German language

German
	Deutsch
Pronunciation	[dɔʏtʃ]
Native to	Primarily German-speaking Europe, also in the worldwide German-speaking diaspora
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 a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The German language (German: Deutsch or [die] deutsche Sprache) is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family.

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 European Union. There are some people who speak German in Belgium and in the Netherlands, as well as in 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. In Eastern Europe, too, in Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, etc.

German is a part of the West Germanic language family (a group of languages that are similar) and is much like English and Dutch. A lot of the vocabulary in German is related to English, but the grammar is more complicated. 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) or, "Someone called me last night" is Jemand hat mich letzte Nacht angerufen (Someone has me last night called).

In German writing, every noun must start with a capital letter. English and Danish also did this long ago, but not now. Today, German is the only language that has this rule.

While German is an official language in Switzerland, the Swiss dialect of German is difficult for native speakers from Germany, and even for Swiss who are not native to speaking German, to understand. One reason why the dialects are still so different today is that even though Switzerland adopted Standard German, mostly as a written standard, German Swiss in WWII wanted to separate themselves from the Nazis by choosing to speak the Swiss dialect over the standard dialect.^[6] Swiss German also has some differences in writing, for example, the letter ß, which is only seen in German, is always replaced by ss.

DialectsEdit

ExamplesEdit

Someone reading Goethe's Faust in German

Some German words with English translationsEdit

null	zero, nil
eins	one
zwei	two
drei	three
vier	four
fünf	five
sechs	six
sieben	seven
acht	eight
neun	nine
zehn	ten
elf	eleven
zwölf	twelve
dreizehn	thirteen
vierzehn	fourteen
fünfzehn	fifteen
sechzehn	sixteen
siebzehn	seventeen
achtzehn	eighteen
neunzehn	nineteen
zwanzig	twenty
ja	yes
nein	no
ich	I
du	you (friendly)
er	he
sie	she
es	it
wir	we
ihr	you (plural, friendly)
Sie	you (polite)
sie	they
Schweiz	Switzerland
Österreich	Austria
Deutschland	Germany
wer	who
wie	how
wo	where
was	what
der	the (masculine)
die	the (feminine)
das	the (neuter (neutral))

Basic German expressionsEdit

Guten Morgen	Good morning
Guten Abend	Good evening
Guten Tag	"Hello" (meaning 'Good day', used between morning and evening)
Gute Nacht	Good night
Wie geht es dir/Ihnen/euch?	How are you?
Mir geht's gut, danke!	I'm fine, thank you!
bitte	please (can also mean "you are welcome" in response to some form of danke, but not literally)
danke	Thank you
Auf Wiedersehen	Goodbye
Ich heiße ...	My name is ...
Wie heißt du/Wie heißen Sie	What's your name?
Entschuldigung/Entschuldigen Sie	Excuse me
Woher kommst du?/Woher kommen Sie?	Where are you from?
Ich komme aus Deutschland/Österreich	I'm from Germany/Austria
Wo wohnst du?/Wo wohnen Sie?	Where do you live?
Was ist los?	What's up?
Ich wohne in Hamburg, in der Marienstraße im Norden Hamburgs.	I'm living in Hamburg, in the Marienstraße (Mary's street) in the north of Hamburg.
Hast du Lust auf Pizza? Ich mache gerade eine.	Do you want to have a pizza? I'm preparing one.
Entschuldigen Sie. Wo ist der Bahnhof?	Excuse me. Where is the train station?
Wie viel kostet dieser Pullover?	How much is this pullover (sweater)?
Wie viel kostet diese Jeans?	How much are these jeans?
Fräulein (generally obsolete German)	Miss
Frau	Mrs., Ms.
Herr	Mr.

ReferencesEdit

↑ 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. Retrieved 11 October 2010.
↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "High Franconian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Upper German". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
↑ "Languages of Switzerland". YouTube.

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 websitesEdit

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 Student Resource
Free German Language Course
German Thesaurus

[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. Retrieved 11 October 2010.

[Glottolog-7] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "High Franconian". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[Glottolog2-8] Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Upper German". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.

[9] "Languages of Switzerland". YouTube.

[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.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[a]

[b]

[c]

[4]

[5]

[6]

German
Deutsch
Pronunciation	[dɔʏtʃ]
Native to	Primarily German-speaking Europe, also in the worldwide German-speaking diaspora
Native speakers	90 million (2010)^[1] to 95 million (2014)^[2] L2 speakers: 10–15 million (2014)^[2]
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^[3]).
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^[a] `sli` – Lower Silesian `ltz` – Luxembourgish^[b] `vmf` – Mainfränkisch `mhn` – Mócheno `pfl` – Palatinate German `pdc` – Pennsylvania German `pdt` – Plautdietsch^[c] `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^[4] `uppe1397` Upper German^[5]
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 a guide to IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.