Estimates of native speakers of the Germanic languages vary from 450 million[1] through 500 million and up to more than 520 million. Much of the uncertainty is caused by the rapid spread of the English language and conflicting estimates of its native speakers. Here used is the most probable estimate (currently 515 million) as determined by Statistics section below.
There are various conflicting estimates of L1/native users of English, from 360 million up to 430 million and more. English is a current lingua franca, which is spreading rapidly, often replacing other languages throughout the world, thus making it difficult to provide one definitive number. It is a rare case of a language with many more secondary speakers than natives.
This phenomenon is not restricted to German, but constitutes a common linguistic development affecting all modern day living major languages with a complex set of dialects. As local dialects increasingly cease to be used, they are usually being replaced by a standardized version of the language.
Estimates for English, German and Dutch are less precise than these for the rest of the Germanic languages. These three languages are the most widely spoken ones; the rest are largely concentrated in specific places (excluding Yiddish and Afrikaans), so precise estimates are easier to get.
Estimate includes most High German dialects classified into the German language spectrum, while leaves some out like the Yiddish language. Low German is regarded separately.
Estimates of native speakers of the Germanic languages vary from 450 million[1] through 500 million and up to more than 520 million. Much of the uncertainty is caused by the rapid spread of the English language and conflicting estimates of its native speakers. Here used is the most probable estimate as determined by Statistics section.
SIL Ethnologue (2006). 95 million speakers of Standard German; 105 million including Middle and Upper German dialects; 120 million including Low German and Yiddish.
The Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic, and Educational Perspectives by Guus Extra, Durk Gorter; Multilingual Matters, 2001 – 454; page 10.
Holmberg, Anders and Christer Platzack (2005). "The Scandinavian languages". In The Comparative Syntax Handbook, eds Guglielmo Cinque and Richard S. Kayne. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. Excerpt at Durham University互联网档案馆的存档，存档日期3 December 2007..
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