German language

German
German
Deutsch
Pronunciation	[dɔʏtʃ]
Native to	Primarily German-speaking Europe, also in the worldwide German-speaking diaspora
Ethnicity	Germans
Native speakers	90 million (2010) to 95 million (2014); L2 speakers: 10–15 million (2014)
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic High German German; ; ; ;
Early forms	Old High German Middle High German ;
Standard forms	German Standard German Swiss Standard German Austrian Standard German
Writing system	Latin (German alphabet); German Braille
Signed forms	Signed German, LBG; (Lautsprachbegleitende / Lautbegleitende Gebärden)
Official status
Official language in	6 countries Austria ; Belgium ; Germany ; Liechtenstein ; Luxembourg ; Switzerland ; ; 3 dependencies South Tyrol (Italy) ; 31 communes in Poland ; 9 municipalities in Brazil ; ; Several international institutions
Recognised minority; language in	13 countries; (minority/cultural/national language) Brazil (Espírito Santo, Rio Grande do Sul & Santa Catarina); Bosnia and Herzegovina; Czech Republic; Denmark (Syddanmark); Hungary; Italy (Trentino); Kazakhstan; Namibia; Poland; Romania; Russia (Azovo German National District); Slovakia; Ukraine ;
Regulated by	No official regulation ; (German orthography regulated by the Council for German Orthography).
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; sli – Lower Silesian; ltz – Luxembourgish; vmf – Mainfränkisch; mhn – Mócheno; pfl – Palatinate German; pdc – Pennsylvania German; pdt – Plautdietsch; swg – Swabian German; gsw – Swiss German; uln – Unserdeutsch; sxu – Upper Saxon; wae – Walser German; wep – Westphalian; hrx – Riograndenser Hunsrückisch; yec – Yenish
Glottolog	high1287 High Franconian; uppe1397 Upper German
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
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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 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

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.^{[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

↑ The status of Low German as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.
↑ The status of Luxembourgish as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.^[2]
↑ The status of Plautdietsch as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.

Other websites

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

[1] Mikael Parkvall, "Världens 100 största språk 2010" (The World's 100 Largest Languages in 2010), in Nationalencyklopedin

[Ammon,_2014-2] 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.^{[page needed]}

[3] "Rat für deutsche Rechtschreibung – Über den Rat". Rechtschreibrat.ids-mannheim.de. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 11 October 2010.

[7] Up, Topics. "Japanese vs German". Archived from the original on 2023-05-31.

[8] "German Numbers: Learn To Count From 0 To 1,000+". Language Throne. 2020-10-01. Retrieved 2021-09-09.

[9] "Languages of Switzerland". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2016-09-09.

[4] The status of Low German as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.

[5] The status of Luxembourgish as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.^[2]

[6] The status of Plautdietsch as a German variety or separate language is subject to discussion.

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