German language

German (, ) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the majority and official (or co-official) language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein. It is also an official language of Luxembourg, Belgium and the Italian autonomous province of South Tyrol, as well as a recognized national language in Namibia. There are also notable German-speaking communities in other parts of Europe, including: Poland (Upper Silesia), the Czech Republic ( North Bohemia), Denmark ( North Schleswig), Slovakia (Krahule), Romania, Hungary (Sopron), and France (Alsace). Overseas, sizeable communities of German-speakers are found in the Americas.

German is one of the major languages of the world, with nearly 80 million native speakers and over 130 million total speakers as of 2024. It is the most spoken native language within the European Union. German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic language, after English, both as a first and as a second language. German is also widely taught as a foreign language, especially in continental Europe (where it is the third most taught foreign language after English and French) and in the United States (where it is the third most commonly learned second language in K-12 education and among the most studied foreign languages in higher education after Spanish and French). Overall, German is the fourth most commonly learned second language globally. The language has been influential in the fields of philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second most commonly used language in science and the third most widely used language on websites. The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in German.

German is most closely related to other West Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, and Scots. It also contains close similarities in vocabulary to some languages in the North Germanic group, such as Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish. Modern German gradually developed from Old High German, which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic during the Early Middle Ages.

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

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

Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year, and the Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German orthography.

Classification

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

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

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

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

History

Old High German

The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the Migration Period, which separated Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. This sound shift involved a drastic change in the pronunciation of both voiced and voiceless stop consonants (''b'', ''d'', ''g'', and ''p'', ''t'', ''k'', respectively). The primary effects of the shift were the following below.
* Voiceless stops became long (geminated) voiceless fricatives following a vowel;
* Voiceless stops became affricates in word-initial position, or following certain consonants;
* Voiced stops became voiceless in certain phonetic settings.

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

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

Middle High German

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

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

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

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

Early New High German

Modern High German begins with the Early New High German (ENHG) period, which Wilhelm Scherer dates 13501650, terminating with the end of the Thirty Years' War. This period saw the further displacement of Latin by German as the primary language of courtly proceedings and, increasingly, of literature in the German states. While these states were still part of the Holy Roman Empire, and far from any form of unification, the desire for a cohesive written language that would be understandable across the many German-speaking principalities and kingdoms was stronger than ever. As a spoken language German remained highly fractured throughout this period, with a vast number of often mutually incomprehensible regional dialects being spoken throughout the German states; the invention of the printing press and the publication of Luther's vernacular translation of the Bible in 1534, however, had an immense effect on standardizing German as a supra-dialectal written language.

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

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

One of the central events in the development of ENHG was the publication of Luther's translation of the Bible into High German (the New Testament was published in 1522; the Old Testament was published in parts and completed in 1534). Luther based his translation primarily on the ' of Saxony, spending much time among the population of Saxony researching the dialect so as to make the work as natural and accessible to German speakers as possible. Copies of Luther's Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region, translating words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Luther said the following concerning his translation method: Luther's translation of the Bible into High German was also decisive for the German language and its evolution from Early New High German to modern Standard German. The publication of Luther's Bible was a decisive moment in the spread of literacy in early modern Germany, and promoted the development of non-local forms of language and exposed all speakers to forms of German from outside their own area. With Luther's rendering of the Bible in the vernacular, German asserted itself against the dominance of Latin as a legitimate language for courtly, literary, and now ecclesiastical subject-matter. His Bible was ubiquitous in the German states: nearly every household possessed a copy. Nevertheless, even with the influence of Luther's Bible as an unofficial written standard, a widely accepted standard for written German did not appear until the middle of the eighteenth century.

Habsburg Empire

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

Prague () and Budapest (Buda, ), to name two examples, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain. However, Prague had a large German-speaking population since the Middle Ages, as had Pressburg (Pozsony, now Bratislava), which was settled by Germans in the 10th century. Significant portions of Bohemia and Moravia, now part of the Czech Republic, had become German-speaking during Ostsiedlung. During the Habsburg time, Budapest and cities like Zagreb () or Ljubljana (), contained significant German minorities.

In the eastern provinces of Banat, Bukovina, and Transylvania (), German was the predominant language not only in the larger towns—like (Timișoara), (Sibiu), and (Brașov)—but also in many smaller localities in the surrounding areas.

Standardization

In 1901, the Second Orthographic Conference ended with a (nearly) complete standardization of the Standard German language in its written form, and the Duden Handbook was declared its standard definition. Punctuation and compound spelling (joined or isolated compounds) were not standardized in the process.

The () by Theodor Siebs had established conventions for German pronunciation in theatres, three years earlier; however, this was an artificial standard that did not correspond to any traditional spoken dialect. Rather, it was based on the pronunciation of German in Northern Germany, although it was subsequently regarded often as a general prescriptive norm, despite differing pronunciation traditions especially in the Upper-German-speaking regions that still characterise the dialect of the area todayespecially the pronunciation of the ending as �kinstead of �ç In Northern Germany, High German was a foreign language to most inhabitants, whose native dialects were subsets of Low German. It was usually encountered only in writing or formal speech; in fact, most of High German was a written language, not identical to any spoken dialect, throughout the German-speaking area until well into the 19th century. However, wider standardization of pronunciation was established on the basis of public speaking in theatres and the media during the 20th century and documented in pronouncing dictionaries.

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

Geographical distribution

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

However, an exact, global number of native German speakers is complicated by the existence of several varieties whose status as separate "languages" or "dialects" is disputed for political and linguistic reasons, including quantitatively strong varieties like certain forms of Alemannic and Low German. With the inclusion or exclusion of certain varieties, it is estimated that approximately 9095 million people speak German as a first language, 1025million speak it as a second language, and 75100million as a foreign language. This would imply the existence of approximately 175220million German speakers worldwide.

German sociolinguist Ulrich Ammon estimated a number of 289 million German foreign language speakers without clarifying the criteria by which he classified a speaker.

Europe

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

German Sprachraum

The area in central Europe where the majority of the population speaks German as a first language and has German as a (co-)official language is called the "German ''Sprachraum''". German is the official language of the following countries:
* Germany
* Austria
* 17 cantons of Switzerland
* Liechtenstein

As a result of implemenation of the Oder–Neisse line and ensuing expusion and ethnic cleansing in post-war Poland, the German Sprachraum significantly shrank, as well as by dissolution of the large German-speaking areas in Bohemia and Moravia. Former German-speaking exclaves of East Prussia, the Free City of Danzig an the Memelland ceased to exist, while Francization in Alsace and Lorraine removed use of German in these areas.

German is a co-official language of the following countries:
* Belgium (as majority language only in the German-speaking Community, which represents 0.7% of the Belgian population)
* Luxembourg, along with French and Luxembourgish
* Switzerland, co-official at the federal level with French, Italian, and Romansh, and at the local level in four cantons: Bern (with French), Fribourg (with French), Canton of Grisons, Grisons (with Italian and Romansh) and Canton of Valais, Valais (with French)
* Italy, (as majority language only in the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol, which represents 0.6% of the Italian population)

Outside the German Sprachraum

Although Flight and expulsion of Germans (1944–1950), expulsions and Persecution of Germans, (forced) assimilation after the two World wars greatly diminished them, minority communities of mostly bilingual German native speakers exist in areas both adjacent to and detached from the Sprachraum.

Within Europe, German is a recognized minority language in the following countries:
* Czech Republic (see also: Germans in the Czech Republic)
* Denmark (see also: North Schleswig Germans)
* Hungary (see also: Germans of Hungary)
* Poland (see also German minority in Poland; German is an Bilingual communes in Poland, auxiliary and co-official language in 31 communes)
* Romania (see also: Germans of Romania)
* Russia (see also: History of Germans in Russia, Ukraine and the Soviet Union, Germans in Russia)
* Slovakia (see also: Carpathian Germans)

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

In the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, there are still around 8,000 members of the German minority (Baltic Germans, East Prussians, and Russian Germans) who speak Standard German and, to some extent, Low German. For Estonia, the number is estimated quite precisely at under 2,000 (in 2000: 1,870), for Latvia at just over 3,000 (in 2004: 3,311), and also for Lithuania at just over 3,000.

In 2010, 394,000 Germans lived in Russia, some of whom spoke German. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Russian Germans immigrated to Germany.

Africa

Namibia

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

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

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

Rest of Africa

An estimated 12,000 people speak German or a German variety as a first language in South Africa, mostly originating from different waves of immigration during the 19th and 20th centuries.Template:German L1 speakers outside Europe, German L1 speakers outside Europe One of the largest communities consists of the speakers of "Nataler Deutsch", a variety of Low German concentrated in and around Wartburg, KwaZulu-Natal, Wartburg. The South African constitution identifies German as a "commonly used" language and the Pan South African Language Board is obligated to promote and ensure respect for it.

Cameroon was also a Kamerun, colony of the German Empire from the same period (1884 to 1916). However, German was replaced by French and English, the languages of the two successor colonial powers, after its loss in World War I. Nevertheless, since the 21st century, German has become a popular foreign language among pupils and students, with 300,000 people learning or speaking German in Cameroon in 2010 and over 230,000 in 2020. Today Cameroon is one of the African countries outside Namibia with the highest number of people learning German.

North America

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

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

South America

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

Standard German is a recognized language in the Brazilian municipalities of Pomerode and São João do Oeste.

Meanwhile, German dialects (namely Hunsrik and East Pomeranian dialect, East Pomeranian) are recognized languages in the following municipalities in Brazil:
* Espírito Santo (statewide cultural language): Domingos Martins, Laranja da Terra, Pancas, Espírito Santo, Pancas, Santa Maria de Jetibá, Vila Pavão
* Rio Grande do Sul (Riograndenser Hunsrückisch German is a designated cultural language in the state): Santa Maria do Herval, Canguçu
* Santa Catarina (state), Santa Catarina: Antônio Carlos, Santa Catarina, Antônio Carlos

In Chile, during the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a German colonization of Valdivia, Osorno and Llanquihue, massive immigration of Germans, Swiss and Austrians. Because of that, two dialects of German emerged, Lagunen-deutsch, Lagunen-Deutsch and Chiloten-Deutsch. Immigrants even founded prosperous cities and towns. The impact of nineteenth century German immigration to southern Chile was such that Valdivia was for a while a Spanish-German bilingual city with "German signboards and placards alongside the Spanish". Currently, German and its dialects are spoken in many cities, towns and rural areas of southern Chile, such as Valdivia, Osorno, Chile, Osorno, Puerto Montt, Puerto Varas, Frutillar, Nueva Braunau, Castro, Chile, Castro, Ancud, among many others.

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

Oceania

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

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

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

As a foreign language

Like English, French, and Spanish, German has become a standard foreign language throughout the world, especially in the Western World. German ranks second on par with French among the best known foreign languages in the European Union (EU) after English, as well as in Russia, and Turkey. In terms of student numbers across all levels of education, German ranks third in the EU (after English and French) and in the United States (after Spanish and French). In British schools, where learning a foreign language is not mandatory, a dramatic decline in entries for German A-Level has been observed. In 2020, approximately 15.4million people were enrolled in learning German across all levels of education worldwide. This number has decreased from a peak of 20.1million in 2000. Within the EU, not counting countries where it is an official language, German as a foreign language is most popular in Eastern Europe, Eastern and Northern Europe, namely the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. German was once, and to some extent still is, a lingua franca in those parts of Europe.

German-language media worldwide

A visible sign of the geographical extension of the German language is the German-language media outside the German-speaking countries.
German is the second most commonly used scientific language as well as the third most widely used language on websites after English and Spanish.

Deutsche Welle (German pronunciation: [ˈdɔʏtʃə ˈvɛlə]; "''German Wave''" in German), or DW, is Germany's public international broadcaster. The service is available in 30 languages. DW's satellite television service consists of channels in German, English, Spanish, and Arabic.

See also:
* List of newspapers in Germany and List of German-language newspapers published in the United States
* List of magazines in Germany
* List of television stations in Germany and List of German-language television channels
* List of radio stations in Germany and List of German-language radio stations
* Goethe-Institut [ˈɡøːtə ʔɪnstiˌtuːt] (a non-profit German cultural association operational worldwide with 159 institutes, promoting the study of the German language abroad and encouraging international cultural exchange and relations.)

Standard German

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

Standard German differs regionally among German-speaking countries in vocabulary and some instances of pronunciation and even grammar and orthography. This variation must not be confused with the variation of local dialects. Even though the national varieties of Standard German are only somewhat influenced by the local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a pluricentric language, with currently three national standard varieties of German: German Standard German, Austrian Standard German and Swiss Standard German. In comparison to other European languages (e.g. Portuguese, English), the multi-standard character of German is still not widely acknowledged. However, 90% of Austrian secondary school teachers of German consider German as having "more than one" standard variety. In this context, some scholars speak of a One Standard German Axiom that has been maintained as a core assumption of German dialectology.

In most regions, the speakers use a continuum, e.g. "Umgangssprache" (colloquial standards) from more dialectal varieties to more standard varieties depending on the circumstances.

Varieties

In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from variety (linguistics), varieties of Standard German.
The ''varieties of Standard German'' refer to the different local varieties of the pluricentric language, pluricentric German. They differ mainly in lexicon and phonology, but also smaller grammatical differences. In certain regions, they have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in Northern Germany.
* German Standard German
* Austrian Standard German
* Swiss Standard German

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. About 11% of the Swiss residents speak Standard German at home, but this is mainly due to German immigrants. This situation has been called a ''medial diglossia''. Swiss Standard German is used in the Swiss education system, while Austrian German is officially used in the Austrian education system.

Dialects

The German dialects are the traditional local varieties of the language; many of them are not Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible with standard German, and they have great differences in lexicon, phonology, and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered to be separate languages (for instance by ISO 639-3). However, such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics.

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

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

Low German

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

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

* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: most of the Ruhr (Dortmund, Essen, Bochum, Gelsenkirchen, Hagen, Herne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Herne, Bottrop, Recklinghausen), Hamburg, Bremen, Hanover, Bielefeld, Münster, Braunschweig, Kiel, Groningen, Lübeck, Rostock, Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, Hamm, Oldenburg (city), Oldenburg, Osnabrück, Enschede, Paderborn, Wolfsburg, Göttingen, Bremerhaven, Salzgitter, Gütersloh, Hildesheim, and historically also Berlin, Halle (Saale), Magdeburg and Potsdam.

Low Franconian

The Low Franconian dialects fall within a linguistic category used to classify a number of historical and contemporary West Germanic varieties most closely related to, and including, the Dutch language. Consequently, the vast majority of the Low Franconian dialects are spoken outside of the German language area. Low Franconian dialects are spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa, Namibia, and Suriname, and along the Lower Rhine in Germany, in North Rhine-Westphalia. The region in Germany encompasses parts of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.

The Low Franconian dialects have three different standard varieties: In the Netherlands, Belgium and Suriname, it is Dutch, which is itself a Low Franconian language. In South Africa, it is Afrikaans, which is also categorized as Low Franconian. During the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, the Low Franconian dialects now spoken in Germany, used Middle Dutch or Early Modern Dutch as their literary language and Dachsprache. Following a 19th-century change in Prussian language policy, use of Dutch as an official and public language was forbidden; resulting in Standard German taking its place as the region's official language. As a result, these dialects are now considered German dialects from a socio-linguistic point of view.

The Low Franconian dialects in Germany are divided by the Uerdingen line (north of which the word for "I" is pronounced as "ik" and south of which as "ich") into northern and southern Low Franconian. The northern variants comprise Kleverlandish, which is most similar to Standard Dutch. The other ones are transitional between Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian, but closer to Low Franconian.
* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: Cape Town, Pretoria, Brussels, Gqeberha, Amsterdam, Düsseldorf*, Rotterdam, The Hague, Antwerp, Duisburg*, Utrecht, Wuppertal*, Mönchengladbach*, Ghent, Bloemfontein, Eindhoven, Paramaribo, Krefeld*, Almere, Oberhausen*, Tilburg, Nijmegen, Mülheim an der Ruhr*, Arnhem, Haarlem, Amersfoort, Solingen*, Neuss*, Breda, Apeldoorn, Zwolle, Zoetermeer, Leiden, Maastricht, Dordrecht, Bruges, Remscheid*, 's-Hertogenbosch, Delft, Moers*, Leuven, Willemstad, and the south of Essen*.
* city with German as standard language

High German

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

Central German

The Central German dialects are spoken in Central Germany, from Aachen in the west to Görlitz in the east. Modern Standard German is mostly based on Central German dialects.

=West Central German

=
The West Central German dialects are the Central Franconian dialects (Ripuarian language, Ripuarian and Moselle Franconian dialects, Moselle Franconian) and the Rhenish Franconian dialects (Hessian dialects, Hessian and Palatine German language, Palatine). These dialects are considered as
* German in Germany and Belgium
* Luxembourgish in Luxembourg
* Lorraine Franconian in Moselle (department), Moselle, France
* Alsatian (in a Rhenish Franconian variant) in Alsace bossue, France
* Limburgish language, Limburgish or Kerkrade dialect in the Netherlands.
* Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon in Transylvania, Romania (considered a variant of German)
* Banat Swabian dialect, Banat Swabian in Banat, Romania (considered a variant of German)
Luxembourgish as well as Transylvanian Saxon and Banat Swabian are based on Moselle Franconian dialects.

* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: Cologne, Frankfurt am Main, Bonn, Mannheim, Wiesbaden, Aachen, Mainz, Kassel, Saarbrücken, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Leverkusen, Heidelberg, Darmstadt, Offenbach am Main, Luxembourg City, Koblenz, Bergisch Gladbach, Trier, Siegen, Hanau, Kaiserslautern, the south of Düsseldorf, and in Romania: Cluj-Napoca (German: Klausenburg), Timișoara (Temeschburg), Brașov (Kronstadt), Oradea (Großwardein), Arad, Romania, Arad, Sibiu (Hermannstadt) and Târgu Mureș (Neumarkt am Mieresch).

=East Central German

=
Further east, the non-Franconian (linguistics), Franconian, East Central German dialects are spoken ( Thuringian, Upper Saxon, Erzgebirgisch (dialect of the Ore Mountains) and East Central German#Nordobersächsisch-Südmärkisch, North Upper Saxon–South Markish, and earlier, in the then German-speaking parts of Silesia also Silesian German, Silesian, and in then German southern East Prussia also High Prussian dialect, High Prussian).

* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, Halle (Saale), Magdeburg, Erfurt, Potsdam, Chemnitz and Jena.

High Franconian

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

=East Franconian

=
The East Franconian dialects are spoken in the region of Franconia. Franconia consists of the Bavarian districts of Upper Franconia, Upper, Middle Franconia, Middle, and Lower Franconia, the region of South Thuringia (those parts of Thuringia south of the Thuringian Forest), and the eastern parts of the region of Heilbronn-Franken (Tauber Franconia and Hohenlohe) in northeastern Baden-Württemberg. East Franconian is also spoken in most parts of Saxony, Saxon Vogtland (in the Vogtland District around Plauen, Reichenbach im Vogtland, Auerbach/Vogtl., Oelsnitz/Vogtl. and Klingenthal). East Franconian is colloquially referred to as "Fränkisch" (East Franconian, Franconian) in Franconia (including Bavarian Vogtland), and as "Vogtländisch" (Vogtlandian) in Saxon Vogtland.

* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: Nuremberg, Fürth, Würzburg and Erlangen.

=South Franconian

=
South Franconian is spoken in northern Baden-Württemberg and in the northeasternmost tip of Alsace (around Wissembourg) in France. In Baden-Württemberg, they are considered dialects of German, and in Alsace a South Franconian variant of Alsatian.

* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: Karlsruhe and Heilbronn.

Upper German

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

=Alemannic and Swabian

=

Alemannic dialects are spoken in Switzerland (High Alemannic German, High Alemannic in the densely populated Swiss Plateau including Zürich and Bern, in the south also Highest Alemannic German, Highest Alemannic, and Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic in Basel), Baden-Württemberg (Swabian German, Swabian and Low Alemannic, in the southwest also High Alemannic), Swabia (Bavaria), Bavarian Swabia (Swabian, in the southwesternmost part also Low Alemannic), Vorarlberg/Austria (Low, High, and Highest Alemannic), Alsace/France (Low Alemannic, in the southernmost part also High Alemannic), Liechtenstein (High and Highest Alemannic), and in the Reutte District, district of Reutte in Tyrol (state), Tyrol, Austria (Swabian). The Alemannic dialects are considered
* German in Baden-Württemberg and Bavarian Swabia, Germany
* Vorarlbergerisch in Vorarlberg, Austria (considered dialects of German)
* Swiss German in Switzerland and Liechtenstein
* Alsatian in Alsace, France
In Germany, the Alemannic dialects are often referred to as Swabian in Bavarian Swabia and in the historical region of Württemberg, and as Badian in the historical region of Baden.

The southernmost German-speaking municipality is in the Alemannic region: Zermatt in the Canton of Valais, Switzerland, as is the capital of Liechtenstein: Vaduz.
* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: Stuttgart, Zürich, Augsburg, Strasbourg ( Alsatian: Strossburi), Freiburg im Breisgau, Basel, Bern, Ulm, Pforzheim, Reutlingen, Winterthur and Mulhouse (Alsatian: Mìlhüsa).

=Austro-Bavarian

=

The Austro-Bavarian dialects are spoken in Austria (Vienna, Lower Austria, Lower and Upper Austria, Styria, Carinthia, Salzburg (state), Salzburg, Burgenland, and in most parts of Tyrol (state), Tyrol), southern and eastern Bavaria (Upper Bavaria, Upper and Lower Bavaria as well as Upper Palatinate), and South Tyrol. Austro-Bavarian is also spoken in southwesternmost Saxony: in the southernmost tip of Vogtland (in the Vogtland District around Adorf, Bad Brambach, Bad Elster and Markneukirchen), where it is referred to as Vogtländisch (Vogtlandian), just like the East Franconian variant that dominates in Vogtland. There is also one single Austro-Bavarian village in Switzerland: Samnaun in the Canton of the Grisons.

The northernmost Austro-Bavarian village is Breitenfeld (municipality of Markneukirchen, Saxony), the southernmost village is Salorno sulla Strada del Vino (German: Salurn an der Weinstraße), South Tyrol.
* Cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants in the area: Vienna, Munich, Graz, Linz, Regensburg, Salzburg, Ingolstadt, Innsbruck, Bolzano (German: Bozen) and Klagenfurt am Wörthersee.

Regiolects

* Berlin German, Berlinian, the High German regiolect or dialect of Berlin with Low German substrate
* Missingsch, a Low-German-coloured variety of High German.
* Ruhrdeutsch (Ruhr German), the High German regiolect of the Ruhr area.

Grammar

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

Noun inflection

German nouns inflect by case, gender, and number:
* four cases: nominative case, nominative, accusative case, accusative, genitive case, genitive, and dative case, dative.
* three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Word endings sometimes reveal grammatical gender: for instance, nouns ending in (-ing), (-ship), or (-hood, -ness) are feminine, nouns ending in or (diminutive forms) are neuter and nouns ending in (-ism) are masculine. Others are more variable, sometimes depending on the region in which the language is spoken. And some endings are not restricted to one gender, for example: (agent noun, -er), such as (feminine), celebration, party; (masculine), labourer; and (neuter), thunderstorm.
* two numbers: singular and plural.

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

Compounding

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

Verb inflection

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

Verb prefixes

The meaning of basic verbs can be expanded and sometimes radically changed through the use of a number of prefixes. Some prefixes have a specific meaning; the prefix refers to destruction, as in (to tear apart), (to break apart), (to cut apart). Other prefixes have only the vaguest meaning in themselves; is found in a number of verbs with a large variety of meanings, as in (to try) from (to seek), (to interrogate) from (to take), (to distribute) from (to share), (to understand) from (to stand).

Other examples include the following:
(to stick), (to detain); (to buy), (to sell); (to hear), (to cease); (to drive), (to experience).

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

Indeed, several parenthetical referencing, parenthetical clauses may occur between the prefix of a finite verb and its complement (ankommen = to arrive, er kam an = he arrived, er ist angekommen = he has arrived):
:
A selectively literal translation of this example to illustrate the point might look like this:
: He "came" on Friday evening, after a hard day at work and the usual annoyances that had time and again been troubling him for years now at his workplace, with questionable joy, to a meal which, as he hoped, his wife had already put on the table, finally home "to".

Word order

German word order is generally with the V2 word order restriction and also with the SOV word order restriction for subordinate as well as for main clauses including an auxiliary verb. As to subordinate clauses, all verb forms occur at the very end. For yes–no questions, exclamations, and wishes, the finite verb usually has the first position.

German requires a verbal element (main verb, modal verb or auxiliary verb as finite verb) to appear V2 word order, second in the sentence. The verb is preceded by the topic–comment, topic of the sentence or an adverbial of flexible length. The element in focus appears at the end of the sentence. For a sentence without an auxiliary, these are several possibilities:

: (The old man gave me yesterday the book; normal subject-verb-object order)
: (The book gave [to] me yesterday the old man)
: (The book gave the old man [to] me yesterday)
: (The book gave [to] me the old man yesterday)
: (Yesterday gave [to] me the old man the book; normal order)
: (Yesterday gave the old man [to] me the book; verb-subject-object order)
: ([To] me gave the old man the book yesterday (entailing: as for someone else, it was another date))

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

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

Normal word order:
::
:: The manager entered yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand his office.

Second variant in normal word order:
::
:: The manager entered his office yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand.
: This variant accentuates the time specification and that he carried an umbrella.

Object in front:
::
:: His office entered the manager yesterday at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand.
: The object (his office) is thus highlighted; it could be the topic of the next sentence.

Adverb of time in front:
::
:: Yesterday entered the manager at 10 o'clock with an umbrella in the hand his office. (but today without umbrella)

Both time expressions in front:
:: .
:: Yesterday at 10 o'clock entered the manager with an umbrella in the hand his office.
: The full-time specification is highlighted.

Another possibility:
:: .
:: Yesterday at 10 o'clock entered the manager his office with an umbrella in the hand.
: Both the time specification and the fact he carried an umbrella are accentuated.

Swapped adverbs:
::
:: The manager entered with an umbrella in the hand yesterday at 10 o'clock his office.
: The phrase is highlighted.

Swapped object:
::
:: The manager entered yesterday at 10 o'clock his office with an umbrella in the hand.
: The time specification and the object (his office) are lightly accentuated.

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

Auxiliary verbs

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

: (The old man has [to] me today the book given.)
: (''The book'' has the old man [to] me today given.)
: (''Today'' has the old man [to] me the book given.)

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

: (''Given'' has me the old man the book today.) The bare fact that the book has been given is emphasized, as well as 'today'.

Modal verbs

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

Multiple infinitives

German subordinate clauses have all verbs clustered at the end, with the finite verb normally in the final position of the cluster. Given that auxiliaries encode future, passive voice, passive, modality (semiotics), modality, and the perfect (grammar), perfect, very long chains of verbs at the end of the sentence can occur. In these constructions, the past participle formed with is often replaced by the infinitive.

: ''_{V psv perf mod}''
: One suspects that the deserter probably shot become be should.
: ("It is suspected that the deserter probably had been shot")
:
: He knew not that the agent a picklock had make let
:
: He knew not that the agent a picklock make let had
: ("He did not know that the agent had had a picklock made")

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

Vocabulary

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

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

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

As in other Germanic languages, there are many pairs of synonyms due to the enrichment of the Germanic vocabulary with loanwords from Latin and Latinized Greek. These words often have different connotations from their Germanic counterparts and are usually perceived as more scholarly.
*  – "history, historical", ()
*  – "humaneness, humane", ()
*  – "millennium", ()
*  – "perception", ()
*  – "vocabulary", ()
* – "dictionary, wordbook", ()
* – "to try", ()
* – "to propose", ()

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

Orthography

Written texts in German are easily recognisable as such by distinguishing features such as Germanic umlaut, umlauts and certain German orthography, orthographical features, such as the capitalization of all nouns, and the frequent occurrence of long compounds. Because legibility and convenience set certain boundaries, compounds consisting of more than three or four nouns are almost exclusively found in humorous contexts. (English also can string nouns together, though it usually separates the nouns with spaces: as, for example, "toilet bowl cleaner".)

In German orthography, nouns are capitalized, which makes it easier for readers to determine the function of a word within a sentence. This convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps only by the closely related Luxembourgish language and several insular dialects of the North Frisian language), but it was historically common in Northern Europe in the early modern era, including in languages such as Danish which abolished the capitalization of nouns in 1948, and English for a while, into the 1700s.

Present

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

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

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

There is no general agreement on where letters with umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an e. Some dictionaries sort each umlauted vowel as a separate letter after the base vowel, but more commonly words with umlauts are ordered immediately after the same word without umlauts. As an example in a telephone directory, telephone book occurs after but before (because Ä is replaced by Ae). In a dictionary comes after , but in some dictionaries and all other words starting with ''Ä'' may occur after all words starting with ''A''. In some older dictionaries or indexes, initial ''Sch'' and ''St'' are treated as separate letters and are listed as separate entries after ''S'', but they are usually treated as S+C+H and S+T.

Written German also typically uses an alternative opening inverted comma (quotation mark) as in .

Past

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

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

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

Consonant shifts

German does not have any dental fricatives (the category containing English ). All of the sounds, which the English language still has, disappeared on the continent in German with the consonant shifts between the 8th and 10th centuries.For a history of the changes in German consonants see . It is sometimes possible to find parallels between English and German by replacing the English with in German, e.g. "thank" → , "this" and "that" → and , "thou" (old 2nd person singular pronoun) → , "think" → , "thirsty" → , etc.

Likewise, the in Germanic languages, Germanic English words, pronounced in several different ways in modern English (as an or not at all), can often be linked to German , e.g. "to laugh" → , "through" → , "high" → , "naught" → , "light" → or , "sight" → , "daughter" → , "neighbour" → . This is due to the fact that English was historically pronounced in the same way as German (as and in an allophonic relationship, or potentially as in all circumstances as in modern Dutch) with these word pairs originally (up until around the mid to late 16th century) sounding far more similar than they do today.

Literature

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

Reformer and theologian Martin Luther, who translated the Bible into High German (a regional group or German varieties at southern and therefore ''higher'' regions), is widely credited for attributed to the basis for the modern Standard German language. Among the best-known poets and authors in German are Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Lessing, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Schiller, Heinrich von Kleist, Kleist, E.T.A. Hoffmann, Hoffmann, Bertolt Brecht, Brecht, Heinrich Heine, Heine and Franz Kafka, Kafka. Fourteen German-speaking people have won the Nobel Prize in Literature: Theodor Mommsen, Rudolf Christoph Eucken, Paul von Heyse, Gerhart Hauptmann, Carl Spitteler, Thomas Mann, Nelly Sachs, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Böll, Elias Canetti, Günter Grass, Elfriede Jelinek, Herta Müller and Peter Handke, making it the second most awarded linguistic region (together with French) after English.

See also

* Outline of German language
* Denglisch
* Deutsch (disambiguation)
* German name#Surnames, German family name etymology
* German toponymy
* Germanism (linguistics)
* German exonyms
* List of German expressions in English
* List of German words of French origin
* List of pseudo-German words in English
* List of terms used for Germans
* List of countries and territories where German is an official language
* Names of Germany
* DDR German

Notes

References

Bibliography

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External links

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Dissemination of the German language in Europe around 1913 (map, 300 dpi)

{{Authority control

German language,
Fusional languages
High German languages
Languages of Austria
Languages of Belgium
Languages of Germany
Languages of Liechtenstein
Languages of Luxembourg
Languages of Namibia
Languages of Switzerland
Languages of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol
Stress-timed languages
Verb-second languages