# German language

| 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 | * 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 information52-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 |
|

**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 spoken first language within European Union. 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.

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. 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.

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 occur over and over throughout all the higher numbers. However, there is one big difference. Numbers like 21, 45 and 98 have the single digit first, with *und* ("and") connecting it to the tens as individual words, for example, *einundzwanzig, fünfundvierzig und achtundneunzig* (literally, one-and-twenty, five-and-forty, and eight-and-ninety)*.*

| English | English Numbers | German | Pronunciation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | One | Eins | (ighnss) |
| 2 | Two | Zwei | (tsvigh) |
| 3 | Three | Drei | (drigh) |
| 4 | Four | Vier | (fear) |
| 5 | Five | Fünf | (fuunf) |
| 6 | Six | Sechs | (zekhs) |
| 7 | Seven | Sieben | (ZEE-ben) |
| 8 | Eight | Acht | (ahkht) |
| 9 | Nine | Neun | (noyn) |
| 10 | Ten | Zehn | (tsayn) |
| 11 | Eleven | Elf | (elf) |
| 12 | Twelve | Zwölf | (tsvoolf) |

**Notes**

## 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