Claim: Reuters transmits news in three or more Indo-European languages.

German -LRB- Deutsch -LSB- ˈdɔʏtʃ -RSB- -RRB- is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe . It is the most widely spoken and -LRB- co - -RRB- official language in Germany , Austria , Switzerland , South Tyrol -LRB- Italy -RRB- , the German-speaking Community of Belgium , and Liechtenstein . It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg . The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch : Afrikaans , Dutch , English , the Frisian languages , Low German -LRB- Low Saxon -RRB- , Luxembourgish , and Yiddish . German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language , after English .   One of the major languages of the world , German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union . German also is the fourth most widely taught foreign language in the US -LRB- after Spanish , French and American Sign language -RRB- and third in the EU -LRB- after English and French ; at lower secondary level -RRB- , the second most commonly used scientific language as well as the fourth most widely used language on websites -LRB- after English , Russian and Japanese -RRB- . The German-speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of annual publication of new books , with one tenth of all books -LRB- including e-books -RRB- in the world being published in the German language .   German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family . A portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek , and fewer are borrowed from French and English . With slightly different standardized variants -LRB- German , Austrian , and Swiss Standard German -RRB- , German is a pluricentric language . Like English , German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects , with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world . Due to the limited intelligibility between certain varieties and Standard German , as well as the lack of an undisputed , scientific difference between a `` dialect '' and a `` language '' , some German varieties or dialect groups -LRB- e.g. Low German or Plautdietsch -RRB- are alternatively referred to as `` languages '' and `` dialects '' .