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Overview of and topical guide to German language From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to German language:
One of the major languages of the world, German is the first language of almost 100 million people worldwide and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union.[1] Together with French, German is the second most commonly spoken foreign language in the EU after English, making it the second biggest language in the EU in terms of overall speakers.[2]
German language can be described as having two branches, High German and Low German, as depicted in their family trees below:
What constitutes a language and what a dialect of a language is a social question into which linguistic factors may, but don't have to, play.[3] For instance, Luxembourgish was in the mid-late 20th century reclassified from originally dialects of German as representing its own language. Austrian and Swiss Standard German may be conceived as their own standards that differ from German Standard German, which makes present-day German a pluricentric language. Attitudes that continue to see German as a monocentric variety, with only one standard, remain strong and lead some scholars to talk of a One Standard German Axiom as a field-defining characteristic.
German phonology
For foreigners:
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