German (Deutsch)

German is a Germanic language with about 121 million speakers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Belgium, Italy, France, Denmark, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Russia, Ukraine, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the USA, Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Australia, South Africa and Namibia.

The earliest known examples of written German date from the 8th century AD and consist of fragments of an epic poem, the Song of Hildebrand, magical charms and German glosses in Latin manuscripts. A short Latin-German dictionary, the Abrogans, was written during the 760s.

German literature started to take off during the 12th and 13th centuries in the form of poems, epics and romances. Well known examples include the epic Nibelungenlied (the Song of the Nibelungs) and Gottfried von Straßburg's Tristan. The language used is now known as mittelhochdeutsche Dichtersprache (Middle High German poetic language). During this period Latin was gradually replaced by German as the language of official documents.

Varieties of German used in writing

High German (Hochdeutsch)

High German began to emerge as the standard literary language during the 16th century. Martin Luther's translation of the Bible, which he completed in 1534, marks the beginning of this process. The language he used, based partly on spoken German, became the model for written German.

Swiss German (Schweizerdeutsch or Schwyzerdütsch)

A variety of German spoken by about 4 million people in Switzerland, occasionally appears in writing in novels, newspapers, personal letters and diaries.

Regional dialects of German, or Mundarten, also occasionally appear in writing; mainly in 'folk' literature and comic books such as Asterix.

Written German script styles

Fraktur

Fraktur was used for printed and written German from the 16th century until 1940. The name Fraktur comes from Latin and means "broken script". It is so called because its ornamental twiddly bits (curlicues) break the continuous line of a word. In German it is usually called the deutsche Schrift (German script).

Fraktur was also used for a number of other languages, including Finnish, Czech, Swedish, Danish and Norwegian.

Fraktur alphabet

Notes

The second lowercase s appears at the ends of syllables, except in the following combinations: ss, st, sp, sh and sch, while the first (ſ) appears everywhere else. The symbol ß (scharfes S or Eszett) is a combination of the long s and z, or a combination of the two types of s: there is some dispute about origin of this symbol. For further details, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ß.

Sample text in Fraktur

Sütterlin

Sütterlin was created by the Berlin graphic artist L. Sütterlin (1865-1917), who modelled it on the style of handwriting used in the old German Chancery. It was taught in German schools from 1915 to 1941 and is still used by the older generation.
Sütterlin alphabet

Sample text in Sütterlin

Modern German alphabet
A a	B b	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m
a	be	ce	de	e	ef	ge	ha	i	jot	ka	el	em
N n	O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v	W w	X x	Y y	Z z
en	o	pe	ku	er	es	te	u	vau	we	iks	üpsilon	zet

German pronunciation

German pronunciation notes

Sample text in German

Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich an Würde und Rechten geboren. Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt und sollen einander im Geist der Brüderlichkeit begegnen.

A recording of this text

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)

Useful phrases in German

German language learning materials