Origination from the West Germanic language, the modern German language is a result of the standardization that was sought after when Germany was divided into many different states. This was a process that lasted over several hundreds of years. The main facilitators of the standardization were writers, as they sought to write in such a manner that would be understood by the widest possible audience.

One such example of a writer was Martin Luther who translated the New Testament of the Bible in 1522 and the Old Testament in 1534. His language of choice was the widest used during his time. However, not everyone was happy about his choice of language and it was not until the mid 18th century that the standard became accepted.

Until the 1900, however, what was classified as standard German was only applicable to written form. Spoken German still varied depending on the region. Even then, the spelling of words was not standardized. It was in 1996 when the German Spelling Reform was undertaken. This caused much controversy and the dispute was only settled in 2006, when the Reform standards were accepted as official by all the states.

DIALECTS

As with many other countries in the world, having an official language does not mean that dialects do not exist anymore. In fact, this is one fundamental dilemma when it comes to languages. As they are part of the culture, the fundamental differences cannot simply be changed.

In Germany, the issue of dialects is quite important as their dialects vary a lot. In fact, only dialects in neighboring areas are understandable by inhabitants of the said areas. If you stray too far from your region, chances are that you would not be able to understand the dialect in a far region.

Today, the existing German dialects can be divided into High German and Low German. These dialects are not confined to the states of Germany. In fact, other countries which have a considerable German-speaking population have their own dialects. Sometimes, a form of pidgin German evolves as culture and other factors combine to influence and shape the language.

STANDARD GERMAN

Despite the numerous German dialects in existence today, what binds the country in terms of language is standard German. However, there are still varieties of standard German, depending on the country. The differences between these varieties mostly lie in the vocabulary although sometimes there are slight differences in pronunciation, grammar, and even writing.

It is important to note that standard German has evolved not due to oral interaction but mainly through written text. It is also important to remember that the variations in standard German should by no means be confused for the different regional dialects that are still in use today.

SCHOOLS

As German is spoken in many different countries today, there are a lot of German language schools that can be found. In the United States alone, there are uncountable schools offering instruction in this language. In European countries, the same can be said. More so, German is still one of the languages that are being taught in school.

The Federal Republic of Germany (Bundesrepublik Deutschland) uses Standard German as its national or official language. The number of languages listed for Germany is 27 with 25 listed as living languages and the other 2 extinct. Literacy rate in Germany is 99%.

Although the national language as stated above, is the Standard German, it is important that you have an idea of what the other languages spoken in Germnay are. Usually foreign students opt to learn Standard German but if your purpose for learning is to visit a specific area in Germany it might be more useful for you to learn the language spoken more prevalently in that area, which may or may not be Standard German. Information for this section is from Ethnologue

Living Languages – ALEMANNISCH
Region in Germany Used – Southwestern, southern Baden-Wuerttemberg; A language of Switzerland

Living Languages – BAVARIAN
Region in Germany Used – Bavaria (Spans different countries)

Living Languages – DANISH
Region in Germany Used – South Schleswig; A language of Denmark

Living Languages – FRISIAN, EASTERN
Region in Germany Used – Saterland, Eastern Frisia

Living Languages – FRISIAN, NORTHERN
Region in Germany Used – Schleswig-Holstein, on the coastal strip between the rivers Eider in the south and Wiedau in the north,
and adjacent islands of Föhr, Amrum, Sylt, Norstrand, Pellworm, the ten islands of the Halligen group, and Helgoland.

Living Languages – STANDARD GERMAN
Region in Germany Used – National language

Living Languages – KÖLSCH
Region in Germany Used – Cologne and surrounding areas

Living Languages – LUXEMBOURGEOIS
Region in Germany Used – Bitburg area in western Germany; Language of Luxembourg;

Living Languages – MAINFRÄNKISCH
Region in Germany Used – Spoken mostly along the River Main, including the city of Mainz.

Living Languages – PFAELZISCH
Region in Germany Used – Southwest Palatinate, Rheinpfalz

Living Languages – PLAUTDIETSCH
Region in Germany Used – All over Germany; Language of Canada

Living Languages – POLISH
Region in Germany Used – All over Germany; Language of Poland

Living Languages – ROMANI, BALKAN
Region in Germany Used – Random parts of Germany plus Arlija and Dzambazi; Language of Yugoslavia

Living Languages – ROMANI, SINTE
Region in Germany Used – Hamburg and colonies in the south; Language of Yugoslavia

Living Languages – ROMANI, VLAX
Region in Germany Used – Random parts of Germany plus Lovari and Kalderash; Language of Romania

Living Languages – SAXON, LOW
Region in Germany Used – Northern Germany; The Lower Rhine region below a line from Aachen to Witenberg

Living Languages – SAXON, UPPER
Region in Germany Used – Eastern Germany; Southeast – Sachsen with Dresden, Leipzig, Chemnitz, Halle in Sachsen-Anhalt

Living Languages – SILESIAN, LOWER
Region in Germany Used – Gorlitz, eastern Germany; Language of Poland

Living Languages – SORBIAN, LOWER
Region in Germany Used – Niederlausitz (Dolna Luzica) in eastern Germany

Living Languages – SORBIAN, UPPER
Region in Germany Used – Upper Saxony, Eastern Germany

Living Languages – SWABIAN
Region in Germany Used – Southwest, Wuerttemberg, the eastern part of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Schwaben, Western Bavaria

Living Languages – WESTPHALIEN
Region in Germany Used – Northwestern, Westphalia

Living Languages – YENICHE
Region in Germany Used – All over Germany

Living Languages – YIDDISH, WESTERN
Region in Germany Used – West Germany with different dialect in the Northwestern, Southwestern, and Midwestern parts. Near
Extinction

Living Languages – GERMAN SIGN LANGUAGE
Region in Germany Used – Western Germany

Standard German is used as the official language in many countries and is spoken widely in even more. Below is a summary of the statistics about Standard German published in Ethnologue’s latest release.

Population - 75,300,000 in Germany (1990). Population total all countries 100,000,000 first language speakers (1999 WA); 128,000,000 including second language speakers (1999 WA).

Alternate names - DEUTSCH, HOCHDEUTSCH, HIGH GERMAN
Dialects - ERZGEBIRGISCH
Classification - Indo-European, Germanic, West, High German, German, Middle German, East Middle German

Also Spoken In:

Austria - Used as a National Language
Belgium - Used as the Official Language
Czech Republic - Bilingualism; ERZGEBIRGISCH used.
Denmark - Used as the Official Language. With plenty of German schools.
Hungary - Germans in Hungary speak other Germanic varieties than Standard German at home.
Italy - Used as the Official Language. With plenty of German schools.
Kazakhstan - 57% of ethnic Germans speak it as mother tongue.
Liechtenstein - Used as a National Language. Different dialects used.
Luxembourg - Used as a National Language. Taught in schools as a second language. Used as a second language by industrial workers and rural people.

Paraguay – Used by 166,000 people including 19,000 who speak Plautdietsch as their mother tongue

Poland – With a half million speakers
Romania – With around 150,000 speakers.
Slovakia – Bilingualism; Slovakian and Hungarian also used.
Switzerland – Used as Official Language although it is not the mother tongue of many. Used as primary language in schools in Schwyzerdütsch- (German) and Rheto-Romansch-speaking areas.

Major related
language areas – Bavarian, Schwäbisch, Allemannisch, Mainfränkisch, Hessisch, Palatinian, Rheinfränkisch, Westfälisch, Saxonian, Thuringian, Brandenburgisch, and Low Saxon.

Additional
Information – Standard German is just one variety of High German. many varieties of High German are not inherently intelligible with each other. Standard German developed from the chancery of Saxony and gained acceptance as a written standard way back in the 16th and 17th centuries. High German refers to dialects and languages in the upper Rhine region and is 60 percent lexical similarity with English and only 29 percent with French. It is used as a National language and are used in dictionaries, Grammar books, poetry, newspapers, radio programs, films, TV, videos and Christian Bibles that were published between 1466 to 1982.