The origin of German dates back to the 2nd and 3rd centuries when it differentiated itself from the other Germanic languages through a consonant shift that was completed in the 9th century.
German is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with some 95 million native speakers and a further 28 million people who speak it as their second language in 40 countries worldwide.
It belongs to the same language family as Dutch, Flemish, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and Icelandic, among others.
Where is German Spoken?
German is the only official language of Germany (although Danish, Frisian and Sorbian are also spoken as minority languages), where it is the mother tongue of 70 million people, with another 8 million people using it as their second language.
Other Countries Where German is Spoken
German is not only spoken in Germany, but also in other countries such as:
- Liechtenstein: German is the country’s only official language.
- Austria: 7.5 million German speakers.
- Switzerland: German is a co-official language along with French, Italian and Romansh.
- Belgium: German is the official regional language of the German-speaking cantons.
- Luxembourg: together with French and Luxembourgish, German is one of the official languages.
- Vatican City: German is the official language of the Swiss Guard, along with Italian.
- German is also a minority language in Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Denmark, France and Namibia.
It is also one of the 24 official languages of the European Union, the language with most native speakers in the European Union and the second most spoken language in Europe after English. Together with English and French, it is also one of the procedural languages of the European Commission.
German Throughout History
Throughout history, and from its origins, German has undergone various changes which have given rise to different denominations depending on the period:
Old High German
Old High German was spoken in the 10th and 11th centuries. It’s grammar complexity was similar to Slavic and Latin. Speakers of modern-day German can’t understand it if they haven’t studied it previously.
Middle High German
Middle High German was spoken up until the end of the Middle Ages. It’s relatively easy to understand for today’s German speakers.
New High German
New High German dates back to the end of the Middle Ages, and just like Middle High German, today’s German speakers find it relatively easy to understand.
German Dialects
There is a large variety of German dialects, all of them belong to the dialect continuum from Low German to High German. Only geographically neighbouring dialects are mutually intelligible and many of them are not understood by speakers of Standard German.
Low German Dialects
The dialects of Low German are more related to Dutch than German dialects.
High German Dialects
Standard German belongs to the High German dialect, which developed in the region of Saxony and was accepted as the written standard in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Swiss German and Austrian German are based on High German and the High German dialects spoken by the Ashkenazi Jews have some unique features and are considered an independent language, known as Yiddish.
Features of German
As we have already covered the origin and history of German and its dialects; now we’re going to look at some of the features of the language:
German Phonology
The phonological system of German comprises 16 vowel phonemes and 21 consonant phonemes. Words that are spelled the same differentiate themselves by the length of the vowels (short or long. Furthermore, German has three diphthongs:
- ai
- oi
- au
The accent usually falls on the first syllable of the root word, although there are some exceptions, particularly in loanwords from other languages.
Nouns, Adjetives, Articles and Pronouns
Nouns in German are declined according to the gender: masculine, feminine or neutral. The gender of some nouns can be deciphered by looking at the ending.
German has two numbers (singular and plural), four cases (nominative, accusative, dative and genitive) and two articles (definite and indefinite).
The articles and adjectives agree with the numbers in gender and singular case; in the plural case, there is no gender distinction.
German Word Order
In main clauses, the verb appears in the first or second position. As for the subordinate clauses, the verb usually appears at the end of the sentence. The position of the rest of the elements within the phrase is relatively random.
Written German
Prior to the 3rd and 4th centuries, all official documents were composed in Latin and writing in German was not common. However, with the arrival of Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press and the translation of the Luther Bible, written German quickly spread throughout Germany.
Since 1880, German orthography has undergone two important reforms (1091 and 1990) and German is currently written using the Latin alphabet. As a general rule, German words are pronounced how they are written.
German as a Foreign Language
Thanks to its origins and the fact that it belongs to the Indo-European language family, German is considered an easy language to learn for many Europeans.
In fact, German is currently the most studied language in Europe and Asia after English. This popularity is due, in part, to the large number of German TV channels that can be watched in Europe.
We’ll save talking about the length of German words for another day, but did you know that the longest word in German is also the third longest word in the world?
Curious to find out what it is? Visit Tatutrad’s Instagram perfil.
