3.1 Official status 3.2 German as a foreign language 4 Dialects 4.1 Low German 4.2 High German 4.3 German dialects versus varieties of standard German 5 Grammar 5.1 Noun inflection 5.2 Verb inflection 5.2.1 Verb prefixes 5.2.1.1 Separable prefixes 5.3 Word order 5.3.1 Auxiliary verbs 5.3.2 Modal verbs 5.3.3 Multiple infinitives 6 Vocabulary 7 Writing system 7.1 Present 7.2 Past 8 Phonology 8.1 Vowels 8.2 Consonants 8.2.1 Consonant shifts 9 Cognates with English 10 Words borrowed by English 11 Names for German in other languages 12 See also 13 References 13.1 Notes 13.2 General references 14 External links

Geographic distribution

Europe

Main article: German-speaking Europe

Further information: German as a minority language

German is spoken primarily in Germany (95%), Austria (89%) and Switzerland (64%) together with Liechtenstein, Luxembourg (D-A-CH-Li-Lux) constituting the countries where German is the majority language. The German language (both as an official language and as a minority language is spoken in a number of countries and territories in West and Central Europe German -speaking minorities ( Ethnic Germans) live in many countries and on all six inhabited Continents the countries of the former Soviet Union The Official language of Germany is Standard German, with over 95% of the country speaking Standard German or German dialects as their first language The Languages of Austria include German, the official and most widely spoken language and several minority languages The Linguistic geography of Switzerland is on the main tripartite with the Swiss German region ( Deutschschweiz) in the northeast The Principality of Liechtenstein (Fürstentum Liechtenstein) is a tiny doubly landlocked Alpine country in Western Europe, bordered by Switzerland Luxembourg (Groussherzogtum Lëtzebuerg Grand-Duché de Luxembourg Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small Landlocked country in Western Europe, bordered by The German language (both as an official language and as a minority language is spoken in a number of countries and territories in West and Central Europe

Other European German-speaking communities are found in Italy (Bolzano-Bozen), in the East Cantons of Belgium, in the french area Alsace which often was traded between Germany and France in history and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The Province of Bolzano-Bozen (Provincia autonoma di Bolzano Autonome Provinz Bozen Ladin: Provinzia The German-speaking Community of Belgium (Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens DGB) is one of the three federal communities in Belgium. The 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 This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Alsace (Alsace alzas Alsatian and Elsass pre-1996 German: Elsaß; Alsatia is one of the 26 Regions of France, located on the eastern Short description of South Jutland South Jutland county is also known as Northern Schleswig ( Danish: Nordslesvig, German: Nordschleswig The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe

Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Kazakhstan, also Kazakstan ( Қазақстан, Qazaqstan, qɑzɑqˈstɑn Казахстан, Kazakhstán,) officially the It is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their descendants in Portugal, Spain, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia). Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic (República Portuguesa is a country on the Iberian Peninsula. Spain () or the Kingdom of Spain (Reino de España is a country located mostly in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Morocco (المغرب "al-Maghrib" officially the Kingdom of Morocco (المملكة المغربية is a country located in North Africa This article is about the country of Egypt For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Egypt topics. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Israel topics. Cyprus (Κύπρος transliterated: Kýpros,; Kıbrıs officially the Republic of Cyprus (Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία Kypriakī́ Dīmokratía Turkey (Türkiye known officially as the Republic of Turkey ( is a Eurasian Country that stretches Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Netherlands ( Dutch:, ˈnedərlɑnt is the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which consists of the Netherlands the Netherlands Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving The state of Bulgaria (България transliterated bg-Latn ''Balgaria'' The country preserves the traditions (in ethnic name language and alphabet of the First Bulgarian See also Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Yugoslavia ( Serbo-Croatian Bosnia and Herzegovina ( Latin script: Bosna i Hercegovina, Cyrillic script: Босна и Херцеговина is a country on the Balkan Serbia (Србија Srbija) officially the Republic of Serbia (Република Србија Republika Srbija) is a Landlocked Country The Republic of Macedonia (Република Croatia (Hrvatska ˈxȓvatska officially the Republic of Croatia ( Republika Hrvatska) is a southern Central European country at the crossroads between Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija) is a Country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west

In Luxembourg and the surrounding areas, big parts of the native population speak German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Alsace (Alsace alzas Alsatian and Elsass pre-1996 German: Elsaß; Alsatia is one of the 26 Regions of France, located on the eastern Lorraine (Lothringen is one of the 26 régions of France. It is the only administrative region with two cities of equal importance Metz and Nancy French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people

Overseas

Main article: German diaspora

Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States, Canada, Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last 200 years; but the vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page |utc_offset = -2 to -4 |time_zone_DST = BRST |utc_offset_DST = -2 to -5 |cctld For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Argentina topics. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia. This is a list of former German Empire colonies and Protectorates (Schutzgebiete the German colonial empire. Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa on the Atlantic coast The Republic of South Africa (also known by other official names) is a country located at the southern tip of the continent of Africa Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. The Dominican Republic ( Spanish: República Dominicana;) is a nation located in the Caribbean region and shares the island of Hispaniola with Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay ( Spanish: República del Paraguay; Guaraní: Tetã Paraguái) is one of the only Uruguay.(official full name in República Oriental del Uruguay;, Oriental Republic of Uruguay) is a country located in the southeastern part of South America Chile, officially the Republic of Chile ( Spanish:) is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow Coastal strip wedged between the Peru (Perú Piruw Piruw officially the Republic of Peru ( reˈpuβlika del peˈɾu is a country in western South America. Venezuela (ˌvɛnəˈzweɪlə) officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (Spanish República Bolivariana de Venezuela) is a country on the Alemán Coloniero, spoken in Colonia Tovar, Venezuela, is a dialect that belongs to the Low Alemannic branch of German. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics.

South America

In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed), Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Espírito Santo, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. (ʁiu ˈgɾɐ̃de do ˈsuɫ lit "Large River of the South" is the southernmost State of Brazil, and the State with the fourth highest Human Development Riograndenser Hunsrückisch ( Portuguese: hunsriqueano riograndense) is a Brazilian variation of the German dialect Hunsrückisch (ˈsɐ̃ta kataˈɾina is a state in southern Brazil with one of the highest standards of living in the country Other meanings Paraná Argentina, Paraná River Paraná (paɾaˈna is one of the states of Brazil, For the Portuguese company see Espírito Santo Financial Group Espírito Santo (is In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico. According to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, a refugee is a person who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica,) is a Country in Panama, officially the Republic of Panama (República de Panamá) is the southernmost country of Central America. Early German immigration According to Professor Ursula Acosta, the first German immigrants arrived in Puerto Rico from Curaçao and Austria during

North America

The United States has the largest concentration of German speakers outside of Europe; an indication of this presence can be found in the names of such villages and towns as New Leipzig, Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg, North Dakota, and New Braunfels, Texas. New Leipzig is a city in Grant County, North Dakota in the United States. Munich is a city in Cavalier County, North Dakota in the United States. Karlsruhe is a city in McHenry County, North Dakota in the United States. Strasburg is a city in Emmons County, North Dakota in the United States. North Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America. New Braunfels ( is a city in Comal and Guadalupe counties in the U Though over the course of the 20th century many of the descendants of 18th and 19th-century immigrants ceased speaking German at home, small populations of elderly (as well as some younger) speakers can be found in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites historically spoke Pennsylvania Dutch (a West Central German variety) and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern The Amish (ˈɑːmɪʃ are members of an Anabaptist Christian denomination best known for Simple living, Plain dress and resisting modern conveniences Hutterites are a communal branch of Anabaptists who like the Amish and Mennonites, trace their roots to the Radical Reformation of the 16th century The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons (1496&ndash1561 though his teachings were a relatively Pennsylvania German (also Pennsylvania Dutch, Deitsch, Pennsylvania Deutsch, Pennsilfaanisch-Deitsch, Pennsilfaani-Deitsch, Pennsilveni-Deitsch West Central German ( Westmitteldeutsch) belongs to the Central, High German dialect family in the German language. Hutterite German ( Hutterisch) is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Kansas ( is a Midwestern state in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American " The Volga Germans (Wolgadeutsche or Russlanddeutsche) were Ethnic Germans living along the Volga River in the region of southern European Russia The German minority in Russia and the Soviet Union was created from several sources and in several waves The Baltic Germans (Deutschbalten or Baltendeutsche) were mostly ethnically German inhabitants of the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, which today South Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. Montana ( is a state in the Western United States. One-third of the state in the western part contains numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named of the northern Texas ( is a state geographically located in the South Central United States and is also known as the Lone Star State. Texas 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 Wisconsin ( or wɪˈskɑnsɨn (French Ouisconsin) is one of the fifty United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States The State of Indiana ( was the 19th US state admitted into the union The State of Louisiana ( or, État de Louisiane, pronounced) is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Most of the post–World War II wave are in the New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago urban areas, and in Florida, Arizona and California where large communities of retired German, Swiss and Austrian expatriates live. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth most populous city Florida ( is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the The State of Arizona ( is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. Although the American population of German ancestry is above 60 million, only 5–6 million still speak some German; see the website: www. German Americans ( German: Deutschamerikaner) are citizens of the United States of Ethnic German ancestry ethnologue. com/show_country. asp?name=USA.

In Canada there are people of German ancestry throughout the country and especially in the western cities such as Kelowna. Kelowna (2007 population 106707 metropolitan population of 165596 is a City on Okanagan Lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia German is also spoken in Ontario and southern Nova Scotia. Ontario (ɒnˈtɛrioʊ is a province located in the central part of Canada, the largest by population and second largest after Quebec Nova Scotia (ˌnəʊvəˈskəʊʃə ( Latin for New Scotland; Alba Nuadh Nouvelle-Écosse is a Canadian province located on Canada 's There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. The City of Kitchener (ˈkɪtʃɨnɚ is a City in southwestern Ontario, Canada. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, but post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. Montreal, or Montréal in French ( pronounced in French, in English) is the largest city in the Canadian province of Quebec Toronto (təˈrɒntoʊ colloquially pronounced or) is the largest city in Canada and is the provincial capital of Ontario Vancouver (vænˈkuːvɚ is a coastal In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language one of Canada's most spoken after French. The 2006 Canadian census put the number of Canadians of German ethnicity at 3179425 French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people

In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, Mazatlán, Tapachula, and larger populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and Zacatecas. Mexico City (in Spanish: Ciudad de México, México DF, México or simply Méjico) is the Capital city of Mexico Is a Mexican state located in the center east of the country to the east of Mexico City. Mazatlán ( IPA: zat ˈlan is a city in the Mexican state of Sinaloa; the surrounding Municipio (municipality for which Tapachula is a municipio ( municipality) and city with a hot humid climate in the Mexican state of Chiapas. Durango (duˈɾaŋgo is one of the constituent States of Mexico. Zacatecas is one of the 31 constituent states of Mexico. It is located in the north-central region and it is bounded to the northwest by Durango German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture. Guadalajara (ˌgwɑːdləˈhɑːrə Spanish pronunciation) is the capital city of the Mexican state of Jalisco, and the seat of the municipality Standard German is spoken by the affluent German communities in Puebla, Mexico City, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo. Nuevo León ( Spanish for "New León " after the former kingdom in Spain) is a state located in northeastern Mexico. San Luis Potosí is the name of both a state in Mexico and that state's capital city Quintana Roo (kinˈtana ˈro is a state of Mexico, on the eastern part of the Yucatán Peninsula.

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 dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles dialects of Carinthia. The Palatinate (Pfalz Pfälzer dialect Palz) historically also Rhenish Palatinate (palatinatum Renensis Rheinpfalz is a region in south-western Germany Carinthia (Kärnten Koroška is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Texas German is a dialect spoken in the areas of Texas settled by the Adelsverein, such as New Braunfels and Fredericksburg. Texas 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 Adelsverein, the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas, organized on April 20, 1842, was a colonial attempt to establish a new Germany In the Amana Colonies in the state of Iowa Amana German is spoken. The Amana Colonies are a group of settlements of German Pietists in Iowa, USA, comprising seven villages German dialect is dominated by the geographical spread of the High German consonant shift, and the Dialect continuum that connects the German with Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in Northern Mexico by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000 people in Mexico. Plautdietsch, or Mennonite Low German, was originally a Low Prussian variety of East Low German, with Dutch influence that developed in A minority language is a Language spoken by a Minority of the Population of a country The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons (1496&ndash1561 though his teachings were a relatively

Hutterite 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. Hutterite German ( Hutterisch) is an Upper German dialect of the Austro-Bavarian variety of the German language, which is spoken by Austro-Bavarian or Bavarian is a major group of Upper German varieties. Hutterite is spoken in the U. S. states of Washington, Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota, and Minnesota; and in the Canadian provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Washington ( is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers Alberta (ælˈbɝtə is one of Canada's prairie provinces. It became a province on September 1 1905 Saskatchewan (səˈskætʃəwən) is a prairie province in Canada, which has an area of 588276 Manitoba (English ˌmænɨˈtoʊbə French /manitoba/ is a province of Canada, spanning 647797 square kilometres (250116  sq mi of North America 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.

Creoles

There is an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of New Guinea and in North Australia, by few elderly people. Unserdeutsch ("Our German" or Rabaul Creole German, is a German-based creole language spoken primarily in Papua New Guinea and the northeast The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts to revive interest in the language are being implemented by scholars.

Internet

According to Global Reach (2004), 6. Global Reach is a business initiative to increase the access between a company and their current and potential customers through the use of the Internet. 9% of the Internet population is German. ^[11][12] According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7. 7% of webpages are written in German,^[13] making it second only to English in the European language group. They also report that 12% of Google's users use its German interface. ^[13]

Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics. ^[14] FUNREDES^[15] (1998) and Vilaweb^[16] (2000) both found that German is the third most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese.

History

Main article: History of German

The history of the language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, separating High German dialects from common West Germanic. In Historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift was a phonological development ( Sound change) which took place The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions, or sometimes Völkerwanderung ( German for "wandering of peoples" is the English name The High German languages (in German, Hochdeutsch) are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of Languages and include languages such as English The earliest testimonies of Old High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses (Abrogans) date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. The Elder Futhark (or Elder Fuþark, Older Futhark, Old Futhark) is the oldest form of the Runic alphabet, used by Germanic tribes The Abrogans, or Codex Abrogans (St Gall Stiftsbibliothek Cod The Lay of Hildebrand ( Das Hildebrandslied) is a Heroic Lay, written in Old High German Alliterative verse. Muspilli is one of but two surviving pieces of Old High German Epic poetry (the other being Hildebrandslied) dating to around The Merseburg Incantations (die Merseburger Zaubersprüche are two medieval magic spells charms or Incantations written in Old High German. Old Saxon at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence during the Holy Roman Empire. Old Saxon, also known as Old Low German ( ISO 639 -3 code osx) is the earliest recorded form of Low German, documented from the 9th century Ingvaeonic, also known as North Sea Germanic, is a postulated grouping of the West Germanic languages that would fork into Old Frisian, Old English The Anglo-Frisian languages (sometimes Insular Germanic) are a group of Ingvaeonic West Germanic languages consisting of Old English The Holy Roman Empire ( HRE; German Heiliges Römisches Reich (HRR, Latin Sacrum Romanum Imperium (SRI was a union of territories in

As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force working for a unification or standardization 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. A state is a political association with effective Sovereignty over a geographic Area and representing a Population. A standard language (also standard dialect, standardized dialect, or standardised dialect) is a particular variety of a Language that

When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and the Old Testament, 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), which was the most widely understood language at this time, because the region it was spoken in was quite influential amongst the German states. Martin Luther (November 10 1483 February 18 1546 was a German Monk, theologian, university professor Father of Protestantism, and church reformer Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin In Western Christianity, the Old Testament refers to the books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. 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 case and the preterite tense). In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another 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 German. Early New High German (ENHG is a term for the period in the history of the German language, generally defined following Wilhelm Scherer, as the period 1350 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 used to be the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Habsburg Monarchy (alternatively Habsburg Empire) refers to the territories ruled by the Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg, and then by the successor Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Merchants function as professionals who deal with Trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves in order to produce Profit. Some cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest (Buda, German: Ofen), were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. Prague (ˈprɑːg Praha (ˈpraɦa see also other names) is the Capital and Largest city of the Czech Republic. Budapest ( also /ˈbʊ-/) is the capital city of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary it serves as the country's principal Political, Buda ( German: Ofen, Croatian: Budim, Slovak / Czech: Budín, Serbian: Будим or Germanisation (also spelled Germanization) is either the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or Assimilation Others, such as Bratislava(German: Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were primarily German at that time. ARTICLE TEXT BEGINS AFTER THESE COMMENTS - PLEASE READ 1 Please do not edit the lead without reading A few cities such as Milan (German: Mailand) remained primarily non-German. Milan (Milano Milan (listen) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy. However, most cities were primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest, Bratislava (German: Pressburg), Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach), though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages. Zagreb (ˈzɑːgrɛb is the Capital and the largest city of Croatia. Ljubljana ( is the largest and Capital city of Slovenia. It is located in the center of the country and is a mid-sized city of some 270000 inhabitants

Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language. At this time, people in urban northern Germany, 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. Northern Germany is the geographic area in the north of Germany. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern German pronunciation to be the standard. German phonology describes the Phonology of Standard German. Since German is a Pluricentric language, there are a number of different pronunciations 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, except by pre-school children in areas which speak only dialect, for example Switzerland and Austria. A nursery school is a school for children between the ages of three and five staffed by qualified teachers and other professionals who encourage and supervise educational play rather than Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Austria (Österreich ( officially the Republic of Austria (Republik Österreich However, in this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand Standard German before school age.

The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to the words of the German language. The Brothers Grimm ( German: Die Gebrüder Grimm) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, In 1860, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. The Duden ( is a German Dictionary, first published by Konrad Duden in 1880 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 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental representatives of all German-speaking countries. The German spelling reform of 1996 ( Rechtschreibreform) is based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German -speaking Since the reform, German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of 1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing to adopt it. The German spelling reform of 1996 ( Rechtschreibreform) is based on an international agreement signed in Vienna in July 1996 by the governments of the German -speaking

The German spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (Bundesländer) would not accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). North Rhine-Westphalia (Nordrhein-Westfalen usually shortened to NRW, official short form NW is the westernmost and - in terms of population and economic output - the 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 new school year of 2006. In 2007, some venerable spellings will be 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, like in dass and muss. Classic spelling forbade this ending, instead using daß and muß. The cause of the controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating information which has to allow for growth. (The reformers seemed to be unimpressed by the fact that a considerable part of that culture - namely the entire German literature of the 20th century - is in the old spelling. )

The increasing use of English in Germany's higher education system, as well as in business and in popular culture, has led various German academics to state, not necessarily from an entirely negative perspective, that German is a language in decline in its native country. For example, Ursula Kimpel, of the University of Tübingen, said in 2005 that “German universities are offering more courses in English because of the large number of students coming from abroad. Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen ( German: Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, sometimes called the "Eberhardina Carolina" is a public university German is unfortunately a language in decline. We need and want our professors to be able to teach effectively in English. ”^[17]

Standard German

Main article: Standard German

Standard German originated not as a traditional dialect of a specific region, but as a written language. Standard German ( German: Hochdeutsch) is the standard varieties of the German language used as a Written language, in formal contexts A written language is the representation of a Language by means of a Writing system. However, there are places where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but also in major cities in other parts of the country.

Standard German differs regionally, between German-speaking countries, in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation, and even grammar and orthography. The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all Words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing Grammar is the field of Linguistics that covers the Rules governing the use of any given natural language. The orthography of a language specifies the correct way of using a specific Writing system to write the language 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 language.

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 Switzerland, 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 diglossia. In Linguistics, diglossia is a situation where in a given society there are two (often closely-related languages one of high prestige, which is generally used Standard Swiss German is used in the Swiss education system.

Official status

Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein and Austria; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and Sorbian as minority languages), Switzerland (with French, Italian and Romansch), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French and Luxembourgish). An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Danish ( d̥ænsɡ̊ is one of the North Germanic languages (also called Scandinavian languages a sub-group of the Germanic branch of the The Frisian languages are a closely related group of Germanic languages, spoken by about 500000 members of Frisian Ethnic groups who live on the southern The Sorbian languages are classified under the Slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Romansh or Romansch may refer to Romansh language Romansh people Dutch ( is a West Germanic language spoken by around 24 million people 22 million of which are from the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname Luxembourgish (lb Lëtzebuergesch Luxembourgeois Luxemburgisch Luxemburgs Lussimbordjwès also called Luxembourgian, also spelled Luxemburgish, is one of It is used as a local official language in Italy (Province of Bolzano-Bozen), as well as in the cities of Sopron (Hungary), Krahule (Slovakia) and several cities in Romania. The Province of Bolzano-Bozen (Provincia autonoma di Bolzano Autonome Provinz Bozen Ladin: Provinzia For the historical county in the Kingdom of Hungary named Sopron / Ödenburg Sopron (county. Slovakia (long form Slovak Republic; Slovak:, long form, is a Landlocked country in Central Europe with a population of over five million It is the official language (with Italian) of the Vatican Swiss Guard. Vatican City, officially the State of the Vatican City (Stato della Città del Vaticano is a Landlocked sovereign City-state whose territory Swiss Guards Swiss mercenary is the name given to those soldiers who have served as Bodyguards, ceremonial guards and palace guards at foreign European courts since

German has an officially recognized status as regional or auxiliary language in Denmark (South Jutland region), France (Alsace and Moselle regions), Italy (Gressoney valley), Namibia, Poland (Opole region), and Russia (Asowo and Halbstadt). South Jutland (Sønderjylland is the name for the region south of the Kongeå in Jutland. Moselle is a ''département'' in the east of France named after the Moselle River. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland The bilingual status of gminas (communes in Poland is regulated by the Act of 6 January 2005 on National and Ethnic Minorities and on the Regional Languages,

German is one of the 23 official languages of the European Union. The languages of the European Union are Languages used by people within the member states of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and, shortly after English and long before French, the second-most spoken language in Europe. The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in

German as a foreign language

Main article: German as a foreign language

German is the third most taught foreign language in the English speaking world after French and Spanish. The German language (both as an official language and as a minority language is spoken in a number of countries and territories in West and Central Europe A foreign language is a Language not spoken by the people of a certain place for example English is a foreign language in Japan.

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 Russian, above French (66. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages 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. ^[18] It is one of the official languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French. A working language (also procedural language) is a Language that is given a unique legal status in a Supra -national company society state or other body The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive branch of the European Union. 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). ^[19] 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 franca in Central, Eastern and Northern Europe. A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely Northern Europe is a term for the northern part of Europe. The United Nations defines Northern Europe as (Finland

Dialects

Main article: German dialects

German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family. The West Germanic languages constitute the largest of the three traditional branches of the Germanic family of Languages and include languages such as English The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided most broadly into High German and Low German. The High German languages (in German, Hochdeutsch) are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and

The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the neighbouring 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. Until roughly the end of the Second World War, there was a dialect continuum of all the continental West Germanic languages because nearly any pair of neighbouring dialects were perfectly mutually intelligible.

Low German

Main article: Low German

Low Saxon varieties (spoken on German territory) are considered linguistically a language separate from the German language by some, but just a dialect by others. Low German or Low Saxon (in Germany: Plattdüütsch or Nedderdüütsch; in Netherlands: Nedersaksisch or Nederduuts Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian are grouped together because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift. Low Franconian, or Low Frankish, is a group of several West Germanic Languages spoken in the Netherlands, northern Belgium ( However, the part of the population capable of speaking and responding to it, or of understanding it has decreased continuously since WWII. Currently the effort to maintain a residual presence in cultural life is negligible.

Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. Middle Low German ( ISO 639 -3 code gml) is a Language that is the descendant of Old Saxon and is the ancestor of modern Low German. A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely The Hanseatic League (also known as the Hansa) was an alliance of trading cities and their Guilds that established and maintained trade It was the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th century. In 1534 the Luther Bible by Martin Luther was printed. The Luther Bible is a German Bible translation by Martin Luther, first printed with both testaments in 1534 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 German varieties. Upper German Oberdeutsch is a family of High German Dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Northern 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 Asia and the Americas were established, and that the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle and Southern Germany. The Americas are the lands of the Western hemisphere or New World, consisting of the Continents of North America and South America

The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language of the schools being standard German. Education encompasses both the Teaching and Learning of Knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency 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 Missingsch. Missingsch is a type of Low-German -coloured Dialect or Sociolect of German.

High German

Main article: High German languages

High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. The High German languages (in German, Hochdeutsch) are any of the varieties of standard German, Luxembourgish and Central German (in German: Mitteldeutsch, or rarely Zentraldeutsch) is a group of High German dialects spread from the Rhineland to Upper German Oberdeutsch is a family of High German Dialects spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Northern Central German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Hessian, Thuringian, South Franconian, Lorraine Franconian and Upper Saxon. Moselle Franconian is a group of High German Dialects spoken in parts of the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate, Hessian (German Hessisch) is the name of a group of Dialects of German. Thuringian is an Central German Dialect spoken in much of the modern German Free State of Thuringia. South Franconian ( Südfränkisch) is a dialect which is spoken in Baden in Germany around Karlsruhe, Pforzheim and Rastatt Lorraine Franconian (francique mosellan platt lorrain platt mosellan is a designation in practice ambiguous for Dialects of German spoken in the north-eastern Upper Saxon ( German: Obersächsisch or colloquially (but incorrectly Sächsisch) is a Central German Dialect spoken It is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg, parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main and the southern edge of the Lowlands. The Main (maɪn is a River in Germany, 524 km (329 miles long (including White Main 574 km (357 mi and it is one of the more significant tributaries 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 Luxembourgish. Luxembourgish (lb Lëtzebuergesch Luxembourgeois Luxemburgisch Luxemburgs Lussimbordjwès also called Luxembourgian, also spelled Luxemburgish, is one of

Upper German dialects include Alemannic (for instance Swiss German), Swabian, East Franconian, Alsatian and Austro-Bavarian. Alemannic German ( Alemannisch) is a group of Dialects of the Upper German branch of the Germanic language family. Swiss German ( Schweizerdeutsch, Schwyzerdütsch, Schwiizertüütsch, Schwizertitsch) is any of the Alemannic dialects spoken Swabian ( Schwäbisch) is one of the Alemannic dialects of High German, spoken in the region of Swabia. East Franconian ( Ostfränkisch) is a dialect which is spoken in Bavaria and other areas in Germany around Bamberg, Coburg, Austro-Bavarian or Bavarian is a major group of Upper German varieties. They are spoken in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.

Wymysorys, Sathmarisch and Siebenbürgisch are High German dialects of Poland and Romania respectively. Sathmarisch is a dialect of High German. Sathmarisch is or was spoken in Romania in Satu Mare by persons of Swabian speaking German origin Siebenbürgisch is a dialect of High German. Siebenbürgisch is spoken in Romania in Transylvania by persons of mainly Western German origin The High German varieties spoken by Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish. Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ( Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים, ˌaʃkəˈnazim sing The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Yiddish (yi [[wiktייִדיש ייִדיש]] yidish or yi [[wiktאידיש אידיש]] idish, literally "Jewish" is a nonterritorial High It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet as its standard script. An official script is a script that is specifically designated to be official in the Constitutions or other applicable Laws of countries,

German dialects versus varieties of standard German

In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties of standard German. Linguistics is the scientific study of Language, encompassing a number of sub-fields A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of Standard German ( German: Hochdeutsch) is the standard varieties of the German language used as a Written language, in formal contexts

• 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, phonology and syntax. In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). A language is a dynamic set of visual auditory or tactile Symbols of Communication and the elements used to manipulate them In Linguistics, mutual intelligibility is recognized as a relationship between Languages in which speakers of different but related languages can readily understand Ethnologue Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International (formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics a Christian 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 standard German. A pluricentric language is a Language with several standard versions both in spoken and in written forms. They only differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany.

Grammar

Main article: German grammar

German grammar
Nouns
Verbs
Articles
Adjectives
Pronouns
Adverbial phrases
Conjugation
Sentence structure
Declension
Modal Particle

German is an inflected language. This page outlines the Grammar of the German language. Grammar Genders In German all of the three genders of the Proto-Indo-European This page outlines the Grammar of the German language. Grammar Genders In German all of the three genders of the Proto-Indo-European A German noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine feminine neuter and belongs to one of three declension classes only partly dependent of gender German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a Dental consonant inflection or strong, showing a Vowel gradation ( ablaut) German articles have a feature called "strength" which influences the declension of the adjectives In German grammar, the correct Inflection of Adjectives depends on the case number and gender of the Noun phrase, as well as what kind of determiner German pronouns of the first person refer to the speaker those of the second person refer to an addressed person An Adverb is a word that modifies the meaning of a Verb, and an Adverbial phrase is combination of words that perform the same function This is a paradigm of German Verbs that is a set of conjugation tables for the model Regular verbs and for some of the most common Irregular verbs German sentence structure is somewhat more complex than that of many other European languages with phrases regularly inverted for both questions and subordinate phrases German declension is the paradigm that German uses to define all the ways words can change shape to reflect their role in the sentence subject object etc In the German language, a modal particle (Modalpartikel or Abtönungspartikel is an Uninflected word used mainly in spontaneous spoken language in For fusion in Word formation, see Compound (linguistics. A fusional language (also called inflecting language) is a

Noun inflection

German nouns inflect into:

• one of four cases: nominative, genitive, dative, and accusative. A German noun has one of three specific grammatical genders (masculine feminine neuter and belongs to one of three declension classes only partly dependent of gender In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive
• one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong 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 (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in . A diminutive 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 . . ismus (-ism) are masculine. Others are controversial, sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. Additionally, ambiguous endings exist, such as . . . er (-er), e. g. Feier (feminine), engl. celebration, party, and Arbeiter (masculine), engl. labourer. Sentences can usually be reorganized to avoid a misunderstanding.
• 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 German, or in other old Indo-European languages such as Latin, Ancient Greek, or Sanskrit. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Ancient Greek language is the historical stage in the development of the Hellenic language family spanning the Archaic (c Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical 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 article 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 speech. In the Philosophy of language, a natural language (or ordinary language) is a Language that is spoken or written in phonemic-alphabetic or phonemically-related 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 spelling convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxemburgish language), although it was historically common in other languages (e. Luxembourgish (lb Lëtzebuergesch Luxembourgeois Luxemburgisch Luxemburgs Lussimbordjwès also called Luxembourgian, also spelled Luxemburgish, is one of g. , Danish and English), too.

Like most Germanic languages, German forms left-branching noun compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the second, for example: Hundehütte (eng. In Linguistics, a compound is a Lexeme (less precisely a Word) that consists of more than one stem. 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. A compound is a word composed of more than one Free morpheme. )

The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very limited) use is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (RkReÜAÜG (literally Cattle marking and beef labeling supervision duties delegation [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 and strong (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 moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative
• two genera verbi: active and passive; the passive being composed and dividable into static and dynamic. Grammatical mood is one of a set of distinctive Verb forms that are used to signal modality. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified
• two non-composed tenses (present, preterite) and four composed tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future and future perfect)
• distinction between grammatical aspects 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 for the conditional state of the verb, when one of them may seem indistinguishable otherwise. Present Tense is the first Sagittarius album released in 1968 by Columbia Records. This article is about the grammatical term To see the article relating to Eschatology and the Book of Revelation, see Preterism. The perfect aspect is variously considered either an aspect or tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action rather than the The pluperfect tense (from Latin plus quam perfectum more than perfect also called past perfect in English, is a Perfective In 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 (in an Absolute tense In Linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a Verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof in the described event or state
• distinction between perfect and progressive aspect 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. The continuous and progressive aspects are Grammatical aspects that express incomplete action in progress at a specific time they are non-habitual imperfective
• 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 verbs have a separable prefix, often with an adverbial function. German verbs may be classified as either weak, with a Dental consonant inflection or strong, showing a Vowel gradation ( ablaut) In finite verb forms this is split off and moved to the end of the clause, and is hence considered by some to be a "resultative particle". A 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 For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split giving Gehen Sie mit? (Literal: "Go you with?" ; Formal: "Are you going along"?).

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 arr- on a Friday evening after a hard day at work and the usual disagreements that had been troubling him repeatedly, looking forward to a questionable meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already fixed for him, -ived at home.

Word order

German requires that a verbal element (main verb or auxilliary verb) appear second in the sentence, preceded by the most important topical phrase. In Linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a Verb functioning The second most important phrase appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary, this gives several options:

Der alte Mann gibt mir das Buch heute. (The old man gives me the book today)

Der alte Mann gibt mir heute das Buch.

Das Buch gibt mir der alte Mann heute.

Das Buch gibt der alte Mann heute mir. (stress on mir)

Heute gibt mir der alte Mann das Buch. In Linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain Syllables in a word

Mir gibt der alte Mann das Buch heute.

The position of a noun as a subject or object in a German sentence doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. In Linguistics, a sentence is a grammatical unit of one or more words bearing minimal syntactic relation to the words that precede or follow it often preceded and followed

For example, in the sentence "Man bites dog" it is clear who did what to whom. To exchange the place of the subject with that of the object — "Dog bites man" — changes the meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as in Latin thus indicating whether it is the subject or object of the verb's action. According to a tradition that can be tracked back to Aristotle, every sentence can be divided in two main constituents, one being the subject of the sentence and the An object in Grammar is a Sentence element and part of the sentence predicate. The above example in German would be Ein Mann beißt den Hund or Den Hund beißt ein Mann with both having exactly the same meaning. If the articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines (Mann beißt Hund), the syntax applies as in English — the first noun is the subject and the noun following the predicate is the object.

Except for emphasis, adverbs of time have to appear in the third place in the sentence, just after the predicate. Otherwise the speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word order (in Modern English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. (Wir gehen morgen in die Stadt. )

Auxiliary verbs

When an auxilliary verb is present, the auxiliary appears in second position, and the main verb appears at the end. In Linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, helper verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a Verb functioning This occurs notably in the creation of the perfect tense. The perfect aspect is variously considered either an aspect or tense which calls a listener's attention to the consequences generated by an action rather than the Many word orders are still possible, e. g. :

Der alte Mann hat mir das Buch gestern gegeben. (The old man gave me the book yesterday. )

Das Buch hat mir der alte Mann gestern gegeben.

The word order is generally less rigid than in Modern English except for nouns (see below). There are two common word orders; one is for main clauses and another for subordinate clauses. In Linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other and the systematic In Grammar, a clause is a word or group of words that consists of a subject and a predicate, although in some Languages and some types of A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. In itself a dependent clause does not express a complete Thought; therefore it is usually attached to an In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has position 2; in 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. For example in a subordinate clause introduced by "weil" ("because") the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a main clause. A dependent clause cannot stand alone as a sentence. In itself a dependent clause does not express a complete Thought; therefore it is usually attached to an In grammar an independent clause (or main clause) is a Clause that can stand by itself as a grammatically viable Simple sentence. The correct way of saying "because I'm broke" is "…weil ich pleite bin. ". In the vernacular you may hear instead "…weil ich bin pleite. " This phenomenon may be caused by mixing the word-order pattern used for the word weil with the pattern used for an alternative word for "because", denn, which is used with the main clause order ("…denn ich bin pleite. ").

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?" (Soll er nach Hause gehen?). Thus in sentences with several subordinate or relative clauses the infinitives are clustered at the end. Compare the similar clustering of prepositions in the following English sentence: "What did you bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?"

Multiple infinitives

The number of infinitives at the end is usually restricted to two, causing the third infinitive or auxiliary verb that would have gone at the very end to be placed instead at the beginning of the chain of verbs. For example in the sentence "Should he move into the house that he just has had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into the house move, that he just renovated had?". (Soll er in das Haus einziehen, das er gerade hat renovieren lassen?). The older form would have been (Soll er in das Haus, das er gerade hat renovieren lassen, einziehen?).

If there are more than three infinitives, all except the first two are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say the rule is not rigorously applied.

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 Greek, and a smaller amount from French ^[20] and most recently English ^[21]. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly 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 Labeo was able to translate Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after the year 1000. Notker Labeo, also known as Notker Teutonicus ie "the German" Notker the German, or Notker III (born c

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 scholarly movements try to promote the Ersatz (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with ancient, dialectal, or neologous German alternatives. Ersatz is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement. A neologism (from Greek neo = "new" + logos = "word" is a word that although devised relatively recently in a specific time period has been It is claimed that this would also help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated, and thus democratise public life, too. Jurisprudence in Germany, for example, uses perhaps the "purest" tongue in terms of "Germanness", but also the most cumbersome, to be found today. "Amtssprache".

In the modern scientific German vocabulary data base in Leipzig (as of July 2003) ^[22] there are nine million words and word groups in 35 million sentences (out of a corpus of 500 million words).

Writing system

Main article: German alphabet

Present

German is written using the Latin alphabet. The German Alphabet consists of the same 26 letters as the modern Roman alphabet: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r In addition to the 26 standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely ä, ö and ü, as well as the Eszett or scharfes S (sharp s) ß. Diaeresis or trema See also Diaeresis History Historically the diaeresis mark or trema is far older than the umlaut mark The letter ß ( Unicode U+00DF is a letter in the German alphabet. The letter ß ( Unicode U+00DF is a letter in the German alphabet.

Before the German spelling reform of 1996, ß replaced ss after long vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or partial-word-endings. In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound In reformed spelling, ß replaces ss only after long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital ß, it is always written as SS when capitalization is required. For a more detailed treatment of this topic see the German-language Wikipedia article ß is nearly unique among the letters of the Latin 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 Unicode, but it is not yet recognized as standard German. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's In Switzerland, ß is not used at all. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation

Umlaut vowels (ä, ö, ü) are commonly circumscribed with ae, oe, and ue if the umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner ß can be circumscribed as ss. German readers understand those circumscriptions (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, city and family names exist where the extra e has a vowel lengthening effect, e. g. Raesfeld [ˈraːsfɛlt] and Coesfeld [ˈkoːsfɛlt], 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. )

Unfortunately there is still no general agreement exactly 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 use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book Ärzte occurs after Adressenverlage but before Anlagenbauer (because Ä is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary Ärzte occurs after Arzt but before Asbest (because Ä is treated as A).

Past

Main article: Antiqua-Fraktur dispute

Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and Sütterlin). The Antiqua-Fraktur dispute was a typographical dispute in 19th- and 20th-century Germany. Blackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 In Typography, a typeface is a set of one or more Fonts designed with stylistic unity each comprising a coordinated set of Glyphs A typeface usually comprises The German word Fraktur () refers to a specific sub-group of Blackletter Typefaces The word derives from the past participle fractus (“broken” The German word Schwabacher (ˈʃvaːˌbaxər refers to a specific Blackletter Typeface. "Handwriting" redirects here For scripts for writing down notes by hand see " Cursive " Kurrent is an old form of German handwriting based on late medieval cursive writing Sütterlinschrift (Sütterlin script or Sütterlin for short is the last widely used form of the old German blackletter handwriting ("Spitzschrift" These variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. History Ancient usages Sans-serif letter forms can be found in Latin Etruscan, and Greek inscriptions for as early as 5th century BC Antiqua Typefaces are those designed between about 1470 and 1600 specifically those by Nicholas Jenson and the Aldine roman commissioned by Aldus Manutius The printed forms however are claimed by some to be actually more readable when used for printing Germanic languages ^[23]. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. The Nazis initially promoted Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were Jewish. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German Aryan is an English word derived from the Sanskrit " Ārya " meaning "noble" or "honorable" The latter fact is not widely known anymore; today the letters are often associated with the Nazis and are no longer commonly used. 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. The widespread ignorance of the correct use of the Fraktur scripts shows however in the many mistakes made—such as the frequent erroneous use of the round s instead of the long s at the beginning of a syllable, the failure to employ the mandatory ligatures of Fraktur, or the use of letter-forms more alike to the Antiqua for certain especially hard-to-read Fraktur letters. The long, medial or descending s ( ſ) is a form of the minuscule letter ' S ' formerly used where 's' occurred in the middle

Phonology

Main article: German phonology

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/	/ɛ/	/ɛ/, /ǝ/	/ɪ/	/ɔ/	/œ/	/ʊ/	/ʏ/
long	/aː/	/ɛː/	/eː/	/iː/	/oː/	/øː/	/uː/	/yː/

Short /ɛ/ is realised as [ɛ] in stressed syllables (including secondary stress), but as [ǝ] in unstressed syllables. German phonology describes the Phonology of Standard German. Since German is a Pluricentric language, there are a number of different pronunciations Secondary stress is the weaker of two degrees of stress in the Pronunciation of a word the stronger degree of stress is called 'primary' Note that stressed short /ɛ/ 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 /ɛː/ sound of long Ä; in some varieties of standard German, /ɛː/ and /eː/ have merged into [eː], 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 /ɛr/ is not pronounced as [ər], but vocalised to [ɐ].

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 [hoːf]).
• If the vowel is followed by a double consonant (e. g. ff, ss or tt), ck, tz or a consonant cluster (e. In Linguistics, a consonant cluster (or consonant blend) is a group of Consonants which have no intervening Vowel. g. st or nd), it is nearly always short (e. g. hoffen [ˈhɔfǝn]). Double consonants are used only for this function of marking preciding vowels as short; the consonant itself is never pronounced lengthened or doubled.

Both of these rules have exceptions (e. g. hat [hat] 'has' is short despite the first rule; Kloster [kloːstər], 'cloister'; Mond [moːnt], 'moon' are long despite the second rule). A cloister (from Latin claustrum) is a part of Cathedral, Monastic and Abbey architecture 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 [ˈʃtɛtə] by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a long vowel [ˈʃtɛːtə] by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television). Finally, a vowel followed by ch can be short (Fach [fax] 'compartment', Küche [ˈkʏçe] 'kitchen') or long (Suche [ˈzuːxǝ] 'search', Bücher [ˈbyːçər] 'books') almost at random. Thus, Lache is homographous: [la:xe] 'puddle' and [laxe] '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	/aɪ̯/	/aʊ̯/	/ɔʏ̯/

Additionally, the digraph ie generally represents the phoneme /iː/, 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 [bɛːɐ̯] 'bear', er [eːɐ̯] 'he', wir [viːɐ̯] 'we', Tor [toːɐ̯] 'gate', kurz [kʊɐ̯ts] 'short', Wörter [vœɐ̯tɐ] 'words'.

In most varieties of standard German, word stems that begin with a vowel are preceded by a glottal stop [ʔ]. This article is about the sound in spoken language For the letter see Glottal stop (letter.

Consonants

• c standing by itself is not a German letter. In borrowed words, it is usually pronounced [ʦ] (before ä, äu, e, i, ö, ü, y) or [k] (before a, o, u, or before 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 after consonants) 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 ʤ (like j in Jungle) but appears in a few loanwords only. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation
• f is pronounced [f] as in "father".
• h is pronounced [h] like 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 ( Capreolus capreolus) is a Deer species of Europe, Asia Minor, and Caspian coastal regions
• 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"). The Velarized Alveolar lateral approximant, which may actually be Pharyngealized, also known as dark l is a type of Consonantal sound
• q only exists in combination with u and appears both in Germanic and Latin words ("quer"; "Qualität"). It is pronounced [kv].
• r is pronounced as a guttural sound (an uvular trill, [ʀ]) in front of a vowel or consonant ("Rasen" [ʀaːzən]; "Burg" like [buʀg]). In Linguistics, guttural R ( throaty R or French R) refers to pronunciation of a Rhotic consonant as a Guttural consonant The uvular trill is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents In spoken German however, it is commonly vocalised after a vowel ("er" being pronounced rather like ['ɛɐ] - "Burg" [buɐg]). In some southern non-standard varieties, the r is pronounced as a tongue-tip r (the alveolar trill). The alveolar trill is a type of Consonantal sound used in some spoken Languages The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental
• s in Germany, is pronounced [z] (as in "Zebra") if it forms the syllable onset (e. In Phonetics and Phonology, a syllable onset is the part of a Syllable that precedes the Syllable nucleus. g. Sohn [zoːn]), otherwise [s] (e. g. Bus [bʊs]). In Austria, 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 "Esszet") is a ligature of a double s and is always pronounced [s]. Originating in Blackletter typeface, it traditionally replaced ss at the end of a syllable (e. Blackletter, also known as Gothic script or Gothic minuscule, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 g. "ich muss" → "ich muß"; "ich müsste" → "ich müßte"); but 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; Switzerland and Liechtenstein already abolished it in 1934. ^[24]
• sch is pronounced [ʃ] (like "sh" in "Shine").
• v is pronounced [f] in words of Germanic origin (e. g. "Vater" [ˈfaːtɐ]) and [v] in other words (e. g. "Vase" [ˈvaːzǝ]).
• w is pronounced [v] like in "vacation" (e. g. "was" [vas]).
• y only appears in loanwords and is traditionally considered a vowel.
• z is always pronounced [ʦ] (e. g. "zog" [ʦoːk]). A tz indicates that the preceding vowel is short.

Consonant shifts

For more details on this topic, see High German consonant shift. In Historical linguistics, the High German consonant shift or second Germanic consonant shift was a phonological development ( Sound change) which took place

German does not have any dental fricatives (as English th). Dental fricative or interdental fricative - non- Sibilant coronal Fricative. The th sounds, which the English language has inherited from Anglo Saxon, survived on the continent up to Old High German and then disappeared in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and the 10th century. For their language see Anglo-Saxon language. Anglo-Saxon is the term usually used to describe the invading Tribes in the south It is sometimes possible to find parallels between German by replacing the English th with d in German: "Thank" → in German "Dank", "this" and "that" → "dies" and "das", "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) → "du", "think" → "denken", "thirsty" → "durstig" and many other examples. The word thou ( in most dialects is a second person singular Pronoun in English.

Likewise, the gh in Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an f, or not at all), can often be linked to German ch: "to laugh" → "lachen", "through" and "thorough" → "durch", "high" → "hoch", "naught" → "nichts", etc. The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family.

Cognates with English

There are many thousands of German words that are cognate to English words (in fact a sizeable fraction of native German and English vocabulary, although for various reasons much of it is not immediately obvious). Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from Most of the words in the following table have almost the same meaning as in English.

German	Meaning of German word	English cognate
Abend	eve/evening	eve from Old E. æfen
an	on/above	on
auf	up / on	up
aus	out (of)	out
beginnen, begann, begonnen	to begin, began, begun	to begin, began, begun
bester, beste, bestes	best	best
Bett	bed	bed
Bier	beer	beer
Blut	blood	blood
bringen, brachte, gebracht	to bring, brought, brought	bring, brought
Bruder	brother	brother
Butter	butter	butter
Erde	Earth	Earth
essen	to eat	to eat
fallen, fiel, gefallen	to fall, fell, fallen	to fall, fell, fallen
Faust	fist	fist
fechten, focht, gefochten	to fence	fight, fought, fought
Finger	finger	finger
Fisch	fish	fish
Freund(e)	friend	friend
Fuß	foot	foot
Gott	God	God
haben	to have	to have
Hand	hand	hand
-heit (suffix)	-ity, -ness, -hood	-hood
Haus	house	house
Hilfe, helfen	help (noun), to help	help, to help
heißen	to be called	hight (archaic)
hören	to hear	hear
Hund	dog	hound
ist, war	is, was	is, was
kalt	cold	cold
Katze	cat	cat
Knie	knee	knee
kommen, kam, gekommen	to come, came, come	to come, came, come
König	King	King
Laus, Läuse	louse, lice	louse, lice
lachen	to laugh	to laugh
Mann	man	man
Maus, Mäuse	mouse, mice	mouse, mice
Milch	milk	milk
Mond	moon	moon
müssen	to have to	must
Mutter	mother	mother
Nacht	night	night
Nachbar	neighbor	neighbor
Polen	Poland	Poland
Regen	rain	rain
scheinen	to shine	to shine
Schiff	ship	ship
Schuh	shoe	shoe
Schnee	snow	snow
schwimmen	to swim	to swim
singen, sang, gesungen	to sing, sang, sung	to sing, sang, sung
sinken, sank, gesunken	to sink, sank, sunk	to sink, sank, sunk
Schwert	sword	sword
Sohn	son	son
Sommer	summer	summer
springen, sprang, gesprungen	to jump, jumped, jumped	to spring, sprang, sprung
stehlen	to steal	to steal
Tag	day	day
Tisch	table	dish (both eating surfaces)
Tochter	daughter	daughter
Vater	father	father
Wasser	water	water
Waffe	weapon	weapon
warm	warm	warm
Weib	woman	wife
Wetter	weather	weather
Wille	will (noun)	will
wir, uns	we, us	we, us
Winter	winter	winter

Compound word cognates

German	Cognate word parts	Meaning
Fingernagel	finger + nail	fingernail
Hochland	high + land	highland
Ringfinger	ring + finger	ring finger
Schneemann	snow + man	snowman
Schwertfisch	sword + fish	swordfish
Vollmond	full + moon	full moon
Vorsicht	fore + sight	foresight (/caution)
Wasserfall	water + fall	waterfall

When these cognates have slightly different consonants, this is often due to the High German consonant shift. Hence the affinity of English words with those of German dialects is more evidently:

German	English	German dialects
allein	alone	allon, alloan
blasen	blow	blosa
breit	broad	broad, brad
dünn	thin	dinn
ein grüner Apfel	a green apple	a griener Appl
eine Katze	a cat	a Katz
Freund	friend	Freind
fühlen	to feel	fihla
Füllung	filling	Fillung
geben	to give	geva
gehört	heard	ghärt
gesehen	seen	gsihn
grün	green	grien
haben	to have	hava
heben	to heave	heva
heim	home	hom, hoam
küssen	to kiss	kissa
Läuse	lice	Leis
leben	to live	leva
Leber	liver	Lever
Lunge	lung	Lung
Mäuse	mice	Meis
mein Kamm	my comb	mei Kambl
meine Mutter	my mother	mei Modder
nein	no	no, nee
neun	nine	nein
nicht	not	net
Silber	silver	Silver
Regen	rain	Reen
Stein	stone	Ston, Stoan
sie ist allein	she is alone	sie is allon
sieben	seven	siva
sieben	to sieve	sieva
streben	to strive	streva
Sommer	summer	Summer
Tage	days	Täg
treiben	to drive	treiva
Wann	when	when
Wasser	water	Water

There are cognates whose meanings in either language have changed through the centuries. It is sometimes difficult for both English and German speakers to discern the relationship. On the other hand, once the definitions are made clear, then the logical relation becomes obvious. Sometimes the generality or specificity of word pairs may be opposite in the two languages.

German	Meaning of German word	English cognate	Comment
antworten	to answer	an-word	the cognate prefix Ger. 'ant' is equal to Old E. 'and-'〈"against"〉(→an). 'wort'=word,'swer'=swear, so the suffix isn't cognate.
Baum	tree	beam	Both derive from West Germanic *baumoz meaning "tree". It is the English one which, in Anglo-Saxon and Old English, has radically changed its meaning several times. (The original meaning is retained in the English terms for some trees, such as hornbeam. Plants in the genus Carpinus ( Cár-pi-nus) are commonly called Hornbeams. )
bekommen	to get	to become
Dogge	mastiff	dog
drehen	to turn	to throw	cf. to throw (make) a pot by turning it on a wheel
ernten	to harvest	to earn
fahren	to drive	to fare	O. E. faran "to journey, to make one's way," from P. Gmc. *faranan (cf. Goth. faran, Ger. fahren), from PIE *por- "going, passage"
fechten	to fence (sport)	to fight
Gift	poison	gift	the original meaning of Gift in German can still be seen in the German deflection Mitgift "dowry"
kaufen	to buy	cheap, chapman
Knabe (formal)	boy	knave
Knecht	servant	knight
nehmen	to take	numb	sensation has been taken away; cf. German benommen, 'dazed'
raten	to guess, to advise	to read	cf. riddle, akin to German Rätsel
ritzen	to scratch	to write
Schmerz	pain	smart	The verb smart retains this meaning
schlecht	bad	slight	Sense of Ger. cognate schlecht developed from "smooth, plain, simple" to "bad," and as it did it was replaced in the original senses by schlicht, a back-formation from schlichten "to smooth, to plane," a derivative of schlecht in the old sense.
sich rächen	to take revenge	to wreak (havoc)
Tisch	table	dish, desk	Latin discus
Vieh	cattle	fee	from O. E. 'feoh' money, property, cattle
Wald	forest	wold	cf. English placename "Cotswold(s)"
werden	to become	weird	see wyrd
wer	who	where	see below
wo	where	who	see above
Zeit	time	tide	the root is re-used in German Gezeiten as Tiden ('tides')

German and English also share many borrowings from other languages, especially Latin, French and Greek. Wyrd is a concept in Old English and Old Norse culture roughly corresponding to fate or Karma. Most of these words have the same meaning, while a few have subtle differences in meaning. As many of these words have been borrowed by numerous languages, not only German and English, they are called internationalisms in German linguistics. In Linguistics, an internationalism or international word is a Loanword that occurs in several languages with the same or at least similar meaning and etymology For reference, a good number of these borrowed words are of the neuter gender.

German	Meaning of German word	language of origin
Armee	army	French
Arrangement	arrangement	French
Chance	opportunity	French
Courage	courage	French
Disposition	disposition	Latin
Feuilleton	feuilleton	French
Futur	future tense	Latin
Boje	buoy	Dutch
Genre	genre	French
Mikroskop	microscope	Greek
Partei	political party	French
Position	position	Latin
positiv	positive	Latin
Prestige	prestige	French
Psychologie	psychology	Greek
Religion	religion	Latin
Restaurant	restaurant	French
Tabu	taboo	Tongan
Zigarre	cigar	Spanish
Zucker	sugar	Sanskrit, via Arabic

Words borrowed by English

For a list of German loanwords in English, see Category:German loanwords

In the English language, there are also many words taken from German without any letter change, e. g. :

German word	English cognate	Meaning of German word
Abseilen	abseiling	to abseil
Angst	angst	fear / angst
Anschluss	anschluss	connection / access
Automat	automat	automation / machine / automat
Bildungsroman	bildungsroman	novel of personal development
Blitz	blitz	flash / lightning
Delikatessen	delikatessen/delicatessen	delicate, resp. Abseiling (German abseilen, "to rope down" rappelling in American and British English is the controlled descent down a rope in Rock climbing Angst is a German word for Fear or Anxiety. ( Anguish is its almost entirely synonymous Latinate equivalent The ( German: "link-up" also known as the, was the 1938 Annexation of Austria into Greater Germany by the Nazi An Automat is a fast food Restaurant where simple foods and drink are served by coin-operated and bill-operated Vending machines. A bildungsroman (ˈbɪldʊŋsroˌmaːn "novel of formation" is a Novelistic genre that arose during the German Enlightenment (and is regarded by some as Delicatessen is a term meaning "delicacies" or "fine foods" delicious food items
Doppelgänger	doppelgänger	spectral look-alike of somebody
Edelweiß	edelweiss	edelweiss
Gedankenexperiment	Gedankenexperiment	Thought experiment
Gesundheit!	Gesundheit! (Amer. A doppelgänger ( or fetch is the ghostly double of a living person a sinister form of Bilocation. A thought experiment (from the German Gedankenexperiment) is a proposal for an Experiment that would test a Hypothesis or Theory )	health / bless you!
Hinterland	hinterland	interior / backwoods
Kindergarten	kindergarten	playschool
Kraut	kraut	cabbage
Poltergeist	poltergeist	poltergeist
Realpolitik	realpolitik	diplomacy based on practical objectives rather than ideals
Rucksack	rucksack	backpack
Schadenfreude	schadenfreude	taking pleasure in someone else's misfortune
Waldsterben	waldsterben	floral dying environment
Wanderlust	wanderlust	desire, pleasure, or inclination to travel, or walk
Weltanschauung	weltanschauung	worldview
Zeitgeist	zeitgeist	the spirit of the age/decade; the trend at that time

Names for German in other languages

See also: Deutsch, Dutch, Deitsch, Dietsch, Teuton, Teutonic, Allemanic, Alleman, Theodisca

The names that countries have for the language differ from region to region. The hinterland is the land or district behind the borders of a coast or river ( German, literally means "children's garden" is a form of education for young children which serves as a transition from home to the commencement of more formal schooling The German word Kraut when standing alone in English is used most frequently as an ethnic slur against German people (from German poltern, meaning to rumble or make noise and Geist, meaning " Ghost ", " Spirit " Realpolitik ( German: de real “realistic” “practical” or “actual” and de Politik “politics” refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily A backpack (also called Schadenfreude (ˈʃaːdənˌfʁɔʏ̯də) is enjoyment taken from the misfortune of someone else Deforestation is the conversion of Forested areas to non-forest land for use such as Arable land, Pasture, urban use logged area or wasteland 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 A comprehensive world view (or worldview) is a term Calqued from the German word Weltanschauung ( Welt is the German Zeitgeist ( pronounced) is a German language expression literally translated Zeit time; Geist spirit, meaning "the Because of the turbulent history of both The Netherlands and Belgium (mostly because of the frequent change of economical and military power within the Low Countries the names The Pennsylvania Dutch (perhaps more strictly Pennsylvania Deitsch, Pennsylvania Germans or Pennsylvania Deutsch) are the descendants of German Dietsch ( "Diets" in modern Dutch) is a colloquial word for the Middle Dutch language. The Teutons or Teutones (from Proto-Germanic * Þeudanōz) were mentioned as a Germanic tribe by Greek and Roman authors Alleman is a city in Polk County, Iowa, United States. The population was 439 at the 2000 census la Theodiscus, the latinised form of Germanic Diutisc ("vernacular" "native" or "indigenous" is a Middle Latin

In Italian the sole name for German is still tedesco, from the Latin theodiscus, meaning "vernacular". la Theodiscus, the latinised form of Germanic Diutisc ("vernacular" "native" or "indigenous" is a Middle Latin

A possible explanation for the use of words meaning "mute" (e. g. , nemoj in Russian, němý in Czech, nem in Serbian) to refer to German (and also to Germans) in Slavic languages is that Germans were the first people Slavic tribes encountered with whom they could not communicate. Serbian (sr-Cyrl српски језик sr-Latn ''srpski jezik'' is a South Slavic language,

Romanian used to use the Slavonic term "nemţeşte", but "germană" is now widely used. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance Hungarian "német" is also of Slavonic origin. The Arabic name for Austria, النمسا ("an-namsa"), is derived from the Slavonic term. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language

Note also that though the Russian term for the language is немецкий (nemetskij), the country is Германия (Germania). However, in certain other Slavic languages, such as Czech, the country name (Německo) is similar to the name of the language, německý (jazyk). The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages) a group of closely related Languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages

Finns and Estonians use the term saksa, originally from the Saxon tribe. The terms Finns and Finnish people ( Finnish: suomalaiset, Swedish: finländare) are used in English to Estonians ( Estonian: eestlased, previously maarahvas) are a Finnic people closely related to the Finns and inhabiting primarily the country The Saxons or Saxon people were a Confederation of Old Germanic tribes.

Scandinavians use derivatives of the word Tyskland/Þýskaland (from Theodisca) for the country and tysk(a)/þýska for the language. Terminology and usage As a cultural term "Scandinavia" has no official definition and is subject to usage by those who identify with the culture in question as well

Hebrew traditionally (nowadays this is not the case) used the Biblical term אַשְׁכֲּנָז (Ashkenaz) (Genesis 10:3) to refer to Germany, or to certain parts of it, and the Ashkenazi Jews are those who originate from Germany and Eastern Europe and formerly spoke Yiddish as their native language, derived from Middle High German. Ashkenaz is Gomer 's first son brother of Riphath, and Togarmah (Gen Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim ( Hebrew: אַשְׁכֲּנָזִים, ˌaʃkəˈnazim sing Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Middle High German (MHG German Mittelhochdeutsch) is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350 Modern Hebrew uses גֶּרְמָנִי germaní (Or גֶּרְמָנִית germanít for the language).

The French term is allemand, the Spanish term is alemán, the Catalan term is alemany, and the Portuguese term is alemão; all derive from the ancient Alamanni tribal alliance, meaning literally "All Men". Catalan ˈkætəˌlæn ( català kətəˈla or) is a Romance language, the national and official language of Andorra, and a co-official Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. The Alamanni, Allemanni, or Alemanni were originally an alliance of Germanic tribes located around the upper Main river ( Germany

The Latvian term vācu means "tinny" and refers disparagingly to the iron-clad Teutonic Knights that colonized the Baltic in the Middle Ages. Latvian language (latviešu valoda is the official state language of Latvia. The Teutonic Order is a German Roman Catholic religious order.

The Scottish Gaelic term for the German language, Gearmailtis, is formed in the standard way of adding -(a)is to the end of the country name. Scottish Gaelic ( Gàidhlig) is a member of the Goidelic branch of Celtic languages.

See Names for Germany for further details on the origins of these and other terms.

See also

References

Notes

General references

• Michael Clyne, The German Language in a Changing Europe (1995) ISBN 0521499704
• George O. Curme, 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. The Franks or Frankish people (Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an Ethnic group Denglisch, sometimes spelled Denglish, (also Gerglish or Angleutsch) is a Portmanteau of the words Deutsch and English Denglisch, sometimes spelled Denglish, (also Gerglish or Angleutsch) is a Portmanteau of the words Deutsch and English Michael George Clyne AM is an Australian linguist and academic George Oliver Curme Sr ( January 14, 1860 – April 29, 1948) was an American grammarian and philologist. B. Lockwood, German Today: The Advanced Learner's Guide (1987) ISBN 0198158505
• Edmund Remys, Comprehensive Review of Modern German (2007).
• (German) Dialect map of the German language areaPDF (36. 8 KiB)

External links

• German (language) at the Open Directory Project

A kibibyte (a contraction of ki lo bi nary byte) is a unit of Information or Computer storage, established by the International The Open Directory Project ( ODP) also known as dmoz (from directory

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