Around 130 million people worldwide speak German as their mother tongue.

German is the most

widely spoken mother language and an official language in four countries in the European Union:
Germany, Austria, Belgium and Luxembourg. German is also an official language in Switzerland and
Liechtenstein. Moreover, around 7.5 million people in 42 countries worldwide belong to a German-
speaking minority.

A few examples:

 In the immigration country USA, more than 45 million people give “German” as their
heritage of origin. German is the mother tongue of around 1.4 million of them.
 800,000 people with German roots live in Russia, some of whom still speak German.
In the eighteenth century, their ancestors accepted an invitation from Russian Tsarina
Catherine the Great, who came from Germany.
 20,000 German Namibians, who speak German as their mother tongue, live in
Namibia in southwest Africa. They are descendants of German colonists (the colony
of German Southwest Africa existed from 1884 to 1915).
 The Transylvanian Saxons settled in Romania in the twelfth century and and Banat
Swabians in the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. In 2011, 36,000 Romanian
Germans lived in the country.

One of them is the thirty-five- year-old journalist Raluca Nelepcu:

“I was born in Banat, a multicultural region in western Romania where Germans, Hungarians,
Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Romanians and many other ethnic groups live together peacefully.
My paternal grandmother was a Banat Swabian. She raised me and taught me German from
an early age on. That was to have an impact on my professional career. Today I write articles
in German for the Allgemeinen Deutschen Zeitung für Rumänien and do radio features for the
German programme on Radio Temeswar. My family and friends also often speak German. I’d
like to pass on the German language to my son so that he too can benefit.

German (Standard High German: Deutsch, pronounced [dɔʏtʃ] ⓘ) is a West Germanic

language mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and
official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the
Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also an official language of Luxembourg and Belgium, as
well as a recognized national language in Namibia. Outside Germany, it is also spoken by
German communities in France (Alsace), Czech Republic (North Bohemia), Poland (Upper
Silesia), Slovakia (Košice Region, Spiš, and Hauerland), and Hungary (Sopron).

German is part of the West Germanic branch of the Germanic language family, which itself is
part of the larger Indo-European language family. It is most closely related to other West
Germanic languages, namely Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, 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 the Old
High German which in turn developed from Proto-Germanic at some point in the Early
Middle Ages. German is the second-most widely spoken Germanic and West Germanic
language after English as both a first or second language.
Today, German is one of the major languages of the world. It is the most spoken native
language within the European Union. German is also widely taught as a foreign language,
especially in continental Europe, where it is the third most taught foreign language (after
English and French), and the United States. The language has been influential in the fields of
philosophy, theology, science, and technology. It is the second-most commonly used
scientific language and among the most widely used languages on websites. The German-
speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books, with one-
tenth of all books (including e-books) in the world being published in German.

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

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

Since 2004, heads of state of the German-speaking countries have met every year[10] and the
Council for German Orthography has been the main international body regulating German
orthography.

Classification

Anglic languages
English
Scots
Anglo-Frisian languages
Anglic and
Frisian (West, North, Saterland)
North Sea Germanic languages Anglo-Frisian and
Low German/Low Saxon
West Germanic languages
North Sea Germanic and
Dutch; in Africa: Afrikaans
...... German (High):
Central; in Lux.: Luxembourgish
Upper

...... Yiddish Maurer's classification of German tribes

(German) The Germanic languages in contemporary

Europe

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.[11]

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).[11]

Standard German is based on a combination of Thuringian-Upper Saxon and Upper

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

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

Which Countries Speak German?

German is not only spoken in Germany. On the contrary, surveys have shown that
German is one of the world’s top ten most commonly spoken languages, along with
English, Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, French, and Russian. It is estimated that
worldwide there are 90 million people who are native German speakers. In
addition, German is spoken as a second language by an additional 10 to 25 million
people, and as a foreign language by 75 to 100 million people.

Officially, there are six German speaking countries in Europe:

 Germany – more than 80 million speakers

 Austria – 8 million speakers
 Switzerland – 4.6 million speakers
 Belgium – 75.000 speakers
 Luxembourg – As of 2018, 98% of the population was able to speak French
at more or less a high level (usually as a second language), 78% spoke
German, and 77% Luxembourgish (which is the most common native
language). Here's an article about multilingualism in Luxembourg.
 Liechtenstein – 35,000 speakers

In addition, German has official status and is a recognised minority language in the
following countries:

 Italy (Bolzano/Südtirol)
 France (Alsatian)
 Czech Republic
 Hungary
 Denmark
 Poland (Silesia)
 Russia
  Romania
 Slovakia
 Vatican City

Approximately 16% of the European Union’s population speak German. Outside of

Europe, there are many other countries where German is spoken, such as
Kazakhstan, Namibia, and South Africa. There are other parts of the world where
German is also spoken by a small percentage of the population. The German
diaspora (German communities that emigrated during the first half of the 20th
century) has also brought the German language to areas of The United States,
Chile, Norway, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Facts About the German Language

The German language has had significant influence over other cultures and
languages. During the 19th century, German literature enjoyed a prestigious phase,
and many German words were exported to other languages. These ‘loan words’
include “kindergarten”, “delicatessen”, “rucksack”, “poltergeist”, and
“wanderlust”.

Today, Germany’s leading position in the global economy gives us another

important reason to learn German. The German economy is the largest in Europe,
and Germany has the world’s fourth largest economy, behind the United States,
China, and Japan. This also means that German is a very important language for
people working in the automotive, manufacturing, and engineering sectors, as these
industries support the German economy and employ large numbers of people.
German is also considered “the language of science”, and is the second most
spoken language by scientists from all over the world.

German is one of the top three most used languages on the Internet, as
approximately 6 per cent of all live websites are in German. There is also a large
percentage of books written in German or translated into this European language. It
is believed that 10 per cent of all printed books are in German.

The Goethe Institute is considered the world’s most important cultural organization
for German speakers and learners. This institution was founded in 1951 and now
has more than 150 branches all over the world, and not just in German speaking
countries. The Goethe Institute promotes German culture and language and has a
varied educational program.

Some interesting facts about the German language:

 German is known for having a large number of extremely long words. It is

not uncommon to find words that have 40 or even 60 letters.
 Dutch and English are the closest languages to German.
  During the 18th century, German was very close to becoming the official
language of the United States. This went to the polls and English won by
only one vote.

An Introduction to Life in Germany

Many people choose to learn German online with the intention of moving to a
German-speaking country to live, work, or study. Moving to a country with a
different language and culture is not always easy, and getting used to a new way of
life requires time, patience, and a good sense of humour. Here you will find some
useful information about life in Germany: