Outline of German language

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to German language:

One of the major languages of the world, German is the first language of almost 100 million people worldwide and the most widely spoken native language in the European Union.[1] Together with French, German is the second most commonly spoken foreign language in the EU after English, making it the second biggest language in the EU in terms of overall speakers.[2]

Scope

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German language can be described as having two branches, High German and Low German, as depicted in their family trees below:

What constitutes a language and what a dialect of a language is a social question into which linguistic factors may, but don't have to, play.[3] For instance, Luxembourgish was in the mid-late 20th century reclassified from originally dialects of German as representing its own language. Austrian and Swiss Standard German may be conceived as their own standards that differ from German Standard German, which makes present-day German a pluricentric language. Attitudes that continue to see German as a monocentric variety, with only one standard, remain strong and lead some scholars to talk of a One Standard German Axiom as a field-defining characteristic.

Dialects of German language

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Distribution of German language

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History of German language

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General German language concepts

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German grammar

German phonology

German orthography

German language dictionaries

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German-language encyclopedias

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German words and phrases

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People influential in German language

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Linguists

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For foreigners:

German-language schools

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ "German 'should be a working language of EU', says Merkel's party". The Daily Telegraph. 18 June 2013.
  2. ^ Europeans and their Languages Archived 6 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Data for EU27, published in 2012.
  3. ^ Chambers1, Trudgill2, J.K.1, Peter2 (1998). Dialectology (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 4–5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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