German language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

German Deutsch
Pronunciation:	[dɔɪ̯tʃ]
Spoken in:	Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Denmark, France (Alsace, Moselle), Belgium, Poland, Italy, Namibia, Romania (Transylvania), Hungary, Iceland,[1] Russia (Kaliningrad Oblast, Orenburg), Kazakhstan,[1] Czech Republic, Slovakia,[1], Slovenia,[1] Croatia,[1] Baltic countries, Argentina,[1] Brazil[1] , Chile , Paraguay , Mexico
Region:	Central Europe, Western Europe
Total speakers:	Native speakers: ca. 100 million [1][2] Non-native speakers: ca. 28 million[1]
Ranking:	10
Language family:	Indo-European  Germanic   West Germanic    German
Writing system:	Latin alphabet (German variant)
Official status
Official language in:	Austria  Belgium  European Union  Germany  Liechtenstein  Luxembourg  Switzerland  Italy, Bolzano-Bozen region  Hungary, City of Sopron  Romania, several cities  Slovakia, City of Krahule  Vatican City (Swiss Guard only)
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	de
ISO 639-2:	ger (B)	deu (T)
ISO 639-3:	variously: deu — Modern German gmh — Middle High German goh — Old High German gsw — Swiss German swg — Swabian German gct — Alemán Coloniero wae — Walser German bar — Austro-Bavarian yid — Yiddish mhn — Mócheno nds — Low German sxu — Upper Saxon cim — Cimbrian sli — Lower Silesian language wep — Westphalian pdt — Plautdietsch pfl — Palatinate German vmf — Main-Franconian ksh — Kölsch pdc — Pennsylvania German language geh — Hutterite German ltz — Luxembourgish language rip — Ripuarian (language) uln — Unserdeutsch
Major German-speaking communities
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Examples of German language in Namibian everyday life.

The German language (Deutsch, [dɔɪ̯tʃ] (help·info)) is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. German is closely related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. Around the world, German is spoken by ~100 million native speakers and also ~30 million non-native speakers, and Standard German is widely taught in schools and universities in Europe. Worldwide, German accounts for the most written translations into and from a language (Guinness Book of World Records).

Geographic distribution

German is spoken primarily in Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, in 70%+ of Switzerland, in Italy (Alto Adige/Südtirol), in the East Cantons of Belgium, and in some border villages of the former South Jutland County (in German, Nordschleswig, in Danish, Sønderjylland) of Denmark.

In Luxembourg and the surrounding areas, big parts of the native population speak German dialects, and some people also master standard German (especially in Luxembourg), although in the French regions of Alsace (German: Elsass) and Lorraine (German: Lothringen) French has replaced the local German dialects as the official language, even though it has not been fully replaced on the street.

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, Italy, Morocco, Egypt, Israel, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Scandinavia, Siberia in Russia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia and Slovenia).

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 vast majority of their descendants no longer speak German. Additionally, German-speaking communities can be found in the former German colony of Namibia independent from South Africa since 1990, as well as in the other countries of German emigration such as Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Venezuela (where Alemán Coloniero developed), South Africa and Australia.

There´s an important German creole being studied and recovered, named Unserdeutsch, spoken in the former German colony of New Guinea and in North Australia, by few elderly people. The risk of its extinction is serious and efforts in revive the interest in the language are being implemented by scholars.

The United States has the largest concentration of German speakers outside of Europe, and there are large and vibrant German-speaking communities throughout the country, such as New Leipzig, Munich, Karlsruhe, and Strasburg, North Dakota, and New Braunfels, Texas. In the United States, the largest concentrations of German speakers are in Pennsylvania (Amish, Hutterites, Dunkards and some Mennonites speak Pennsylvania Dutch (a West Central German variety) and Hutterite German), Kansas (Mennonites and Volga Germans), North Dakota (Hutterite Germans, Mennonites, Russian Germans, Volga Germans, and Baltic Germans), South Dakota, Montana, Texas (Texas German), Wisconsin, Indiana, Louisiana and Oklahoma. Early twentieth century immigration was often to St. Louis, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Most of the post-World War II wave are in the New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago urban areas, and in Florida, Arizona and California where large communities of retired German, Swiss and Austrian expatriates live.

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, and large German-speaking descendant communities in Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. In the 20th century, over 100,000 German political refugees and invited entrepreneurs settled in Latin America, such as Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic to establish German-speaking enclaves, and there is a reportedly small German immigration to Puerto Rico.

In Canada there are people of German ancestry throughout the country and especially in the western cities such as Kelowna. German is also spoken in Ontario and southern Nova Scotia. There is a large and vibrant community in the city of Kitchener, Ontario. German immigrants were instrumental in the country's three largest urban areas: Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, but post-WWII immigrants managed to preserve a fluency in the German language in their respective neighborhoods and sections. In the first half of the 20th century, over a million German-Canadians made the language one of Canada's most spoken after French.

Generally, In some USA and Canadian communities, German immigrant communities lost their mother tongue more quickly than those who moved to South America^{[citation needed]}, possibly because for German speakers, English is easier to learn than Portuguese or Spanish. But mainly, it was owing to fervent anti-German sentiment in the United States before and after the World Wars followed by the espionage hysteria of East German spies, and "Americanism" (patriotism or nationalism) during the Cold War in the 1950s, and the fear (partly generated by "Anglo-American conformity" and xenophobia) it caused in German-speakers of being attacked. In all English-speaking countries, there was also fervent anti-German sentiment during, before, and after the World Wars.

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. German ancestry is also said to be found in neighboring towns around Guadalajara, Jalisco and much of Northern Mexico, where German influence was immersed into the Mexican culture.

Knowledge of German in the European Union and candidate countries (excluding Switzerland)

Plautdietsch/Plattdeitsch 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, Nuevo Leon, San Luis Potosi and Quintana Roo.

German is the main language of about 90–95 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 [1]) 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.^[3][4] According to Netz-tipp (2002), 7.7% of webpages are written in German,