|
Country |
Number of Speakers |
Year of Evaluation |
|
Germany Austria Switzerland Liechtenstein Belgium |
78.100.000 7.500.000 4.225.000 30.000 |
1988 1988 1986 1980 |
|
France |
1.500.000 |
1988 |
|
Ex-Soviet Union including Russia |
1.103.552 375.234 |
1979 |
|
Kazakhstan |
580.735 |
1979 |
|
Romania |
> 500.000 |
1988 |
|
Hungary |
250.000 |
1988 |
|
Italy, San Marino, State of Vatican, Malta, Corsica |
225.000 |
1987 |
|
Czech Republic and Slovakia |
92.800 |
1970 |
|
Kirghizia |
72.349 |
1979 |
|
Tajikistan |
27.759 |
1979 |
|
Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland |
23.000 |
1976 |
|
Namibia |
20.000 |
1995 |
|
Yugoslavia |
9.223 |
1981 |
|
Turkey |
4.901 |
1965 |
The standard German language is the language of formal and public usage, especially in the media and for writing. In addition, there are numerous regional dialects. Most speakers of German grow up bilingually, that is, with his/her own dialect at home and Standard German in school and in public.
Here are the dialect groups with their dialects, from North to South. The low German languages Frisian and Low German are called 'dialects of German' only in a historic perspective. Synchronically, they are Germanic languages of their own. Their similarity with Dutch is much greater than with standard German.
Friesisch (Frisian)
Frisian is spoken in the north of Germany along the North Sea coast. North Frisian is located just south of the border with Denmark. West Frisian extends into modern Holland, while East Frisian is spoken north of Bremen along the coast and, logically enough in the North and East Frisian islands just off the coast.
Niederdeutsch (Low German/Plattdeutsch)
Low German (also called Netherlandic or Plattdeutsch) gets its name from the geographic fact that the land is low (nether, nieder; flat, platt). It extends from the Dutch border eastward to the former German territories of Eastern Pommerania and East Prussia. It is divided into many variations including: Northern Lower Saxon, Westphalian, Eastphalian, Brandenburgian, East Pommeranian, Mecklenburgian, etc. This dialect often more closely resembles English (to which it is related) than standard German.
Mitteldeutsch (Middle German)
The Middle German region stretches across Germany's middle from Luxembourg (where the Letztebuergisch sub-dialect of Mitteldeutsch is spoken) eastward into present-day Poland and the region of Silesia (Schlesien). There are too many sub-dialects to list here, but the main division is between West Middle German and East Middle German.
Fränkisch (Frankish)
The East Frankish dialect is spoken along Germany's Main river pretty much in Germany's very center. Forms such as South Frankish and Rhine Frankish extend northwest towards the Moselle river.
Alemannisch (Alemannic)
Spoken in Switzerland north along the Rhine, extending further north from Basel almost to the city of Karlsruhe in Germany, this dialect is divided into Alsatian (west along the Rhine in today's France), Swabian, Low and High Alemannic. The Swiss form of Alemannic has become an important standard spoken language in that country, in addition to Hochdeutsch, but it is also divided into two main forms (Bern and Zurich).
Bairisch-Österreichisch (Bavarian-Austrian)
Because the Bavarian-Austrian region was more unified politically – for over a thousand years -- it is also more linguistically uniform than the German north. There are some subdivisions (South, Middle, and North Bavarian, Tyrolian, Salzburgian), but the differences are not very significant.
[SOURCE: dtv-Atlas zur deutschen Sprache by Werner König. (1994), Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich.]
Map of the historical ancestor dialects
of present day dialects of West Germanic languages
(Dutch, German, Frisian)
This map shows the approximate borders for the main German dialects. (Note that they do not necessarily coincide with today's political borders.) The dialects labeled in red are merely a sample of the many language varieties still found in the German-speaking region.
Map 1: German Dialects and their historical ancestors
German: Partial Intercomprehension with other languages
Intercomprehension is higher between German and Dutch than between German and the Scandianvian languages, due to their closer ancestry. If one is aware of regular sound correspondences, it is easier to spot the shared vocabulary.
Examples for Dutch-German correspondences:
a. p - pf: appel – Apfel (apple), paard – Pferd (horse), kop – Kopf (head);
b. t - ts: tand – Zahn (tooth), tien – zehn (ten), tellen – zählen (count);
c. k - ch: maken – machen (make), boek – Buch (book), beuk – Buche (beech).
|
Language |
Example Sentence |
|
Dutch |
Standaard Nederlands is de officiële taal in Nederland. [Standardniederländisch ist die offizielle Sprache in den Niederlanden] {Standard Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands} |
|
Africaans |
Ons Vader wat in die hemel is, laat u Naam geheilig word [Unser Vater, der im Himmel ist, laß deinen Namen geheiligt werden] {Our Father who is in heaven, let your name be hallowed} |
|
Yiddish |
An óremer melámed is gegángen afn jaríd zu kojfn sich a zig. [Ein armer Lehrer ist auf den Markt gegangen, um sich eine Ziege zu kaufen] {A poor teacher went to the market in order to buy a goat} |
|
Danish |
Her kan du finde generelle oplysninger om fakultetet [Hier kannst Du generelle Auskünfte über die Fakultät finden] {Here you can find general informations about the department} |
Since the 1st of July 1997, an intergovernmental committee (Austria - 3 Members, Germany - 6 members, Switzerland - 3 members) is in charge of the standardization of the German orthography.
[ Information: Institut für Deutsche Sprache (Ids), Mannheim: www.ids-mannheim.de]