The German language

Home » Germany » Germany - People and Culture » The German language

German is part of the large group of Indo-Germanic languages, and is related to Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Dutch and even English. At the end of the Middle Ages there were a large number of regional written languages. With the wide dissemination of Luther's Bible translation a uniform written language gradually became established, based largely on the official written language of Saxony (the written language of Meissen).

Germany has a wealth of dialects, which usually easily will reveal where the speaker is from. If two people, one from Mecklenburg and one from Bavaria were to hold a conversation, each in their respective dialect, they would have great difficulties in understanding each other.

German is also the native tongue of Austria, Liechtenstein, the majority of Switzerland, South Tirol (northern Italy), northern Schleswig (Denmark) and in small areas of Belgium and Luxembourg along their borders with Germany. The German minorities in Poland, Romania and the countries of the former Soviet Union have also partly retained the German language. German is the native tongue of more than 100 million people. Around every tenth book that is published worldwide is written in German.

Next Page: German Society

Related Germany - People and Culture Articles

---

• Germany - People and Culture Overview
• Population
• National minorities
• The immigrant population
• The German language
• German Society
• Culture