Germans

The Germans () are a Germanic ethnic group native tae Central Europe. The Inglis/Scots term Germans haes referred tae the German-speakin population o the Holy Roman Empire syne the Late Middle Ages.alangside the slichtly earlier term Almayns; John o Trevisa's 1387 translation o Ranulf Higdon's Polychronicon haes:  Durin the 15t an 16t centuries, Dutch wis the adjective uised in the sense "pertainin tae Germans". Uise o German as an adjective dates tae ca. 1550. The adjective Dutch narraeed its sense tae "o the Netherlands" durin the 17t century. Legally, Germans are ceetizens o the Federal Republic o Germany.

O approximately 100 million native speakers o German in the warld, aboot 66–75 million consider thairsels Germans. Thare are an additional 80 million fowk o German ancestry mainly in the Unitit States, Brazil, Canadae, Argentinae, Fraunce, Roushie, Chile, Poland, Australie an Romanie (who maist likely are no native speakers o German). Hablantes del alemán en el mundo  Sicweys, the tot nummer o Germans warldwide lees atween 66 an 160 million, dependin on the criteria appleed (native speakers, single-ancestry ethnic Germans, pairtial German ancestry, etc.).

The day, fowks frae kintras wi a German-speakin majority or significant German-speakin population groups ither than Germany, sic as Austrick, Swisserland, Liechtenstein an Luxembourg, hae developit thair awn naitional identity an uisually dae no refer tae thairsels as "Germans" in a modren context.

Leid

The native leid o Germans is German, a Wast Germanic leid, relatit tae an classifeed alangside Inglis an Dutch, an sharin mony similarities wi the North Germanic or Scandinavie leids. Spoken bi approximately 100 million native speakers, German is ane o the warld's major leids an the maist widely spoken first leid in the European Union.

Dialects

220px|thumb|right|Wast Germanic eids

North Germanic leids
Heich German
Upper German
Bavaries (ca. 10 million) form the Austro-Bavarie linguistic group, thegither wi those Austrians who speak German an dae no live in Vorarlberg an the wastren Tyrol destrict o Reutte. Swabians (ca. 10 million) form the Alemannic group, thegither wi the Alemannic Swiss, Liechtensteiners, Alsatians an Vorarlbergians.
Central German dialect group (ca. 45 million)
Wast Central German
Central Franconie (Ripuarian, Kölsch), forms a dialectal unity wi Luxembourgis, Rhine Franconie(Hessian)
East Central German
Staundart German, Thuringie, Upper Saxon, Heich Proushie, German Silesian
Yiddish, a Heich German leid o Ashkenazi Jewish oreegin, spoken throughoot the warld. It developit as a fusion o German dialects wi Ebreu, Slavic leids an traces o Romance leids.Introduction to Old Yiddish literature, p. 72, Baumgarten and Frakes, Oxford University Press, 2005"Development of Yiddish over the ages", www.jewishgen.org 
Law German (ca. 3–10 million), forms a dialectal unity wi Dutch Law Saxon
Law Saxon, East Law German

Native speakers
Global distribution o native speakers o the German leid:

 Kintra German speakin population (ootside Europe) USA 5,000,000Handwörterbuch des politischen Systems der Bundesrepublik (in German). Source lists "German expatriate citizens" only for Namibia and South Africa! Brazil 3,000,000 Roushie 2,000,000 Poland 800,000 Argentinae 500,000 Canadae 450,000 – 620,000 Bolivie 300,000Bolivian Reforms Raise Anxiety on Mennonite Frontier, New York TimesLos Menonitas en Bolivia CNN México/CNN en Español Italy 250,000 Hungary 220,000 Paraguay 186,000 Australie 110,000 Sooth Africae 75,000 (German expatriate ceetizens) Belgium 66,000 Mexico 40,000 Chile 40,000 Namibie 30,000 (German expatriate ceetizens) Denmark 20,000 Romanie 15,000 Venezuela 10,000

Geographic distribution

Ethnic Germans form an important minority group in several kintras in central an eastren Europe—(Poland, Hungary, Romanie, Roushie) as well as in Namibie (German Namibie), Brazil (German Brazilian) (approx. 3% o the population), Argentinae (German Argentine) (1,5% ~ 7,5% o the population)German-Argentine Descendants of Germans in Argentina an Chile (German-Chilean) (approx. 1% o the population).

Some groups mey be classifeed as Ethnic Germans despite nae langer haein German as thair mither tongue or belangin tae a destinct German cultur. Till the 1990s, twa million Ethnic Germans livit throughoot the umwhile Soviet Union, pairticularly in Roushie an Kazakhstan.

In the Unitit States 1990 census, 57 million fowk wur fully or pairtly o German ancestry, formin the lairgest single ethnic group in the kintra. States wi the heichest percentage o Americans o German strynd are in the northren Midwast (especially Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Sooth Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan) an the Mid-Atlantic state, Pennsylvania. But Germanic immigrant enclaves existit in mony ither states (e.g., the German Texans an the Denver, Colorado aurie) an tae a lesser extent, the Paceefic Northwast (i.e. Idaho, Montana, Oregon an Washington state).

Notable Ethnic German minorities exist in ither Anglosphere kintras sic as Canadae (approx. 10% o the population) an Australie (approx. 4% o the population) an aw. As in the Unitit States, maist fowk o German strynd in Canadae an Australie hae amaist completely assimilatit, culturally an linguistically, intae the Inglis-speakin mainstream.

Distribution o German ceetizens an fowk claimin German ancestry:
 Kintra German ancestry German ceetizens Comments  66,420,000 75,000,000 see Demographics o Germany  50,000,00049.2 million German Americans as o 2005 accordin tae the ; see an aw Leids in the Unitit States#German. see German American  5,000,000 see German Brazilian  3,200,0002001 Canadian Census  gives 2,742,765 total respondents stating their ethnic origin as partly German, with 705,600 stating "single-ancestry", see List of Canadians by ethnicity. see Canadians o German ethnicity 1,200,000Professor JA Heese in his book Die Herkoms van die Afrikaner (The Origins of Afrikaners) claims the modern Afrikaners (who total around 3.5 million) have 34.4% German heritage. How 'Pure' was the Average Afrikaner?  see Afrikaner. Awtho studies shaw that atween 30–40% o Afrikaners hae German ancestry, due tae intermarriage this figur is likely tae be hintle heicher.  600,000~3,000,000 Including Volga Germans, and other German ancestries see German ArgentineThe  (mainly  an ) 1,000,000 600,000 see Germans in Roushie, Germans o Kazakhstan, Volga Germans, Caucasus Germans 1,000,000 predominant ethnic group o Alsace an Moselle; 970,000 wi German dialects as mither tongue  812,000The  reports 742,212 people of German ancestry in the 2001 Census. German is spoken by ca. 135,000 , about 105,000 of them Germany-born, see Demographics of Australia incl. 106,524 German-born. See German Australie (in Sooth Tyrol) 500,000South Tyrol in figures. Provincial Statistics Institute. 179,000378,947 (2010, 2.3% o Dutch population). cbs.nl 262,000German born anerlie; Born Abroad: An Immigration map of Britain: Germany, 2001 (This figure includes childer born tae Breetish Military personnel serving on Breetish Military bases in Germany) 92,0002008, 0.15% o UK population. statistics.gov.uk see German migration tae the Unitit Kinrick  255,000 German immigrants 266,000265,944 (2009, 3.3% o Swiss population) Wohnbevölkerung nach detaillierter Staatsangehörigkeit, Swiss Federal Statistical Office. 163 923 resident aliens (nationals or citizens) in 2004 (2.2% of total population), compared to 112 348 as of 2000. 2005 report of the Swiss Federal Office of Statistics. 4.6 million including Alemannic Swiss: CIA World Fact Book , identifies the 65% (4.9 million) Swiss German speakers as "ethnic Germans". see German immigration tae Swisserland 153,0002002 census mainly in Opole Voivodeship, see German minority in Poland. 800.000 see German Chilean 180,000 / Inmigración Alemana al Perú  see German Peruvian  120,344 see Germans o Hungary 124,7102008, 1.5% o Austrian population. Wer sind die Deutschen in Österreich?  100,000  70,000 see German Venezuelan  60,000 see Germans o Romanie 46,000 6,000 40,000 see Germans in the Czech Republic 40,000 German speakin Mennonites. See Ethnic Germans in Bolivie 38,366  excludes German-speakin ethnic Belgians 37,000 33,000  30,000 German Namibie 25,000 15,000–20,000in the German-Dens border region; see Bund Deutscher Nordschleswiger  15,498 11,797 5000–10,000 6,4002000 census see German settlement in the Philippines 3,900 see Germans o Serbie 2,700 2,700  160 Germans in Jamaica

References

Freemit airtins


Category:Germanic fowks
Category:Ethnic groups in Europe
Category:Ethnic groups in Germany
Category:Wast Germanic fowks