German Language

German is a language belonging to the Indo-European family, specifically to the West Germanic branch. It is the official language of Germany and Austria, and one of the official languages of Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Belgium. It is also one of the official languages of the European Union, and the native language of the largest population within the Union.

German is closely related to Danish and English, as shown by basic vocabulary and grammatical structure. It is written in the Latin alphabet, supplemented with characters with diacritical marks (ä, ö, ü) and the symbol ß (Eszett), which represents a hard 's'.

Dialects and standard form

German has various dialects, some of which are not easily mutually intelligible. A broad distinction is made between Upper German (Hochdeutsch) and Low German (Niederdeutsch), based on historical sound shifts. The standard language, known as Standarddeutsch, is based on Upper German and is used in education, media, and administration. In Switzerland, a distinction exists between written standard German and Swiss German dialects (Schweizerdeutsch) of everyday speech.

Grammar

German maintains a four-case system: nominative, accusative, dative, and genitive. Nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), marked by the article (der, die, das). All nouns are written with an initial capital letter, which is distinctive among European languages. The verb typically occupies the second position in main clauses, but the other part of the verb appears at the end; in subordinate clauses the verb occupies the very end.

History

Historical stages are defined as Old High German (Althochdeutsch), Middle High German (Mittelhochdeutsch), and Modern High German. Martin Luther's translation of the Bible in the 16th century is regarded as an important event that standardized written usage. The Duden dictionary, first published in the late 19th century, became the standard reference for orthography.

Scientific and international use

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, German was an important language for research in philosophy, chemistry, physics, and medicine, and is still taught in many schools worldwide as a second or third language. Institutions such as the Goethe-Institut offer language teaching programs in various countries.