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German language

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Languages

   German
   Deutsch
   Pronunciation: IPA: [dɔʏ̯tʃ]
   Spoken in: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy ( South Tyrol),
   Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland and other countries.
   Region: Central Europe, Western Europe
   Total speakers: Native speakers: 120 million
   Second language: 22 million
   Ranking: 12
   Language family: Indo-European
     Germanic
      West Germanic
       High German
       German
   Writing system: Latin alphabet ( German variant)
   Official status
   Official language of: Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland,
   Luxembourg, Belgium, European Union.

   Regional or local official language in: Denmark, Italy, Romania
   (co-official language of Namibia until 1990).
   Regulated by: no official regulation
   Language codes
   ISO 639-1: de
   ISO 639-2: ger (B)  deu (T)
   ISO/FDIS 639-3: deu

                      Major German-speaking communities


   Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA
   chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

   German (Deutsch, [dɔʏ̯tʃ] ) is a West Germanic language and one of the
   world's major languages. Around the world, German is spoken by
   approximately 110 million native speakers and another 18 million
   non-native speakers.

   Worldwide, German accounts for the most written translations into and
   from a language (according to the Guinness Book of Records).

Geographic distribution

   German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein,
   Luxembourg, in two-thirds of Switzerland, in the South Tyrol province
   of Italy (in German, Südtirol), in the small East Cantons of Belgium,
   and in some border villages of the South Jutland County (in German,
   Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark.

   In Luxembourg (in German, Luxemburg), as well as in the French régions
   of Alsace (in German, Elsass) and parts of Lorraine (in German,
   Lothringen), the native populations speak several German dialects, and
   some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg),
   although in Alsace and Lorraine French has for the most part replaced
   the local German dialects in the last 40 years.

   Some German-speaking communities still survive in parts of Romania, the
   Czech Republic, Hungary, and above all Russia and Kazakhstan, although
   forced expulsions after World War II and massive emigration to Germany
   in the 1980s and 1990s have depopulated most of these communities. It
   is also spoken by German-speaking foreign populations and some of their
   descendants in Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Netherlands,
   Scandinavia, Siberia.
   Examples of German language in Namibia's everday life.
   Enlarge
   Examples of German language in Namibia's everday life.

   Outside of Europe and the former Soviet Union, the largest
   German-speaking communities are to be found in the United States,
   Brazil and in Argentina where millions of Germans migrated in the last
   200 years; but the great majority of their descendants no longer speak
   German. Additionally, German-speaking communities are to be found in
   the former German colony of Namibia, as well as in the other countries
   of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile,
   Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloniero developed), South Africa, and
   Australia. See also Plautdietsch.

   In the United States, the largest concentrations of German speakers are
   in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites and some Mennonites speak
   Pennsylvania Dutch (a West Central German variety) and Hutterite
   German), Texas ( Texas German), Kansas ( Mennonites and Volga Germans),
   North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wisconsin and Indiana. Early
   twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New
   York, and Cincinnati. Most of the post-World War II wave are in the New
   York, Los Angeles, and Chicago urban areas, and in Florida. In Brazil
   the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Rio Grande do Sul
   (where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch was developed), Santa Catarina,
   Paraná, and Espírito Santo. Generally, German immigrant communities in
   the USA have lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved
   to South America, possibly because for German speakers, English is
   easier to learn than Portuguese or Spanish. But mainly, it was due to
   fervent anti-German sentiment in the United States before and after the
   World Wars, and the fear it caused in German-speakers of being
   attacked.

   In Canada there are people of German ancestry throughout the country
   and especially in the west as well as in Ontario. There is a large and
   vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario.

   In Mexico there are also large populations of German ancestry, mainly
   in the cities of: Mexico City, Puebla, Mazatlán, Tapachula, and larger
   populations scattered in the states of Chihuahua, Durango, and
   Zacatecas. Plautdietsch is a large minority language spoken in the
   north by the Mennonite communities, and is spoken by more than 200,000
   people in Mexico, while standard German is spoken by the affluent
   German communities in Puebla, Mexico City & Quintana Roo.

   German is the main language of about 96 million people in Europe (as of
   2004), or 13.3% of all Europeans, being the second most spoken native
   language in Europe after Russian, above French (66.5 million speakers
   in 2004) and English (64.2 million speakers in 2004). German is the
   third most taught foreign language worldwide, also in the United States
   (after Spanish and French); it is the second most known foreign
   language in the EU (after English; see ) It is one of the official
   languages of the European Union, and one of the three working languages
   of the European Commission, along with English and French.

   According to Global Reach (2004), 6.9% of the Internet population is
   German. According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of WebPages are written in
   German, making it second only to English. They also report that 12% of
   Google's users use its German interface.

   Older statistics: Babel (1998) found somewhat similar demographics.
   FUNREDES (1998) and Vilaweb (2000) both found that German is the third
   most popular language used by websites, after English and Japanese.

History

   The history of the German language begins with the High German
   consonant shift during the Migration period, separating South Germanic
   dialects from common West Germanic. The earliest testimonies of Old
   High German are from scattered Elder Futhark inscriptions, especially
   in Alemannic, from the 6th century, the earliest glosses ( Abrogans)
   date to the 8th and the oldest coherent texts (the Hildebrandslied, the
   Muspilli and the Merseburg Incantations) to the 9th century. Old Saxon
   at this time belongs to the North Sea Germanic cultural sphere, and Low
   Saxon should fall under German rather than Anglo-Frisian influence
   during the Holy Roman Empire.

   As Germany was divided into many different states, the only force
   working for a unification or standardisation of German during a period
   of several hundred years was the general preference of writers trying
   to write in a way that could be understood in the largest possible
   area.

   When Martin Luther translated the Bible (the New Testament in 1522 and
   the Old Testament, published in parts and completed in 1534) he based
   his translation mainly on this already developed language, which was
   the most widely understood language at this time. This language was
   based on Eastern Upper and Eastern Central German dialects and
   preserved much of the grammatical system of Middle High German (unlike
   the spoken German dialects in Central and Upper Germany that already at
   that time began to lose the genitive case and the preterit tense). In
   the beginning, copies of the Bible had a long list for each region,
   which translated words unknown in the region into the regional dialect.
   Roman Catholics rejected Luther's translation in the beginning and
   tried to create their own Catholic standard (gemeines Deutsch) — which,
   however, only differed from 'Protestant German' in some minor details.
   It took until the middle of the 18th century to create a standard that
   was widely accepted, thus ending the period of Early New High German.

   German used to be the language of commerce and government in the
   Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern
   Europe. Until the mid-19th century it was essentially the language of
   townspeople throughout most of the Empire. It indicated that the
   speaker was a merchant, an urbanite, not their nationality. Some
   cities, such as Prague (German: Prag) and Budapest ( Buda, German:
   Ofen), were gradually Germanised in the years after their incorporation
   into the Habsburg domain. Others, such as Bratislava (German:
   Pressburg), were originally settled during the Habsburg period and were
   primarily German at that time. A few cities such as Milan (German:
   Mailand) remained primarily non-German. However, most cities were
   primarily German during this time, such as Prague, Budapest,
   Bratislava, Zagreb (German: Agram), and Ljubljana (German: Laibach),
   though they were surrounded by territory that spoke other languages.

   Until about 1800, standard German was almost only a written language.
   At this time, people in urban northern Germany, who spoke dialects very
   different from Standard German, learnt it almost like a foreign
   language and tried to pronounce it as close to the spelling as
   possible. Prescriptive pronunciation guides used to consider northern
   German pronunciation to be the standard. However, the actual
   pronunciation of standard German varies from region to region.

   Media and written works are almost all produced in standard German
   (often called Hochdeutsch in German) which is understood in all areas
   where German is spoken, except by pre-school children in areas which
   speak only dialect, for example Switzerland and Austria. However, in
   this age of television, even they now usually learn to understand
   Standard German before school age.

   The first dictionary of the Brothers Grimm, the 16 parts of which were
   issued between 1852 and 1860, remains the most comprehensive guide to
   the words of the German language. In 1860, grammatical and orthographic
   rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, this was declared
   the standard definition of the German language. Official revisions of
   some of these rules were not issued until 1998, when the German
   spelling reform of 1996 was officially promulgated by governmental
   representatives of all German-speaking countries. Since the reform,
   German spelling has been in an eight-year transitional period where the
   reformed spelling is taught in most schools, while traditional and
   reformed spellings co-exist in the media. See German spelling reform of
   1996 for an overview of the public debate concerning the reform with
   some major newspapers and magazines and several known writers refusing
   to adopt it.

   The spelling reform of 1996 led to public controversy indeed to
   considerable dispute. Some state parliaments (Bundesländer) would not
   accept it (North Rhine Westphalia and Bavaria). The dispute landed at
   one point in the highest court which made a short issue of it, claiming
   that the states had to decide for themselves. After 10 years,
   intervention by the federal parliament finally led to official adoption
   just in time for the new school year of 2006. The cause of the
   controversy evolved around the question whether a language is part of
   the culture which must be preserved or a means of communicating
   information which has to allow for growth. German has no monopoly on
   this fundamental dilemma.

Classification and related languages

   By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is
   divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low
   German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines
   are marked black.
   Enlarge
   By the High German consonant shift, the map of German dialects is
   divided into Upper German (green), Central German (blue), and the Low
   German (yellow). The main isoglosses and the Benrath and Speyer lines
   are marked black.

   German is a member of the western branch of the Germanic family of
   languages, which in turn is part of the Indo-European language family.

Official status

   D-A-CH-flag, flag of the three dominant states in the German
   Sprachraum.
   Enlarge
   D-A-CH-flag, flag of the three dominant states in the German
   Sprachraum.

   Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein and
   Austria; it shares official status in Germany (with Danish, Frisian and
   Sorbian as minority languages), Switzerland (with French, Italian and
   Romansh), Belgium (with Dutch and French) and Luxembourg (with French
   and Luxembourgish). It is used as a local official language in
   German-speaking regions of Denmark, Italy, and Poland. It is one of the
   20 official languages of the European Union.

   It is also a minority language in Argentina, Australia, Brazil,
   Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France,
   Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Mexico, Namibia, Paraguay,
   Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Togo, the Ukraine and
   the United States.

   German was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern
   Europe and remains one of the most popular foreign languages taught
   worldwide. 32% of citizens of the EU-15 countries say they can converse
   in German (either as a mother tongue or as a second/foreign language ).
   This is assisted by the widespread availability of German TV by cable
   or satellite.

Dialects

German dialects vs. varieties of standard German

   In German linguistics, German dialects are distinguished from varieties
   of standard German.
     * The German dialects are the traditional local varieties. They are
       traditionally traced back to the different German tribes. Many of
       them are hardly understandable to someone who knows only standard
       German, since they often differ from standard German in lexicon,
       phonology and syntax. If a narrow definition of language based on
       mutual intelligibility is used, many German dialects are considered
       to be separate languages (for instance in the Ethnologue). However,
       such a point of view is unusual in German linguistics.
     * The varieties of standard German refer to the different local
       varieties of the pluricentric language standard German. They only
       differ slightly in lexicon and phonology. In certain regions, they
       have replaced the traditional German dialects, especially in
       Northern Germany.

Dialects in Germany

   Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West Germanic
   dialectal varieties
   Enlarge
   Distribution of the native speakers of major continental West Germanic
   dialectal varieties

   The variation among the German dialects is considerable, with only the
   neighbouring dialects being mutually intelligible. Some dialects are
   not intelligible to people who only know standard German. However, all
   German dialects belong to the dialect continuum of High German and Low
   Saxon languages. In the past (roughly until the end of the Second World
   War), there was a dialect continuum of all the continental West
   Germanic languages because nearly any pair of neighbouring dialects
   were perfectly mutually intelligible.

   The German dialect continuum is traditionally divided into High German
   and Low German.

Low Saxon

   Low Saxon varieties (spoken on German territory) are considered
   dialects of the German language by some, but a separate language by
   others. Sometimes, Low Saxon and Low Franconian are grouped together
   because both are unaffected by the High German consonant shift.

   Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League. It was
   the predominant language in Northern Germany. This changed in the 16th
   century. In 1534, the Luther Bible, by Martin Luther was printed. This
   translation is considered to be an important step towards the evolution
   of the Early New High German. It aimed to be understandable to an ample
   audience and was based mainly on Central and Upper German varieties.
   The Early New High German language gained more prestige than Low Saxon
   and became the language of science and literature. Other factors were
   that around the same time, the Hanseatic league lost its importance as
   new trade routes to Asia and the Americas were established, and that
   the most powerful German states of that period were located in Middle
   and Southern Germany.

   The 18th and 19th centuries were marked by mass education, the language
   of the schools being standard German. Slowly Low Saxon was pushed back
   and back until it was nothing but a language spoken by the uneducated
   and at home. Today, Low Saxon could be divided in two groups: Low Saxon
   varieties with a (reasonable/large/huge) standard German influx, and
   varieties of standard German with a Low Saxon influence ( Missingsch).

High German

   High German is divided into Central German and Upper German. Central
   German dialects include Ripuarian, Moselle Franconian, Hessian,
   Thuringian, South Franconian, Lorraine Franconian and Upper Saxon. It
   is spoken in the southeastern Netherlands, eastern Belgium, Luxembourg,
   parts of France, and in Germany approximately between the River Main
   and the southern edge of the Lowlands. Modern Standard German is mostly
   based on Central German, but it should be noted that the common (but
   not linguistically correct) German term for modern Standard German is
   Hochdeutsch, that is, High German.

   The Moselle Franconian varieties spoken in Luxembourg have been
   officially standardised and institutionalised and are therefore usually
   considered a separate language known as Luxembourgish.

   Upper German dialects include Alemannic (for instance Swiss German),
   Swabian, East Franconian, Alsatian and Austro-Bavarian. They are spoken
   in parts of the Alsace, southern Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, and
   in the German-speaking parts of Switzerland and Italy.

   Wymysojer, Sathmarisch and Siebenbürgisch are High German dialects of
   Poland and Romania respectively. The High German varieties spoken by
   Ashkenazi Jews (mostly in the former Soviet Union) have several unique
   features, and are usually considered as a separate language, Yiddish.
   It is the only Germanic language that does not use the Latin alphabet
   as its standard script.

   The dialects of German which are or were primarily spoken in colonies
   or communities founded by German speaking people resemble the dialects
   of the regions the founders came from. For example, Pennsylvania German
   resembles dialects of the Palatinate, and Hutterite German resembles
   dialects of Carinthia, while Venezuelan Alemán Coloniero is a Low
   Alemannic variant.

   In Brazil the largest concentrations of German speakers ( German
   Brazilians) are in Rio Grande do Sul, where Riograndenser Hunsrückisch
   was developed, especially in the areas of Santa Catarina, Paraná, and
   Espírito Santo.

   In the United States, the teaching of the German language to latter-age
   students has given rise to a pidgin variant which combines the German
   language with the grammar and spelling rules of the English language.
   It is often understandable by either party. The speakers of this
   language often refer to it as Amerikanisch or Amerikanischdeutsch,
   although it is known in English as American German. However, this is a
   pidgin, not a dialect. In the USA, in the Amana Colonies in the state
   of Iowa Amana German is spoken.

Standard German

   In German linguistics, only the traditional regional varieties are
   called dialects, not the different varieties of standard German.

   Standard German has originated not as a traditional dialect of a
   specific region, but as a written language. However, there are places
   where the traditional regional dialects have been replaced by standard
   German; this is the case in vast stretches of Northern Germany, but
   also in major cities in other parts of the country and to some extent
   in Vienna.

   Standard German differs regionally, especially between German-speaking
   countries, especially in vocabulary, but also in some instances of
   pronunciation and even grammar. This variation must not be confused
   with the variation of local dialects. Even though the regional
   varieties of standard German are to a certain degree influenced by the
   local dialects, they are very distinct. German is thus considered a
   pluricentric language.

   In most regions, the speakers use a continuum of mixtures from more
   dialectical varieties to more standard varieties according to
   situation.

   In the German-speaking parts of Switzerland, mixtures of dialect and
   standard are very seldom used, and the use of standard German is
   largely restricted to the written language. Therefore, this situation
   has been called a medial diglossia. Standard German is only spoken with
   people who do not understand the Swiss German dialects at all. It is
   expected to be used in school.

Grammar

   German is an inflected language.

Noun inflection

   German nouns inflect into:
     * one of four declension classes (cases): nominative, genitive,
       dative, and accusative.
     * one of three genders: masculine, feminine, or neuter. Word endings
       sometimes reveals grammatical gender for instance nouns ending in
       ...ung, ...schaft or ...eit are feminine in ...chen or ...lein are
       neuter; others are controversial (Ex. Becken = basin or Radio =
       radio) sometimes depending on the region in which it is spoken. To
       avoid a misunderstanding usually the sentence can be reorganized.
     * two numbers: singular and plural

   Although German is usually cited as an outstanding example of a highly
   inflected language, it should be noted that the degree of inflection is
   considerably less than in Old German, or in Icelandic today. The three
   genders have collapsed in the plural, which now behaves, grammatically,
   somewhat as a fourth gender. With four cases and three genders plus
   plural there are 16 distinct possible combinations of case and
   gender/number, but presently there are only six forms of the definite
   article used for the 16 possibilities. Inflection for case on the noun
   itself is required in the singular for strong masculine and neuter
   nouns in the genitive and sometimes in the dative. Both of these cases
   are losing way to substitutes in informal speech. The dative ending is
   considered somewhat old-fashioned in many contexts and often dropped,
   but it is still used in sayings and in formal speech or in written
   language. Weak masculine nouns share a common case ending for genitive,
   dative and accusative in the singular. Feminines are not declined in
   the singular. The plural does have an inflection for the dative. In
   total, seven inflectional endings (not counting plural markers) exist
   in German: -s, -es, -n, -ns, -en, -ens, -e.

   In the German orthography, nouns and most words with the syntactical
   function of nouns are capitalised, which is supposed to make it easier
   for readers to find out what function a word has within the sentence.
   On the other hand, things get more difficult for the writer. This
   spelling convention is almost unique to German today (shared perhaps
   only by the closely related Luxembourgish language), although it was
   historically common in other languages (e.g., Danish), too.

   Like most Germanic languages, German forms left-branching noun
   compounds, where the first noun modifies the category given by the
   second, for example: Hundehütte (eng. doghouse). Unlike English, where
   newer compounds or combinations of longer nouns are often written in
   open form with separating spaces, German (like the other German
   languages) nearly always uses the closed form without spaces, for
   example: Baumhaus (eng. tree house). Like English, German allows
   arbitrarily long compounds, but these are rare. (See also English
   compounds.)

   The longest German word verified to be actually in (albeit very
   limited) use is
   Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz. There
   is even a child's game played in kindergartens and primary schools
   where a child begins the spelling of a word (which is not told) by
   naming the first letter. The next one tells the next letter, the third
   one tells the third and so on. The game is over when a child cannot
   think of another letter to be added to the word (see Ghost). Another
   popular child's game consists of building a noun compound. The first
   child starts with a noun or more commonly already a compound
   (Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitän (Danube Steamboat captain) is somewhat
   popular and infamous). The next child has to append another noun so
   that the compound still has a sensible meaning (Example:
   Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitän -> Donaudampfschiffahrtskapitänsmütze
   (Danube Steamboat captain's hat) ->
   Donaudampfschifffahrtskapitänsmützenfabrik (Danube Steamboat captain's
   hat factory, and so on). The game ends when the next child cannot think
   of a word to append that would yield a meaningful compound.

Verb inflection

   Standard German verbs inflect into:
     * one of two conjugation classes, weak and strong (like English).

   (There is actually a third class, known as mixed verbs, which exhibit
   inflections combining features of both the strong and weak patterns.)
     * three persons: 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
     * two numbers: singular and plural
     * three moods: Indicative, Subjunctive, Imperative
     * two genera verbi: active and passive; the passive being composed
       and dividable into static and dynamic.
     * two non-composed tenses (Present, Preterite) and four composed
       tenses (Perfect, Plusquamperfect, Future I, Future II)
     * distinction between grammatical aspects is rendered by combined use
       of subjunctive and/or Preterite marking; thus: neither of both is
       plain indicative voice, sole subjunctive conveys second-hand
       information, subjunctive plus Preterite marking forms the
       conditional state, and sole Preterite is either plain indicative
       (in the past), or functions as a (literal) alternative for either
       second-hand-information or for the conditional state of the verb,
       when one of them may seem undistinguishable otherwise.
     * distinction between perfect and progressive aspect is and has at
       every stage of development been at hand as a productive category of
       the older language and in nearly all documented dialects, but,
       strangely enough, is nowadays rigorously excluded from written
       usage in its present normalised form.
     * disambiguation of completed vs. uncompleted forms is widely
       observed and regularly generated by common prefixes (blicken - to
       look, erblicken - to see [unrelated form: sehen - to see]).

   There are also many ways to expand, and sometimes radically change, the
   meaning of a base verb through several prefixes. Examples: haften=to
   stick, verhaften=to imprison; kaufen=to buy, verkaufen=to sell;
   hören=to hear, aufhören=to cease.

Syntax

   The word order is generally more rigid than in English except for nouns
   (see below). One word order is for a main and another for relative
   clauses. In normal positive sentences the inflected verb always has
   position 2; In questions, exclamations, and wishes, it always has
   position 1. In relative clauses the verb is supposed to occur at the
   very end. In speech some clauses are excused from this rule. For
   example in a subordinate clause introduced by the German word for
   "because" (weil) the verb quite often occupies the same order as in a
   main clause. Correct is ... weil ich pleite bin. (...because I'm
   broke). In the vernacular you hear ...weil ich bin pleite.. This may be
   caused by mixing weil with a second, alternative word for "because",
   denn, which confusingly is used with the main clause order (...denn ich
   bin pleite.).

   Sentences using modal verbs separate the auxiliary putting the
   infinitive at the end. For example, the sentence in English "Should he
   go home?" would be rearranged in German to say "Should he home go?"
   (Soll er nach Hause gehen?). Thus in sentences with several subordinate
   or relative clauses verbs tend to gather at the end. The reader or
   listener then has the job of reconnecting these verbs individually to
   the subjects to which they belong. Compare the mental acrobatics to
   rearrange prepositions in the following English sentence: What did you
   bring that book that I don't like to be read to out of up for?

   To ease the German syntax, a rule has been imposed to limit the number
   of infinitives at the end to two, placing the third infinitive or
   auxiliary verb that would have gone to the end to the beginning of the
   chain of verbs. In the sentence "Should he move into the house that he
   just had renovated?" would be rearranged to "Should he into that house
   move which he just had renovate let?". (Soll er in das Haus einziehen,
   das er gerade hat renovieren lassen?). If there are more than three,
   all others are relocated to the beginning of the chain. Needless to say
   the rule is not exclusively applied. Many native speakers spend their
   entire lives without ever using it outside of school at all. It's found
   in newspapers, radio or tv reports and in educated circles. Mostly the
   situation is avoided by reorganizing the sentence.

   The position of a noun as a subject or object in a german sentence
   doesn't affect the meaning of the sentence as it would in English. In a
   declarative sentence in English if the subject does not occur before
   the predicate the sentence could well be misunderstood. In a headline,
   for example, "Man bites dog" it's clear who did what to whom. To
   exchange the place of the subject with that of the object changes the
   meaning completely. In other words the word order in a sentence conveys
   significant information. In German, nouns and articles are declined as
   in Latin thus indicating its case as nominative or accusative (among
   others). The above example in German would be Ein Mann beißt den Hund
   or Den Hund beißt ein Mann with exactly the same meaning. If the
   articles are omitted, which is sometimes done in headlines (Hund beißt
   Mann), it's like in English, the first noun is the subject. The noun
   following the predicate is the object.

   Except for cases of emphasis adverbs of time have to appear in the
   third place in the sentence (just after the predicate). Otherwise the
   speaker would be recognised as non-German. For instance the German word
   order (in English) is: We're going tomorrow to town. (Wir gehen morgen
   in die Stadt.)

   Many German verbs are separable meaning that the verb's prefix (often a
   preposition) is split off and moved to the end of the sentence, hence
   considered by some to be a "resultative particle", unique to the German
   language. For example, mitgehen meaning "to go with" would be split
   giving Gehen Sie mit? (Are you also going?). Although ending English
   sentences with a preposition is sometimes frowned upon, this
   construction is standard in German. For more info see Preposition
   stranding.

Lexicon

   Most German vocabulary is derived from the Germanic branch of the
   Indo-European language family, although there are significant
   minorities of words derived from Latin, French, and most recently
   English (which, in English, is known as Germish or in German as
   Denglisch). At the same time, the effectiveness of the German language
   in forming rivals for foreign words from its inherited Germanic stem
   repertory is great. Thus, Notker Labeo was able to translate
   Aristotelian treatises in pure (Old High) German in the decades after
   the year 1000.

   Still today, many low-key scholarlymovements try to promote the Ersatz
   (substitution) of virtually all foreign words with German alternatives:
   ancient, dialectal, or neologisms. It is claimed that this would also
   help in spreading modern or scientific notions among the less educated,
   and thus democratise public life, too. (Jurisprudence in Germany, for
   example, uses perhaps the “purest” tongue in terms of "Germanness" to
   be found today.)

   The coining of new, autochthonous words, gave German a vocabulary of an
   estimated 40,000 words as early as the ninth century (in comparison,
   Latin, with a written tradition of nearly 2,500 years in an empire
   which ruled the Mediterranean, has grown to no more than 45,000 words
   today). The vocabulary of German is smaller than that of English, which
   has the largest lexicon of any language.

Writing system

Present

   German is now written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26
   standard letters, German has three vowels with Umlaut, namely ä, ö and
   ü, as well as the Eszett or scharfes S (sharp "s") ß.

   In German spelling before the reform of 1996, ß replaced ss after long
   vowels and diphthongs and before consonants, word-, or
   partial-word-endings. In reformed spelling, ß replaces ss only after
   long vowels and diphthongs. Since there is no capital "ß", in
   capitalised writing "ß" is always written as "SS" (example: Maßband
   (Tape measure) in normal writing, but MASSBAND in capitalised writing).
   In Switzerland, ß is not used at all.

   Umlaut vowels (ä, ö, ü) can be circumscribed with ae, oe, and ue if the
   umlauts are not available on the keyboard used. In the same manner "ß"
   can be circumscribed as "ss". German readers understand those
   circumscriptions (although they look unusual), but they are avoided if
   the regular umlauts are available since "ae", "oe" and "ue" can in rare
   cases also mean a regular vowel with silent "e", in the manner of "ah",
   "oh" and "uh". This is often used in Westphalia, examples are the
   cities "Raesfeld" [ˡraːsfɛlt] and "Coesfeld" [ˡkoːsfɛlt] near Münster.

   Unfortunately there is still no general agreement exactly where these
   Umlauts occur in the sorting sequence. Telephone directories treat them
   by replacing them with the base vowel followed by an "e", whereas
   dictionaries use just the base vowel. As an example in a telephone book
   "Ärzte" occurs after "Adressenverlage" but before "Anlagenbauer"
   (because "Ä" is replaced by "Ae"). In a dictionary "Ärzte" occurs after
   "Arzt" but before "Asbest" (because "Ä" is treated as "A").

Past

   Until the early 20th century, German was mostly printed in blackletter
   typefaces (mostly in Fraktur, but also in Schwabacher) and written in
   corresponding handwriting (for example Kurrent and Sütterlin). These
   variants of the Latin alphabet are very different from the serif or
   sans serif Antiqua typefaces used today, and particularly the
   handwritten forms are difficult for the untrained to read. The printed
   forms however are claimed by some to be actually more readable when
   used for printing Germanic languages. The Nazis initially promoted
   Fraktur and Schwabacher since they were considered Aryan, although they
   later abolished them in 1941 by claiming that these letters were
   Jewish.

Phonology

Vowels

   The German vowels A, O and U with or without umlauts are pronounced
   long or short depending normally upon what follows it in the syllable.
   If the vowel is at the end of a syllable or followed by a single
   consonant it is normally pronounced long (Ex. Hof = yard pronounced
   like the o in the English word "hope"). If it is followed by a double
   consonant like ff, ss or tt it is nearly always short (Ex. Hoffnung =
   Hope, pronounced similar to the first o in the English word "bottom").
   A vowel followed by "st" is sometimes short (Ex. Posten = entry on an
   invoice) and sometimes long (Ex. Kloster = convent). These rules are
   unfortunately neither consistent nor universal. In central Germany
   (Hessen), for example, the o in the proper name "Hoffmann" is
   pronounced long as if the name were spelled "Hofmann". The combination
   "ch" is always treated as a single consonant. Thus when following a
   vowel the vowel should be pronounced long. In the combinations "ck" and
   "dt" the first letter is silent. It's only there to show that the
   preceding vowel should be pronounced short. This rule is not
   universally observed. According to the rule the e in the name
   Mecklenburg, for example, should be pronounced with short [ɛ] (like the
   English "e" in bet), but it is often pronounced with long [eː] (like
   the "ai" in a Scottish English pronunciation of bait). This is caused
   by the spelling traditions of Low German dialects, where "ck" was used
   to indicate a long vowel and occurs mainly in old names from this
   region. The word Städte (= cities), for example, is pronounced with a
   short vowel ([ˈʃtɛtə]) by some (Jan Hofer, ARD Television) and with a
   long vowel ([ˈʃtɛːtə]) by others (Marietta Slomka, ZDF Television).

   The digraph ei is pronounced [ai] (e.g. meine = mine). The digraph ie
   is pronounced [iː] (e.g. diese = this), as is i followed by a single
   consonant (e.g. Berlin). However, the feminine suffix -in (e.g.
   Kanzlerin = female chancellor) is pronounced [ɪn], with a short vowel.

Umlaut ( ¨ )

     * Ä: In its short form comes close to the e of the English word bed.
       Its long form has no equivalent in English but comes close to the
       /eir/ in "their".
     * Ö: In its long form comes close to the ir sound in the English word
       "bird". (Ex. Brötchen = roll (to eat)).
     * Ü: In its long form comes close to the yu sound in the English
       words "mule" or "music". (Ex. München = Munich). It is pronounced
       similarly to the French "u".

Consonants

     * C standing alone is not a germanic letter. It never occurs at the
       beginning of a germanic word. In borrowed words together with "h"
       there is no single agreement on the pronunciation. It's pronounced
       either as the English "sh" in or as "k". (Ex. China( = China) or
       Chemie (= Chemistry).
     * Ch occurs most often but has no equivalent in English. There are
       two slightly different ways of pronunciation in High German: After
       e and i it sounds a bit like the "h" in "huge", but is pronounced
       more sharply and strongly (Ex. mich = me). After a, o and u (dark
       vowels) it is as if you tried to pronounce k without cutting off
       the air above the tongue. (Ex. Rache = revenge). In western Germany
       (Rheinland) it is in any position pronounced as sch equivalent to
       the English sh in the word shoe. In this area distinguishing
       between such words as Kirchen (Churches) and Kirschen (cherries) is
       left up to the context.
     * H is aspirated, as in "Home" at the beginning of a syllable. After
       a vowel it's silent and just lengthens the vowel. (Ex. Reh = Deer)
     * W is pronounced as /v/ as in "Vacation" (Ex. Was = What)
     * S is pronounced as /z/ as in "Zebra" (Ex. Sonne = Sun)
     * Z is always pronounced as /ts/.
     * F is pronounced as /f/ as in "Father".
     * V is pronounced as /f/ in words of Germanic origin (Ex. Vater =
       Father) and as /v/ in other words (Ex. Evidenz = Evidence)
     * ß is never used at the beginning of a word. It is pronounced as /s/
       as in "see" (Ex. Schoß = lap).

   The th sound common in English actually came from Anglo Saxon. It
   survived on the continent up to Old High German then disappeared with
   the consonant shifts about the 9th century.

Diphthongs

     * AU occurs often and is pronounced as the English /au/ in house (Ex.
       Haus = house)
     * EI is pronounced as /ai/ in "I" (Ex. mein = mine)
     * AI is pronounced the same as their EI. (Ex. Mai = May)
     * IE is pronounced as the long "i" of bee. (Ex. Tier = Animal)
     * EU is pronounced as /oi/ in boy. (Ex. Treu = Loyal).
     * ÄU is pronounced the same as their diphthong EU. (Ex. Fräulein =
       Miss)

Cognates with English

   There are many German words that are cognate to English words. Most of
   them are easily identifiable and have almost the same meaning.
              German            Meaning of German word     English cognate
   Abend                        eve/evening             eve from Old E.æfen
   auf                          up                      up
   aus                          out,up                  out
   beginnen, begann, begonnen   to begin, began, begun  to begin, began,
                                                        begun
   best-                        best                    best
   Bett                         bed                     bed
   Bier                         beer                    beer
   Butter                       butter                  butter
   essen                        to eat                  to eat
   fallen, fiel, gefallen       to fall, fell, fallen   to fall, fell, fallen
   Faust                        fist                    fist
   Finger                       finger                  finger
   Gott                         God                     God
   haben                        to have                 to have
   heit(suffix)                 ity(latin suffix)       hood(suffix)
   Haus                         house                   house
   heißen                       is called               hight
   hören                        to hear                 hear
   ist, war                     is, was                 is, was
   Katze                        cat                     cat
   kommen, kam, gekommen        to come, came, come     to come, came, come
   Laus                         louse                   louse
   Läuse                        lice                    lice
   lachen                       to laugh                to laugh
   Maus                         mouse                   mouse
   Milch                        milk                    milk
   müssen                       must                    must
   Mäuse                        mice                    mice
   Nacht                        night                   night
   Pfeife                       pipe                    pipe, fife
   Schiff                       ship                    ship
   schwimmen                    to swim                 to swim
   singen, sang, gesungen       to sing, sang, sung     to sing, sang, sung
   sinken, sank, gesunken       to sink, sank, sunk     to sink, sank, sunk
   Sommer                       summer                  summer
   springen, sprang, gesprungen to jump, jumped, jumped to spring, sprang,
                                                        sprung
   Tag                          day                     day
   Wetter                       weather                 weather
   Wille                        will (noun)             will
   wir, uns                     we, us                  we, us
   Winter                       winter                  winter

   When these cognates have slightly different consonants, this is often
   due to the High German consonant shift.

   There are cognates whose meanings in either language have changed
   through the centuries. It is sometimes difficult for both English and
   German speakers to discern the relationship. On the other hand, once
   the definitions are made clear, then the logical relation becomes
   obvious.
   German Meaning of German word English cognate Comment
   antworten to answer an-word the cognate prefix Ger.'ant' is equal to
   Old E.'and-'〈"against"〉(→an).'wort'=word,'swer'=swear,so the suffix
   isn't cognate.
   Baum tree beam Both derive from West Germanic *baumoz meaning "tree".
   It is the English one which, in Anglo-Saxon and Old English, has
   radically changed its meaning several times.
   bekommen to get to become
   drehen to turn to throw cf. to "throw" (make) a pot by turning it on a
   wheel
   ernten to harvest to earn
   fahren to go to fare O.E. faran "to journey, to make one's way," from
   P.Gmc. *faranan (cf. Goth. faran, Ger. fahren), from PIE *por- "going,
   passage"
   fechten to fence (sport) to fight
   Gift poison gift the original meaning of Gift in German can still be
   seen in the german deflection Mitgift "dowry"
   Hund dog hound
   kaufen to buy cheap, chapman
   Knabe (formal) boy knave
   Knecht servant knight
   Kopf head cup Latin cuppa 'bowl'; cf. French tête, from Latin testa
   'shell/bowl'. Here English kept the original Germanic word for "head"
   while German borrowed a Latin word (the native German word is Haupt,
   but now used for other purposes). The German word for cup, Tasse, is
   also of Latin (French) origin
   machen to do,to work to make
   nehmen to take numb sensation has been "taken away"; cf. German
   benommen, 'dazed'
   raten to guess, to advise to read cf. riddle, akin to German Rätsel
   ritzen to scratch to write
   Schmerz pain smart The verb smart retains this meaning
   schlecht bad slight Sense of Ger. cognate schlecht developed from
   "smooth, plain, simple" to "bad," and as it did it was replaced in the
   original senses by schlicht, a back-formation from schlichten "to
   smooth, to plane," a derivative of schlecht in the old sense.
   stadt a city stead
   sterben to die to starve
   sich rächen to take revenge to wreak (havoc)
   Tisch table dish, desk Latin discus
   Vieh cattle fee from O.E. 'feoh' "money, property, cattle"
   Wald forest weald
   werden to become weird see wyrd
   werfen to throw to warp
   Zeit time tide the root is re-used in German Gezeiten as Tiden
   ('tides')

   German and English also share many borrowings from other languages,
   especially Latin, French and Greek. Most of these words have the same
   meaning, while a few have subtle differences in meaning. As many of
   these words have been borrowed by numerous languages, not only German
   and English, they are called internationalisms in German linguistics.
     German    Meaning of German word  language of origin
   Armee       army                   French
   Arrangement arrangement            French
   Chance      opportunity            French
   Courage     courage                French
   Chuzpe      chutzpah               Yiddish
   Disposition disposition            Latin
   Feuilleton  feuilleton             French
   Futur       future tense           Latin
   Boje        buoy                   Dutch
   Genre       genre                  French
   Mikroskop   microscope             Greek
   Partei      political party        French
   Position    position               Latin
   positiv     positive               Latin
   Prestige    prestige               French
   Psychologie psychology             Greek
   Religion    religion               Latin
   Tabu        taboo                  Tongan
   Zigarre     cigar                  Spanish
   Zucker      sugar                  Sanskrit, via Arabic

Examples of German

          Translation                Phrase                   IPA
   German                    Deutsch                /dɔɪ̯tʃ/
   Hello                     Hallo                  /ˈhaloː/
   I am called Hans.         Ich heiße Hans.        /ʔɪç haɪ̯sə hans/
   My name is Hans.          Mein Name ist Hans.    /maɪ̯n namə ʔɪst hans/
   Good morning              Guten Morgen           /ˈguːtən ˈmɔɐ̯gən/
   Good day                  Guten Tag              /ˈguːtən taːk/
   Good evening              Guten Abend            /ˈguːtən ˈaːbənt/
   Good night                Gute Nacht             /ˈguːtə naχt/
   Good-bye                  Auf Wiedersehen        /ʔaʊ̯f ˈviːdɐˌzeːn/
   Please                    Bitte                  /ˈbɪtə/
   You are welcome           Bitte                  /ˈbɪtə/
   Thank you                 Danke                  /ˈdaŋkə/
   That                      Das                    /das/
   How much?                 Wie viel?              /vi fiːl/
   Yes                       Ja                     /jaː/
   No                        Nein                   /naɪ̯n/
   I would like that, please Ich möchte das, bitte  /ʔɪç mœçtə das ˈbɪtə/
   Where is the toilet?      Wo ist die Toilette?   /voː ʔɪst diː toa̯ˈlɛtə/
   Generic toast             Prosit
                             Prost                  /ˈproːziːt/
                                                    /proːst/
   Do you speak English?     Sprechen Sie Englisch? /ˈʃprɛçən ziː ˈʔɛŋlɪʃ/
   I don't understand        Ich verstehe nicht     /ʔɪç fɐˈʃteːə nɪçt/
   Excuse me                 Entschuldigung         /ʔɛntˈʃʊldɪgʊŋ/
   I don't know              Ich weiß nicht         /ʔɪç vaɪ̯s nɪçt/

Names for German in other languages

   Because of the turbulent history of both Germany and the German
   language, the names that other peoples have chosen to use to refer to
   it varies more than for most other languages.

   In Italian the sole name for German is still tedesco, from the Latin
   teutiscum, meaning "vernacular".

   Romanian used to use in the past the Slavonic term "nemţeşte", but
   "Germană" is now widely used. Hungarian "német" is also of Slavonic
   origin. The Arabic name for Austria, النمسا ("an-namsa"), is derived
   from the Slavonic term.

   Note also that, although the Russian term for the language is немецкий
   (nemetskij), the country is Германия (Germaniya). However, in some
   other Slavic languages, as with Polish, the country name (Niemcy (pl))
   is similar to the name of the language, (język) niemiecki.

   A possible explanation for the use of "mute" (nemoj) to refer to German
   (and also to Germans) in Slavic languages is that Germans were the
   first people Slavic tribes encountered, with whom they could not
   communicate. The corresponding experience for the Germans was with the
   Volcae, whose name they subsequently also applied to the Slavs, see
   etymology of Vlach. Another less-attested possibility is that the Slavs
   first encountered a Germanic tribe called the Nemetes (which was
   mentioned by the Romans), and later meeting other Germans, applied the
   tribe's name "Nemetes" to all Germans.

   Hebrew traditionally (nowadays this is not the case) used the Biblical
   term Ashkenaz (Genesis 10:3) to refer to Germany, or to certain parts
   of it, and the Ashkenazi Jews are those who originate from Germany and
   Eastern Europe and formerly spoke Yiddish as their native language,
   derived from Middle High German.

   See also Names for Germany.
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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