German (German: Deutsch) is a language of the West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is the sixth most spoken language in the world in terms of the number of countries that use it as an official language. German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely spoken native language in the European Union . There are between 90 and 98 million native speakers of German. The formation of the German Standard Common Language can be traced back to Martin Luther 's translation of the Latin "Vulgate Bible". Most German words originate from the ancestral language of its Germanic language family (Old High German, Middle High German, Old Frankish, etc., which developed from Proto-Germanic). Some words come from Latin and Ancient Greek , and some come from French and English.
German-speaking native speakers are now mainly distributed in Germany, Austria, eastern Switzerland , Liechtenstein and Luxembourg . In some areas that historically belonged to Pan-Germany (such as South Tyrol in Italy that was part of Austria before World War I, East Belgium that was part of Prussia before World War I, and South Jutland/Nord Schleswig in Denmark that was part of Prussia before World War I) Greece, Polish Silesia, which belonged to Prussia before World War I, French Alsace and Lorraine, which changed hands several times between Germany and France, and the former German colony of Namibia, are still inhabited by many Germans who are native speakers of German and are local ethnic minorities.
German is written using the Latin alphabet. In addition to the 26 regular Latin letters, the German alphabet also has three vowels with diaeresis: Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü, and a special letter ẞ/ß. German is a difficult language to learn. For example, nouns are divided into three genders: yin (die), middle (das), and yang (der), and there are no rules. In addition, German four-case conjugation is also one of the difficulties.
German dialects are generally divided into two types: Low German and High German. Modern German dialects are divided into two parts: Middle German and Upper German. Standard German is based on Middle German. The dialects spoken in Austria and Switzerland belong to Upper German. There are many dialects in the southern part of the German language area, such as Austrian dialect, Swabian dialect, Bavarian dialect, Hessian dialect, Cologne dialect, Berlin dialect, etc. Generally speaking, the more southern dialect the pronunciation is, the stronger the pronunciation will be, with more short sounds and more a sounds. High German, a dialect of German spoken in southern Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. "Highlands" refers to the Alps and adjacent mountainous areas of southern Germany.
It is worth noting that people often confuse High German with Standard German, but they are two completely different concepts. The German word corresponding to High German is Oberdeutsch. The word "Ober" means "high, above" and refers to the Alps and the adjacent mountainous areas of southern Germany; while the German word corresponding to Standard German is Hochdeutsch. The word "hoch" also means "high" but here it means "noble, advanced" rather than a geographical concept. The word Hochdeutsch in German specifically refers to Standard German. The pronunciation of Standard German is based on the dialect of central Germany (around Hannover ). Germany, Austria, and Switzerland use the same German orthography.
Low German (usually divided into three major systems): East Low German, including East and West Prussian German used in Berlin, Mecklenburg and other areas, all belong to East Low German. Low Saxon, such as the Mennonite Low German spoken by the German ethnic groups in Kansas, North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, most cities in Schleswig-Holstein, and parts of many provinces in the southeastern Netherlands. Low Frankish, including �� Dutch �, Flemish in Belgium (although it uses different words from Dutch, the corresponding words have the same pronunciation), West Limburgish in the Netherlands, etc., so in essence Dutch is also a kind of Low German, but it is independently called Dutch because of political factors.
Linguists generally believe that Low German is an independent language rather than a dialect of German. Low German has been heavily influenced by Standard German over the past century. Low German is still widely spoken in northern Germany today.Low German retains some of the more primitive elements of the Germanic language family, and they have more in common with Dutch and Old English than with various High German languages. The pronunciation of various types of Low German is usually softer, with more e: sounds and long sounds.
Swiss German: Generally, linguists believe that Swiss German is a dialect of German, which is relatively close to the Swabian dialect. However, the pronunciation of Swiss German is so different from the pronunciation of standard German that most Germans cannot understand it. The orthography of Swiss German is exactly the same as that of Standard German. Although some people in Switzerland use Swiss German pronunciation to write, this writing method is not officially recognized.
