German Language

The dialectal divisions of Germany, once of conspicuous significance for the ethnic and cultural distinctions they implied, persist despite leveling and standardizing influences such as mass education and communication and despite internal migration and the trend among the younger, better-educated, and more-mobile ranks of society to speak a standard, “accentless” German. The repository of dialectal differences now lies more with the rural populace and the longtime native inhabitants of the cities.

Standard German itself is something of a hybrid language in origin, drawn from elements of the dialects spoken in the central and southern districts but with the phonetic characteristics of the north predominating. Indeed, the pronunciation of standard German is an arbitrary compromise that gained universal currency only in the late 19th century. Even today the most “accent-conscious” of the well-educated speak with the coloration of their native district’s dialect, especially so if they are from the southern regions.

The three major dialectal divisions of Germany coincide almost identically with the major topographic regions: the North German Plain (Low German), the Central German Uplands (Central German), and the southern Jura, Danube basin, and Alpine districts (Upper German). Of the Upper German dialects, the Alemannic branch in the southwest is subdivided into Swabian, Low Alemannic, and High Alemannic. Swabian, the most widespread and still-ascending form, is spoken to the west and south of Stuttgart and as far east as Augsburg. Low Alemannic is spoken in Baden-Württemberg and Alsace, and High Alemannic is the dialect of German-speaking Switzerland. The Bavarian dialect, with its many local variations, is spoken in the areas south of the Danube River and east of the Lech River and throughout all of Austria, except in the state of Vorarlberg, which is Swabian in origin.

Status

• German is the official language of Germany (with Danish, Frisian, and Sorbian as minority languages) where it is spoken by 70 million people as a first language and by another 8 million people as a second language (Ethnologue).
• Standard German is the only official language in Liechtenstein and Austria. It is spoken by 7.5 million people in Austria.
• In Switzerland, German shares co-official status with French, Italian, and Romansh.
• In Belgium, German is a statutory provincial language in German-speaking areas.
• In Luxembourg, German shares official status with French and Luxembourgish.
• German is the official language, along with Italian, of the Vatican Swiss Guard.
• German is used as a regional language in Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Denmark, France, and Namibia.
• German is one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. It is the language with the largest number of native speakers in the European Union, and the second most spoken language in Europe after English.
• German is one of the three working languages of the European Commission, along with English and French.
• German was once the lingua franca of central, eastern and northern Europe. Today, it is the second most studied language in Europe and Asia, after English. The popularity of German is supported by the wide availability of German TV in Europe.
• German is the third most-commonly taught language in U.S. schools and universities, after Spanish and French.