German is a West Germanic language, the official language of Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein and one of the official languages of Switzerland and Belgium. It is written in the Latin alphabet, distinguished among major European languages by its retained grammatical case system, its practice of capitalizing all nouns, and its capacity for long compound words. Standard German descends from a chancery variety codified in the early modern period, and it remains one of the most widely studied second languages in Europe.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count Attested From (Year)The Old High German period is conventionally dated from the Abrogans, a Latin-German glossary written c. 765-775, though isolated Elder Futhark runic evidence is older still. RegionMajority and official language of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein; mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe 3 Classification
Official Status Connections
Ancestor Of
Source Wikipedia: Austrian German
Source Wikipedia: Bavarian German
Source Wikipedia: Swiss German
Associated With
This source names German directly: "Edward Sapir was a German-born American linguist and anthropologist, trained under Franz Boas, who became one of the most influential figures in early American structural linguistics."
Source Encyclopaedia Britannica
Wrote Die Sprachwissenschaft (1891), a foundational general-linguistics text composed in German that anticipated later structuralist ideas.
Source Deutsche GrammatikJacob Grimm
Verner's Law explains exceptions to Grimm's Law in the Germanic consonant shift ancestral to German and the other Germanic languages.
Source Wikipedia: Karl Verner
Source Deutsches WorterbuchJacob Grimm And Wilhelm Grimm
In Family
Source Wikipedia: Germanic Languages
Source Ethnologue: Languages of the World
Written In
Sources
1. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language
David Crystal (editor), Cambridge University Press, 2010Official status, German entity pageQuote, Official status, German entity page
German is a West Germanic language, the official language of Germany, Austria and Liechtenstein and one of the official languages of Switzerland and Belgium.
2. Ethnologue: Languages of the World
3. Wikipedia: German Language
Wikimedia Foundationinfobox
Deutsch
lead section
mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe
Quote
The Old High German period is generally seen as beginning with the Abrogans (written c. 765-775)
View the Source Deutsche Grammatik
Jacob Grimm, 1822Associated With: Jacob Grimm
Deutsches Worterbuch
Jacob Grimm And Wilhelm Grimm, 1838Associated With: Wilhelm Grimm
Wikipedia: Karl Verner
Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Karl Verner, IntroductionView the Source Wikipedia: Germanic Languages
Wikimedia FoundationIn Family: Germanic, Major branches sectionView the Source Wikipedia: Swiss German
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Swiss German, Use sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Swiss German, Use section
Unlike most regional languages in modern Europe, Swiss German is the everyday spoken language for the majority of the population, in all social strata, from urban centres to the countryside.
Wikipedia: Bavarian German
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Bavarian German, Opening section, speaker demographics paragraphQuote, Ancestor Of: Bavarian German, Opening section, speaker demographics paragraph
Bavarian is spoken by approximately 12 million people in an area of around 125,000 square kilometres (48,000 sq mi), making it the largest of all German dialects.
Wikipedia: Austrian German
Wikimedia FoundationAncestor Of: Austrian German, Opening sectionQuote, Ancestor Of: Austrian German, Opening section
Austrian German is the variety of Standard German written and spoken in Austria and South Tyrol.
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