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27 de sept. de 2017 · According to Wikipedia, German is the 11th most widely spoken language in the world, with about 1.4% of the population being German-speaking. Mandarin takes first place and English comes in third. Do you speak German? | © geralt/ Pixabay
- Geography Facts About German
- Linguistic Facts About German
- History Facts About German
- Fun Facts to Know For Learning German
- Wacky Facts About The German Language
- Conclusion
1. German is the 11th most widely spoken language
About 100mil people worldwide claim German as their first language! On top of that, another several million people speak a German minority language, such as Pennsylvania Dutch. If we include people who learn German as a foreign language, there are over 130mil people who speak German. It’s a prevalent language in the fields of technology and business, and if you’re an artist you might recognize it as one of the primary languages on art supplies.
2. German is the official language of 5 EU countries
So…where is the German language spoken? Many German speakers live in the EU, with five EU countries naming it as one of their official languages. Aside from being the native and sole official language of Germany, it is also an official language in Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, and Belgium. These aren’t the only German-speaking countries, and the language is also spoken in as a minority language in many eastern European countries, Switzerland, Namibia, Brazil, South Africa, and the US!
3. Some dialects are almost unintelligible to one another
Germany has 16 Bundesländer, or federal states, and many of them have their own dialect(s) of German. Northern German dialects tend to be quite different from southern dialects. These differences arose due to consonant and vowel shifts that occurred along ‘lines’ in Germany. The Uerdingen line marks a difference in pronunciation of -k vs. -ch. This turns ‘ich’ (I) into ‘ik’ above the Uerdingen Linie, but ‘ich’ south of the line. ‘Machen’ for ‘to make’ follows the same rule in what’s known as...
7. German has lots of compound words
For many, German is known as the language with ‘Frankenwords.’ German noun structure allows for just about any two words to be combined into a new one, like Schlüsselbein (bowl + bone) for collar bone or Fahrräder(drive + wheels) for bicycle. This definitely allows for a lot of flexibility in the language and you can find a lot of interesting words in German because of it. You can make up new words this way too! Compound words in German aren’t confined to just nouns; the verb meaning ‘to get...
8. German has a special letter
While many European languages using the Latin alphabet have accents or tonal marks, German is the only one with a Latin alphabet that also has a special letter! The eszett is that squiggly ‘B’-like letter, ß, that you sometimes see in German words. You don’t pronounce it like a b, however, but an s. Writing German and don’t have the eszett? No worries, you can replace it with two ‘s’s and have it mean the same thing!
9. The German language and the English language are closely related
While today it may seem that German and English aren’t that similar, English is actually a Germanic language! Both languages were descended from an older form of German and still share a lot of their grammatical structures and vocab. Looking at family words really illustrates just how similar they are: Mutter à mother, Vater à father, Bruder à brother, Sohn à son, Tochter à daughter, Onkel à uncle, Familie à family, etc. Looking beyond just vocab, certain verb structures and patterns are also...
12. German spelling rules changed in 1996
The Reform der deutschen Rechtschreibung von 1996, or the German Orthography Reform of 1996, was intended to make German spelling and reading easier for students without significantly changing the language. The new rules dictated changes to ß vs. ss, triple consonant combos, special cases, loanwords, and to make words related or derived from one another more similar. Some compound verbs were also changed under this rule. But German language history is still chugging along, and some of these r...
13. German used to be written in a different script than other languages
In early German printing, the lettering known as Schwabacher was the primary typeface used to print German documents. However, a new typeface was commissioned by Emperor Maximilian I in the 16thcentury. This lettering, known as Fraktur, was to be used specifically for the Triumphal Archwoodcut by artist Albrecht Dürer, but Maximilian liked it so much he began asking for it in other commissions. Soon it was the most popular type face in the Germanic world, including places like Scandinavia, th...
14. There are three periods in German language history
The first, or I should say oldest, period began before there were written records in German, but the earliest text is from around 750 CE/AD. There wasn’t any standardization yet, so different areas would write German differently. The next stage begins around 1050 CE/AD and is actually split into two substages: New High German and Middle Low German. Middle Low German was used in the north while New High German was used more in the south. Over time, New High German spread north and became the d...
17. Every noun is capitalized
While many languages capitalize their proper nouns, German capitalized all nouns. So if you want to say ‘your dog’ –> dein Hund or ‘I’m reading a book’ –> ich lese ein Buch. The capitalization certainly helps with scanning text and its helpful when you’re first learning vocab. It may take a while to get used to in your own writing though! It’s important to note that pronouns are not capitalized unless they’re at the beginning of the sentence. So: Wo bin ich? (where am I?) vs. Ichbin hier(I am...
18. German has 3 genders
Like Romance languages, German also has gendered verbs. However, German doesn’t just do feminine and masculine, but also neuter! The articles for gender undergo declension based on word positioning, but the basic articles are der (m.), die (f.), and das (n.). For some objects the gender is intuitive, such as der Junge (the boy) and die Frau (the woman), but other times it’s more complicated, like in das Mädchen (the girl). These tend to trip up speakers who come from languages without gendere...
19. German doesn’t distinguish between the habitual present and the present progressive
For non-grammarians out there, the habitual present is a verb conjugation that indicates an action that recurs while the present progressive is a conjugation indicating an action is actively occurring. This can be illustrated in the difference between ‘I drink tea’ and ‘I am drinking tea,’ respectively. In English, and in Romance languages, this conjugation marks an important distinction in the action. In German, however, this distinction is not made. Both ‘I drink tea’ and ‘I am drinking tea...
23. Compound nouns in German have gotten famously long
Perhaps you’ve heard German described as a ‘Franken-language’ before, and you probably read that linguistics German fun fact above that says you can combine words to create new ones. Well, perhaps it’s not surprising then that German has had some famously long words. These are generally created for professional jargon, especially in the legal field, and so don’t tend to be used by everyday people, but they’re still impressive. Rinderkennzeichnungsfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübert...
24. A survey was conducted to find the most beautiful German word
In 2004, the German Language Council sent out a survey to find the most beautiful German word. Nearly 23,000 suggestions were received from 111 countries. There was even a children’s jury convened to determine what kids thought was the most beautiful German word. Habseligkeiten (treasured belongings) took first place, followed by Geborgenheit (emotional security), lieben (love), and Augenblick (fleeting moment), with Rhabarbermarmelade (rhubarb marmalade/jam) coming in 5th. The kids’ pick was...
25. German is called the language of poets and thinkers
Considering the long list of writers, musicians, and philosophers that came from Germany, perhaps it comes as no surprise that German is known as “the language of poets and thinkers.” Many great writers and philosophers came out of Germany in the 18th, 19th, and early 20thcenturies, most famous among them von Goethe, Kafka, Nietzsche, and Kant. The proliferation of writers and philosophers during these centuries is likely to credit with the German language’s scholarly reputation. But even if...
Have you enjoyed our facts about the German language? If any of these have piqued your interest, check out some podcasts, apps, or videos and books to get your language learning journey started. Or, if you’ve already started, there are some great translator appsto help with those long compound words and tricky declensions.
Hace 6 días · German language, official language of both Germany and Austria and one of the official languages of Switzerland. German belongs to the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family, along with English, Frisian, and Dutch (Netherlandic, Flemish). Learn more about the German language.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
9 de sept. de 2020 · Approximately 130 million people speak German as their mother language, or as a second language. German is the most widely spoken mother language in the EU and is an official language in 7 countries. 3. German words have three genders. In many Romance languages, nouns are either masculine or feminine, which has historically caused ...
20 de feb. de 2018 · Around 130 million people speak German as their mother language or as a second language. German is the most widely spoken mother language in the European Union and an official language in seven countries. In 42 countries there are more than 7.5 million people who belong to a German-speaking minority.
8 de feb. de 2019 · More than 130 million people worldwide speak German as their mother tongue or second language. German is the official language in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Liechtenstein and Switzerland. German is also used in the European Union as an internal working language alongside English and French. German is the most widely ...
German ( Standard High German: Deutsch, pronounced [dɔʏ̯t͡ʃ] ⓘ) [10] is a West Germanic language in the Indo-European language family, mainly spoken in Western and Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol.
