Germany Language

Germany has a population of 82 million and is the largest nation in terms of population in Western Europe as well as the largest economy in the European Union. The primary Germany language and also the official language of the German nation is Standard German which is spoken by around 95% of the population. Globally, Standard German is spoken by around 120 million native speakers, and 80 million non-native speakers. Outside of Germany, German is also spoken by the majority of the population in Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein.

Germany language belongs to the western branch of the family of Germanic languages, derived from Indo-European languages. The modern German language used in Germany can trace its origin to the migration period between the 6th and 8th century AD, which resulted in a consonant shift separating Old High German dialects from Old Saxon. Standard German originated primarily as a written language and was directly derived from middle German dialects. The translation of the Bible by Marin Luther completed around the mid 15th century is the genesis of modern German, and the first effort to standardize the regional languages prevailing throughout the German nations. Standard German spread as a spoken language much later, during the early 1800’s by the expansion of the Hapsburg Empire which adopted the written language into everyday speech. Mass education of Standard German spread in the 18th and 19th centuries and Low Saxon, the traditional German language, disappeared from widespread use and was relegated to be used by a small minority of the population, till general perception started associating Low Saxon with the uneducated and the very informal kind of speech.

The vocabulary, pronunciation and aspects of Standard German vary from region to region, within Germany and outside of it. The purest form of standard German is to be found in the written language, while the spoken language can vary substantially from region to region. The most recent reform in the Germany language occurred in 1996, with the widely disputed German spelling reform.

Apart from the Standard German, the other important languages in Germany are the regional dialects. There are a large number of separate regional dialects, around 80 in all. The dialects can be generally classified into High German and Low German dialects. There is a continuum of the dialects by geographical location, i.e. dialects belonging to geographically adjacent regions are quite similar while dialects in disparate regions are very different from each other and usually mutually unintelligible. Low German is prevalent in Northern Germany and neighboring regions of Belgium, France and Luxembourg. High German dialects mainly occur in Southern and Central Germany, Austria, Switzerland and parts of Eastern Europe.

High German dialects can be broadly categorized into Central German and Upper German dialects. The most popular of the Upper German dialects are Northern, Central and Southern Austro-Bavarian, Swabian and Alsatian, while the most common of the Central German dialects are Rhine Franconian, Ripuarian, Silesian, North Upper Saxon and High Prussian. The German dialects owe their origin to the different Germanic tribes and differ substantially from standard German in lexicon, syntax and phonology. Many of the German dialects are not understandable to someone who is acquainted solely with Standard German.

Apart from Standard German and its dialects, other languages spoken in Germany by a very small minority of the local population are Sorbian, Romani, North Frisian and Danish. Each of these languages are spoken by less than 0.1% of the population. There is a large migrant population in Germany, which has resulted in a number of foreign languages being spoken by a substantial body of the people. The most important of the migrant languages are Turkish, Polish, Russian and Serbo-Croatian. The most popular of the foreign languages, taught in school and spoken by German people is English, followed by French and Russian.

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