Language Centre Resources - German

German

An Indo-European language and a member of the West Germanic group of languages. German is the official language or one of the official languages in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Switzerland. In these countries there are approximately 90 million users. German is spoken in 40 countries worldwide: e.g. Denmark, France (Alsace-Lorraine), Belgium, Italy (South Tyrol), Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. Other German speaking communities are found in Africa, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador, Canada and the USA. The total German-speaking population is around 100,000,000 first-language speakers; and 128,000,000 second-language speakers (1999).

Three main three dialect bands span Central Europe (going from north to south), each of which include sub-groups of dialects: Niederdeutsch (Plattdeutsch, Low German), Mitteldeutsch (Middle German) and Oberdeutsch (Upper German). There are also varieties of German that have developed among settlements through emigration (e.g. in the Americas, Australia, Namibia and South Africa).

The oldest literary fragment written in German is the epic Hildebrandslied, dating from the 9th century. By 1600 the literary language was fully established, largely through Martin Luther's (1483-1546) work, the most important segment of it being his translation of the Bible into German.

CLASSIFICATION = Indo-European family    SCRIPT = Roman