German language
German (German: Deutsch) is a West Germanic language. It is spoken in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg; natively by around 100 million people. It is the most widely spoken mother tongue in the first language. There are some people who speak German in Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Northern Italy. There are people who speak German in many countries, including the United States and Canada, where many people emigrated from Germany. It is also spoken in Eastern Europe, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia.
| German | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deutsch | ||||
| Pronunciation | [dɔʏtʃ] | |||
| Native to | Primarily German-speaking Europe, also in the worldwide German-speaking diaspora | |||
| Ethnicity | Germans | |||
| Native speakers | 90 million (2010)[1] to 95 million (2014)[2] L2 speakers: 10–15 million (2014)[2] | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Early forms: | ||||
| Standard forms | ||||
| Writing system | Latin (German alphabet) German Braille | |||
| Official status | ||||
| Official language in |
Several international institutions | |||
| Recognised minority language in | ||||
| Regulated by | No official regulation (German orthography regulated by the Council for German Orthography[3]). | |||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-1 | de | |||
| ISO 639-2 | ger (B) deu (T) | |||
| ISO 639-3 | Variously: deu – German gmh – Middle High German goh – Old High German gct – Colonia Tovar German bar – Bavarian cim – Cimbrian geh – Hutterite German ksh – Kölsch nds – Low German[a] sli – Lower Silesian ltz – Luxembourgish[b] vmf – Mainfränkisch mhn – Mócheno pfl – Palatinate German pdc – Pennsylvania German pdt – Plautdietsch[c] swg – Swabian German gsw – Swiss German uln – Unserdeutsch sxu – Upper Saxon wae – Walser German wep – Westphalian hrx – Riograndenser Hunsrückisch yec – Yenish | |||
| Linguasphere | further information 52-AC (Continental West Germanic) > 52-ACB (Deutsch & Dutch) > 52-ACB-d (Central German incl. 52-ACB–dl & -dm Standard/Generalised High German) + 52-ACB-e & -f (Upper German & Swiss German) + 52-ACB-h (émigré German varieties incl. 52-ACB-hc Hutterite German & 52-ACB-he Pennsylvania German etc.) + 52-ACB-i (Yenish); Totalling 285 varieties: 52-ACB-daa to 52-ACB-i | |||
  (Co-)Official and majority language Co-official, but not majority language Statutory minority/cultural language Non-statutory minority language | ||||
| ||||
German is a part of the West Germanic language family and is much like English and Dutch. Much of the vocabulary in German is related to English, but the grammar is more complicated.[4]
German has a system of cases, and when helping verbs are used, the main part of the verb must be moved to the end of the sentence. For example, "Someone has stolen my car" is Jemand hat mein Auto gestohlen ("Someone has my car stolen"), and "Someone called me last night" is Jemand hat mich letzte Nacht angerufen ("Someone has me last night called").
In writing, every noun must start with a capital letter. German is the only language that still has that rule, but Danish and English did so a long time ago.
Standard German is an official language in Switzerland, but the Swiss dialect of German is difficult to understand for native speakers from Germany and even for Swiss who are not native to speaking German.[5] One reason that the dialects are still so different today is that even if Switzerland adopted Standard German, mostly as a written standard, German Swiss in World War II wanted to separate themselves from the Nazis by choosing to speak dialect over the Standard German.[6]
Swiss German also has some differences in spelling, for example, the letter ß, which is used only in German, is replaced by ss.
Dialects
- Alsatian
- Bavarian dialect
- Franconian Dialect
- Kölsch
- Low Saxon
- Swiss dialect
- Mannheimerisch dialect
- Palatinate German
- Russian (Siberian) dialect
German numbers
German numbers are similar to their English counterparts. Like most languages, the German number system is based mainly on the first 10 numbers. They will pop up over and over throughout all the higher numbers.
| English | German |
|---|---|
| 1 | Eins |
| 2 | Zwei |
| 3 | Drei |
| 4 | Vier |
| 5 | Fünf |
| 6 | Sechs |
| 7 | Sieben |
| 8 | Acht |
| 9 | Neun |
| 10 | Zehn |
German Language Media
Map of the German people around the world. (The map might include people with German ancestry or citizenship)* Germany*
This video was recorded in Cape Town during Wikimania 2018.
Maurer's classification of German tribes (German)
The Germanic languages in contemporary Europe
German language area and major dialectal divisions around 1900
Modern High German translation of the Christian Bible by the Protestant reformer Martin Luther (1534). The widespread popularity of the Bible translated into High German by Luther helped establish modern Standard German.
Map of Central Europe in 1648:* Territories under the Holy Roman Empire, comprising the Alpine heartland (Erblande) of the Habsburg monarchy.
Ethnolinguistic map comprising the territories of Austria-Hungary (1910), with German-speaking areas shown in red
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References
- ↑ Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2010" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2010), in Nationalencyklopedin
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ammon, Ulrich (November 2014). Die Stellung der deutschen Sprache in der Welt (in German) (1st ed.). Berlin, Germany: de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-019298-8. Retrieved 24 July 2015.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)[page needed] - ↑ "Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung – Über den Rat". Rechtschreibrat.ids-mannheim.de. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
- ↑ Up, Topics. "Japanese vs German". Archived from the original on 2023-05-31.
- ↑ "German Numbers: Learn To Count From 0 To 1,000+". Language Throne. 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
- ↑ "Languages of Switzerland". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2016-09-09.
Notes
Other websites
 |
This language has its own Wikipedia project. See the German language edition. |
- Online German Language Course An online German language course that includes lessons covering pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar.
- German phrasebook at Wikivoyage
- Learn to Speak German Archived 2013-06-08 at the Wayback Machine Student Resource
- Free German Language Course Archived 2013-02-17 at the Wayback Machine
- German Thesaurus Archived 2018-03-31 at the Wayback Machine